Mi’kmaq activist Nora Bernard recommended as new name for Halifax’s Cornwallis Street

HALIFAX — The daughter of late Mi’kmaq activist Nora Bernard says it’s “incredibly powerful” that a Halifax street that has long honoured a man who encouraged the killing of her ancestors will likely be renamed after her mother.

Bernard’s daughter Natalie Gloade said in an interview Monday that she broke down in tears when she learned that a city report is recommending that Cornwallis Street be renamed Nora Bernard Street.

“I’m very pleased and very honoured,” Gloade said Monday. “Not just for my family, but for all my siblings and our Indigenous people.”

Halifax city council asked residents in July to vote on a short list of 15 names to replace Cornwallis Street. Bernard’s name earned the most votes.

The north end street was originally named after Edward Cornwallis, the founder of Halifax. The former colonial governor earned a reputation for brutality after he issued a bounty for the scalps of Mi'kmaq men, women and children in 1749. In recent years, there has been a spirited debate in Nova Scotia over his legacy, as activists repeatedly staged protests at the foot of a statue of the man in Halifax that was eventually taken down in 2018.

Gloade said it’s overwhelming to know that Cornwallis’s name will likely be replaced “by a Mi’kmaq woman who was a warrior and a fighter for all her Indigenous people and for her own survival.”

Bernard, from Millbrook First Nation in Truro, N.S., was a residential school survivor who fought a 15-year court battle to win compensation for Indigenous children forced to attend those schools. Following her case, survivors across Canada filed similar suits, which were amalgamated and settled nationally in 2005 for more than $5 billion.

Gloade said Bernard is remembered as a fiercely loving and generous woman who cared for everyone around her. “She was not only our mother, but our doctor, our lawyer, our confidante, our spiritual adviser and our teacher. She was everything,” Gloade said.

Bernard was killed in 2007 by her grandson James Douglas Gloade, who was sentenced to 15 years for manslaughter in 2008. 

Halifax council will vote on the street name change on Tuesday.

“It is recommended that regional council approve the renaming of Cornwallis Street, Halifax to Nora Bernard Street,” reads a staff report. Bernard was the top choice among survey respondents, with more than 2,400 votes cast for her name.

The report says that alternative street names for council’s consideration are the other top vote-getters. Those options are: Nitap Street, which means friend in Mi’kmaq; Dr. Alfred Waddell Street, after one of the first Black doctors to graduate from Dalhousie University; and Rocky Jones Street, dedicated to the African Nova Scotian lawyer and political activist.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 12, 2022.

—

This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

Lyndsay Armstrong, The Canadian Press