Descendents of Ashton Snowdon ask that his name remain on park

A municipal task force is being set up to review a request to rename Snowdon Park, after descendants of former Board of Health chair Ashton Snowdon recently asked that the park continue to be named after him.

As SooToday reported in January, the Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association has requested the east-end green space be renamed Memorial Park to acknowledge four drownings that occurred there.

But descendants of Ashton Snowdon, for whom the east-end park was named, are asking that his name continue to be associated with the property.

"I write on behalf of my siblings and cousins," said Don Elliott, the city's recently retired director of engineering, in a letter to municipal officials.

"Ashton Snowdon was our maternal grandfather. He was very active in the city prior to his death in the early sixties."

"He was instrumental in the establishment of the Plummer Hospital and the Davey Home and among other things, a longstanding member of the school board."

"The council of the day thought his contributions were worthy of naming the park on Shannon Road after him."

"While we have no objection to an appropriate memorial for the boys who drowned, nevertheless it would not be appropriate to rename a park that was already named after someone worthy of that honour," Elliott wrote.

Elliott tells SooToday his grandfather chaired the local board of health for at least nine years.

City council has asked the parks and recreation advisory committee (PRAC) to review the request to change the park's name.

Last week, that committee agreed to establish a task force for what's expected to be a lengthy review process.

The task force will include the city's director of community services, manager of recreation and culture, manager of parks and supervisor of recreation, as well as PRAC member Brenna Jayne Tomas.

Around 1914 or 1915, two boys from the Shingwauk Indian Residential School drowned in a small lake on a farm next to the Shingwauk school and Shingwauk Cemetery.

The bodies of the two boys were never recovered and remain interred somewhere in Snowdon Park.

The Children of Shingwauk are negotiating with the federal government to access records that may help identify the boys and when they died.

In November 1929, a third Shingwauk student, Peter Beauvais from the Kanesatake (Oka) First Nation, drowned in the same pond and was buried in Shingwauk Cemetery.

In June of last year, the city confirmed a letter of apology to Ken Crossman for the 1960 drowning death of his brother Gerald there.

Three benches were installed recently in a memorial triangle in the northwest corner of the park.

A large rock sits in the middle of the benches with a sign providing a history of the tragedies.