Victoria to hold ceremony to rename Trutch Street

On Sunday, the City of Victoria will hold a ceremony to rename Trutch Street to Su’it Street (pronounced say-EET).

Victoria council previously voted to rename the street, to reflect the controversial history the street’s namesake, Joseph Trutch, has with First Nations people in Canada.

Trutch was the first Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia from 1871 to 1876, and he played an active role in the dispossession of Indigenous Peoples land in Canada, according to The Colonial Despatches Team at UVic.

“Most notably, he created the Indian Land Policy of 1864 and falsified records from the former Governor Douglas, to radically decrease the amount of land for reserves,” the UVic team says on their website. “He left a lasting political legacy of land negotiations that are only beginning to be resolved in the twenty-first century.”

Trutch had the amount of land for First Nations reserves reduced from 100 acres to 10 acres without providing any form of compensation, according to The Colonial Despatches Team.

On Sunday at 1 p.m., Mayor Lisa Helps and members of the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations will hold a ceremony to mark the renaming of the street to Su’it, the Lekwungan word for truth.

There will be a witness ceremony and an Indigenous blessing by members of the Shaker Faith.

The unveiling of the new street sign will also take place.

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