Dear Editor:

This is a letter I sent to the Minster responsible for Parks Canada, requesting that they remove the name Fort Amherst from the National Park site in PEI.

January 29, 2016
Hon. Catherine McKenna
Minister of Environment and Climate Change
Environment and Climate Change Canada

Dear Ms. McKenna:
My name is Dr. John Joe Sark; I am a member of the Mi’kmaq Grand Council representing the District of Epekwitk (PEI). Please see attached my role as Keptin of the Traditional Government of the Mi’kmaw Nation.

In the Spirit of Reconciliation I wish to request that the name of General Amherst be removed from the National Park Site in the Province of Prince Edward Island.

As his name is a grave insult to the Mi’kmaw People of Prince Edward Island, the Atlantic Region and to the rest of the Aboriginal Peoples in Canada. Because General Jeffery Amherst’s ultimate goal was to exterminate the Mi’kmaq and other Aboriginal peoples of North America.

The atrocities of this British Crown General are well documented: Research shows in his own handwriting that ”His first orders to Bouquet were that he wished ”to hear of no prisoners should be any of the villains be met with arms. Besides using smallpox the two officers contemplated another method: “As it is a pity to expose good men against them, I wish ...