A member of the Mi’kmaq Nation traditional government says a PEI park’s new name is insulting because it puts a Mi’kmaq name beside that of a British military official he describes as a “tyrant.”
John Joe Sark is objecting to Parks Canada’s recent decision to add the Mi’kmaq name “skmaqn” (Ska-MAA-kin) to the Port-la-Joye/Fort Amherst National Historic Site acorss the harbour from Charlottetown.
Catherine McKenna, the federal minister responsible for Parks Canada, has said the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada chose the new name at the recommendation of the Mi’kmaq Confederacy of Prince Edward Island.
Sark says he won’t be satisfied until General Jeffrey Amherst’s name is fully scrubbed from the site, saying Amherst tried to wipe out the Mi’kmaq by giving them smallpox-infected blankets.