Dysart et al council ignored the advice of the township’s cultural resource committee this week, reversing a decision made during the previous term to consider renaming Sam Slick Park.
The local landmark, located on the southern shore of Head Lake across from Haliburton Highlands Secondary School, is named after the fictional character Sam Slick – created by renowned author, Thomas Chandler Haliburton, and a featured character in the book The Clockmaker. The name was chosen by the Haliburton Rotary Club in 1961 as a way of honouring Haliburton for his role in the early settling of the region.
In April 2021, Dysart’s previous council directed the cultural resources committee to come up with alternate names for the site due to alleged misogynistic and racist views projected in the book and embraced by the Sam Slick character.
Addressing this current council Nov. 28, committee chair, Erin Lynch, and co-chair, Jim Blake, felt it was imperative to move forward with renaming the park.
“Traditionally, when communities choose to name a park or facility after a person, they do it to honour that person for contributions made to the community or society as a whole… in this case, we have a park named after a fictional character – Sam Slick, depicted as an American salesman in a story based in Nova Scotia,” Lynch said. “The only connection to the village of Haliburton is he was created by the person for whom our town and region is named.”
Blake felt the language used in The Clockmaker, published in the early 1830s, had no place being celebrated and honoured today.
He told council how the township of Windsor, Nova Scotia opted, in 2020, to remove any reference to the Sam Slick character from public settings and renamed an annual parade that had, for years, bore the name. Windsor, NS was the setting for The Clockmaker.
“There are many works of literature from previous generations that use language we now consider antiquated or not acceptable. That is the case for The Clockmaker,” Blake said. “Although our understanding is the book is intended for satire, there is absolutely nothing satirical about slavery, or the promotion of violence against women. These are definitely not values that represent our community.”
Lynch noted the committee had engaged with HHSS students on the potential renaming, with a consensus being it should be rededicated to recognize the region’s Indigenous settlers. The committee’s recommendation was to maintain a plaque installed by the Ontario Heritage Trust recognizing Haliburton, remove the plaque dedicated to Sam Slick, and install a new one. She suggested the Sam Slick plaque be displayed at the Haliburton Highlands Museum.
Blake noted the committee had already reached out to Indigenous “knowledge keepers” to help come up with a new name for the park.
Speaking to the issue later in Tuesday’s meeting, mayor Murray Fearrey said he wanted to maintain the Sam Slick Park name.
“You don’t learn from history if you keep repeating it. We’ve learned and moved on,” Fearrey said.
Coun. Pat Casey was worried if council opted to rename the park, there may be calls to rename the village too.
“Sam Slick was fictional. If the action [we’re condemning] is Mr. Haliburton in writing the fiction in this story, are we going to rename the town of Haliburton then because of this connection?” Casey said.
Council agreed that an additional plaque can be installed at the park in recognition of Indigenous settlers, but that the Sam Slick name be maintained.
Speaking to The Highlander following the meeting, Blake noted between the committee and HHSS students, considerable time had been spent on the issue.
“Our job is to provide information and advice to council. It’s their job to make the decisions. It’s obvious what advice we were giving, but they had their own ideas and they chose to follow that,” Blake said. “I thought the idea the students came up with was brilliant and elegant… this council did not.”
He noted it was “a very positive thing” for council to allow for the placing of a second plaque recognizing Indigenous history, saying the committee will discuss options at its next meeting.
