City accused of cultural appropriation over name

In a “you can’t win” scenario, the city administration is being accused of cultural appropriation by an Inuit group because it decided the cultural centre in the complex rising on the old Children’s Hospital site should be named Sanaaq, from the title of a 1950s novel by Inuit writer Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk. They’re probably wishing they’d stuck to the original plan of naming it for Montreal’s second mayor, Peter McGill (no relation to the disgraced James of the university).

Reading between the lines here – and it’s not hard – there is not one single Inuit voice or authority, and someone who thinks they ought to have been consulted is annoyed that they were not. See below.

Update: See even further below. The issue has been resolved.