A commentary by a former Times Colonist reporter.
Re: “George Jay Elementary to be given new Lekwungen name,” March 9.
I applaud the Greater Victoria School District’s move to remove the name of a person who was the school board’s chair from 1907 to 1934 and demonstrably anti-Chinese.
However, instead of giving it a Lekwungen name, I ask the trustees to first consider the people most aggrieved by George Jay’s actions — the Chinese community.
I offer three names for the trustees to consider.
The first is Alan Lowe, Victoria’s first Chinese mayor, from 1999 to 2008. Lowe was born in Victoria and lived his first three years in Chinatown.
He was the chair of the Zhongshan Hook Sin Tony Charity, and a director of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association and Canadian Chinese Museum Society of B.C.
Lowe was awarded the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal in 2003, was named one of the top 100 Most Influential Chinese Canadians in 2006, Honorary Citizen of Victoria in 2018 and an honorary lieutenant colonel in the Canadian Scottish Regiment in 2020.
The second is Leslie Lee (perhaps ironically) George Jay Elementary School’s principal from 2009 to 2015. She was one of 40 named Canada’s Outstanding Principals by the Learning Partnership, a national charitable organization dedicated to supporting excellence in public education. Lee is one of only six B.C. principals honoured by the organization so far.
Under her leadership, the school’s academic performance improved dramatically.
And the final name I ask the trustees to consider is David Lam, British Columbia’s 25th lieutenant governor from 1988 to 1995. He was appointed the first Chinese-Canadian lieutenant governor by then-Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.
Lam was a well-known philanthropist who founded the David and Dorothy Lam Foundation and the Floribunda Philanthropic Society.
He was named a Knight Commander of the Order of St. John in 1988, to the Royal Victorian Order by the late Queen Elizabeth in 1994 and a Member of the Order of British Columbia in 1995, later elevated to Officer.
Having a Greater Victoria school named for a Chinese Canadian would not only be a first, but also a great honour which will be remembered for generations by the Chinese citizens of Greater Victoria.
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