Amherstburg councillor wants to change the meaning behind towns name

A member of Amherstburg Council wants to change the point of reference for the town's name.

Councillor Patricia Simone will introduce a Notice of Motion at Monday's meeting that would call on Council to denounce actions of the town's namesake, General Jeffery Amherst, a member of the British Army in the late 1700s.

Her motion states "Amherst's legacy is controversial due to his role in protecting Canada while also expressing the desire to exterminate the race of Indigenous people during Pontiac's War, and his advocacy of biological warfare in the form of gifting blankets infected with smallpox as a weapon."

Simone has been working on the motion for over a year and a half and hopes the first thing they can do is denounce the actions of General Amherst.

"The second is to move forward as a community and focus on the great aspects in history of Amherstburg, and try to find a different way to reference Amherstburg as opposed to referencing General Amherst," she says.

The motion calls on the Town of Amherstburg name to reference the origins of the name of Amherst, which means "a place amongst the woods or a settlement amongst the woods," along with the root of the word 'burg', which is a walled or defensive settlement.

The motion points out when taken together, the words reference the creation of a defensive Fort and Naval Yard at Amherstburg amidst a previously densely forested area.

Simone says it's important to remember the great things that have happened in Amherstburg including its role in the Underground Railway.

"By keeping the name and just using a different reference, I think we can continue to make Amherstburg the great community that it is," she says.

Simone adds it's important that we as a community come together and that all residents feel that they are part of a community, that it doesn't reference an individual that has caused harm to someone else."

Once introduced Monday evening, the notice of motion would then be debated and discussed at the March 28 meeting of Town Council.