Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre faced more questions Monday as city council was expected to approve the renaming of Vimy Park in honour of former premier Jacques Parizeau.
The move was put forward by the Borough of Outremont and Montreal city council will vote on the change Tuesday afternoon.
"You're cutting back and eliminating part of our history and in fact burying it. I think that’s a terrible mistake,” said Chris Shannon of the Vimy Foundation.
The park has been known as Vimy Park since 1933.
A small group of about a dozen people held up signs Monday night at the park with slogans such as “Leave Vimy Alone!” and “Lest we forget!”
At city hall, Coderre was asked several questions about the park. He said he’s been to Vimy Ridge and supports veterans, adding on Twitter that “next year we will commemorate our veterans who fought at Vimy with public place in Montreal that truly honor(s) their sacrifice.”
Coderre pointed out on Twitter that the park’s name is not officially listed by the province and therefore, in his view, the move doesn’t amount to renaming.
Coderre said he backs the borough’s decision to rename the park.
“I don't accept the way that we play politics on that. I'm not here to defend Mr. Parizeau,” he said. “You know where I'm coming from, but it’s clear he was a great Outremontais.”
The former premier, ruled the province from 1994 to 1996 and lived across the street from the park, which already has a monument to his first wife, Alice Parizeau.
A Facebook post advertising the renaming protest called Parizeau, who led the “yes” side in the 1995 independence referendum, “a traitor to his country” who “tried to break Canada apart.”
City councillor Marvin Rotrand has said he supports the renaming.
"I believe that Parizeau's remark about money and the ethnic vote was disgraceful, his referendum question disingenuous, but his career was far more than that," he said in a statement. "He was one of the architects of Hydro Quebec and the Quebec Pension Plan and the Fonds de solidarite."
Opposition group Projet Montreal is also backing the name change, save for a few city councillors, including Sterling Downey, a member of the legion and the son of a veteran.
“French and English young men – 18, 19 and 20-year-old young men – who fought as comrades in the fields bled and died . We have a responsibility to honour them and find a solution,” he said.
Next year will mark 100 years since the Battle of Vimy Ridge, which is Canada’s most celebrated military victory, according to The Canadian Encyclopedia.
Fighting together for the first time, the four divisions of the Canadian Corps succeeded in capturing Vimy from the German army between Apr. 9 and 12, 1917.
It was a stunning advance. More than 100,000 French soldiers had been killed or wounded trying to take back Vimy before the Canadians. The battle left about 3,600 Canadians dead and another 7,000 wounded.
The First World War has always been contentious in Quebec. French Canadians almost universally opposed to the war, while Anglophones were mostly in favour.
Because few French Canadians signed up to fight, Anglophone prime minister Robert Borden enacted conscription, which prompted French Canadians to riot.
