A lifetime member of the Hastings County Historical Society is firing back at the proposal to change the name for Belleville’s downtown pier.
On Monday, Belleville resident Laura Hatt is requesting the pier no longer be named after Captain John Walden Meyers, because he was a slave owner.
Hatt also pushed to have the proposed name change of Moira Secondary to Meyers Creek Secondary squashed by the HPEDSB. It became Eastside Secondary.
Historical Society member, and local filmmaker Doug Knutson has been working on a Captain Meyers documentary for years. He says you cannot whitewash history.
Hatt also wants a plaque erected honouring Meyers’s slaves the Levi family, but Knutson says even the evidence for that is weak.
He adds that hindsight is always 20/20.
Knutson says slavery was an evil of our past, however the sins do not wash away the accomplishment.
More on Laura Hatt’s proposal can be found by CLICKING HERE
More information on John Walden Meyers can be found by CLICKING HERE
