The Municipality of Barrington is moving to ensure that controversial and outdated community names are gone forever.
Shelburne county resident Chuck Smith appeared before council on Monday to discuss why place names in the area, such as Cape Negro, need to be changed.
Smith is the president of the Black Loyalist Heritage Society, but during his presentation, he spoke on the name change as an African Nova Scotian citizen.
Smith discussed the issues with the name.
“One of the big issues would be that this name has so many racial overtones. It really does,” said Smith. “It goes back to the civil rights movement.”
He says that he spoke to members of the community about the name.
“I asked various people in the community that I knew, and not only black people,” said Smith. “The general consensus that I got, the overview was, the name should be changed.”
Councillors voted unanimously to send a letter to the province asking them to expedite renaming Cape Negro Island, Cape Negro and Negro Harbour.
They stated that this has been an ongoing matter since 2017.
