Originally posted by Wikinews. Wikinews content appears under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license except where specified. As these articles are static snapshots of news items that may be later updated, they may not represent the latest or final revision of that article, and posted information may be only preliminary. Eleven Quebec locations to be renamed to remove racial slur ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- September 28, 2015 Original URL: https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Eleven_Quebec_locations_to_be_renamed_to_remove_racial_slur The Quebec Toponomy Commission, a Quebec public body which is responsible for naming places|foreign=suppress, cataloguing place names, and suggesting changes to their names, has announced in a press release on Friday that eleven locations in Quebec, whose names contain a racial slur, are to be renamed. The organization said they yet to decide on the locations' future names. All of the places which are to be renamed include the racial slur '''', or its French counterpart ''negre'', in their names. Among the list of places to be renamed is Nigger Rapids, a section of the Gatineau River where a black couple drowned. Although Nigger Rapids was named after the Black couple, the Commission believed the name was no longer an appropriate way to remember them. The press release notes , but adds that even though the racial slurs are , they still The name changes came after Rachael Zellars, Ph D candidate from Mc Gill University, started a petition to rename the places. "Finally, importantly, we are insisting that the Rapids currently named, 'Nigger Rapids' in Bouchette, be renamed to memorialize the dead -- that is, to honor the memory of the Black couple who struggled in this body of water and tragically died there in 1912. We want to know their names, just as we know Cartier, Champlain, etc. as markers for real human beings who lived and died in Quebec, rather than as racial or ethnic slurs", the petition said. 1,980 people have signed Zellars' petition. Zellars said the petition was her way of saying "let me show you some disagreement". The Commission has de-officialized the names in question. == Sources == *Rachel Zellars. "Remove the term 'nigger' from all of Quebec's natural sites" -- IPetitions, September 28, 2015 (date of access) :: url: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/removing-nigger-from-quebecs- natural-sites * http://www.toponymie.gouv.qc.ca/ct/english.aspx * http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/quebec-naming-commission-to-change-place-names-containing-n-word-1.2582612 * http://blackburnnews.com/bri-national/2015/09/26/quebec-to-rename-sites-over-offensive-n-word/ |pub=Blackburn News |date=September 26, 2015 }} .