Much ado about Rosser

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This article was published 22/09/2020 (1949 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Wearing a Black Lives Matter shirt, John Simpson outlined for Brandon City Council why he thinks Rosser Avenue should be renamed on Monday evening.

Thomas Lafayette Rosser, the namesake of the street, was honoured for his participation in building the Canadian Pacific Railway through what would become Brandon. However, he was also a major general on the Confederate side of the American Civil War.

Though he is supportive of the online petition in favour of the road’s name being changed and Facebook groups promoting the same views, Simpson said he was only representing himself at the meeting.

Starting off, Simpson outlined other cities that have changed names or entities named after racists and white supremacists. He spoke of Tulsa, Okla., which changed the name of a street named after a Ku Klux Klan member to “Reconciliation Way.”

He then went into some of Rosser’s personal views on slavery, speaking of things like his family’s slaves at their Texas ranch and a racist speech from Charlottesville, N.C., in 1900.

Not just taking issue with Rosser’s history of racism, Simpson also went into Rosser’s unceremonious firing from the railway for helping land speculators profit and his subsequent attempt to duel the man who fired him outside a Winnipeg hotel.

Rosser almost immediately leaving Canada after being fired and not coming back is proof that he was never that attached or concerned with Brandon or Manitoba, Simpson argued.

“What better reason to do something than it is the right thing to do?” Simpson asked of people who accuse those in favour of name changes as being morality police.

In response to another common argument against name changes, that it attempts to erase history, Simpson said that the real erasure of history is when we ignore the atrocities of the past to preserve the status quo.

The presenter then went through a shortlist of possible new names for the street such as Tommy Captain, the first child to die at the residential school in Brandon.

Of the concerns over the possible cost of renaming a street, Simpson said that in what he has seen the greatest cost is usually one of an inconvenience rather than money.

Coun. Jeff Fawcett (Assiniboine) said that he has read materials that suggest that streets named after Martin Luther King, Jr. have frequently become the worst streets in cities for various reasons. Fawcett said it was more likely that if the street was renamed, it would just be called “Main Street” rather than being named after a person.

Coun. Kris Desjarlais (Rosser) said that as an Indigenous councillor, he’s interested in reconciliation but wanted to know where the line will be drawn for who does or does not deserve to have a street named after them. However, Desjarlais conceded that he doesn’t disagree that there are better choices for street names than Rosser.

Mayor Rick Chrest said that the people on council don’t own Brandon, so they need to consider what the citizens want when considering a name change. He wanted to know how they would mark Rosser’s history in Brandon if they changed the name because, despite his actions, he was still a founding member of the community.

The Mayor also pointed out that there were many other prominent figures in history, including prime ministers, that said and did things we would find unpalatable today.

In response, Simpson said that we should consider name changes when there are dominating examples of poor behaviour, such as with Rosser. He admitted that sometimes people we admire held views we don’t agree with now, saying that some of the members of the Famous Five believed in the forced sterilization of people with intellectual disabilities.

Chrest said he has received some comments from locals asking if the history of Rosser Avenue as a street might not outweigh the history of the person it’s named after.

“I didn’t say that it wouldn’t be hard,” Simpson said.

Based on feedback he has received from his constituents, Coun. Shaun Cameron (University) said that he has received more opposition to a possible name change than pro-change thoughts. He did, however, suggest that the city amend its current street naming policies to make sure undeserving people don’t have streets named after them.

Desjarlais later joked that they could find a different, more worthy Rosser from Brandon’s history to name the street after.

» cslark@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @ColinSlark