Victoria is officially switching the name of a small street in the Fairfield neighbourhood that currently holds the moniker of a controversial colonial figure.
Council on Thursday (June 23) unanimously adopted renaming the street from Trutch to Su’it (pronounced suh-eat), the Lekwungen word for truth.
Longstanding calls to rename Trutch Street were reignited by a group of University of Victoria students working on a decolonization project in the spring of 2021. The street’s namesake, Joseph Trutch, was B.C.’s first lieutenant governor and is known for racist policies and treatment of Indigenous Peoples.
The switch garnered lengthy discussions at previous meetings over the last year on how to best move forward. In a brief Thursday discussion, some councillors noted Trutch’s story could still be readily and more fully found in history books. Some noted the patience of those who pushed for the name change about a decade ago.
READ: City staff recommend Victoria rename Trutch Street to Lekwungen translation for ‘truth’
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