Dupuis: Support strong to name park for Gerard

If anything positive can come from the controversy surrounding the naming of Leo Gerard Workers' Memorial Park, it's that the system used to name parks will be fixed.

The city is inviting all residents to attend a public consultation session about the naming of the Val Caron park. The park was already unveiled as the Leo Gerard Workers' Memorial Park, but it was later found out that the process used in naming a park was not properly followed. The session takes place at 7 p.m. at Carrefour Senator Rheal Belisle Cultural Centre at 2777 Main St., Blezard Valley.

Ward 5 Coun. Ron Dupuis said the city has had about 60 days of the public sending in feedback, and tonight's meeting will be the final piece in developing a report to be presented to councillors, who will vote on it sometime in mid-January.

The report will “ensure the system doesn't fail” like it has done with the naming of the Val Caron park, Dupuis said. He plans to include a number of recommendations in the report that will “make the system transparent and prevent this from happening again.”

“We need to have one person in charge of these matters,” Dupuis said. “When I started the process to name the park after Leo Gerard, I sent an email to the appropriate people, and I was told it would be handled. Things fell through the cracks.”

Should council decide to rename the park after someone else, it will be “fitting,” Dupuis said. However, judging from emails he has received, “there are so many people in support of Leo Gerard, and they far outweigh the negatives.”

“There will always be people who want the park named after someone else, but there is no person from Sudbury who has accomplished what Leo Gerard has accomplished,” Dupuis said. “That is something that can't be forgotten, and it has to be recognized in this community.”

If Gerard's name is chosen, Dupuis said there won't be another celebration.

“There has been enough controversy over this, so there won't be any more celebrations,” he said.

The park is also home to a plaque bearing the names of more than 100 people who were killed on the job in Sudbury. Dupuis said he continues to receive emails and calls about names that should be added to the plaque.

“We will be adding names in the future, but there is a lot of research involved with this, and it will take some time. Currently, there are more than 100 names, and I don't think we have even one-third of the names that should be on that plaque.” 

Posted by Mark Gentili