Rue Zelensky?
I just saw a tweet suggesting Ottawa change the name of its Charlotte Street, where the Russian embassy is, to Zelensky Street.
Montreal could do the same. The Russian consulate is on avenue du Musée, but on the spur north of Doctor Penfield. That spur could easily be renamed rue Zelensky.
bill 09:52 on 2022-03-02 Permalink
It took an approval from Brezhnev to change the name of Ontario Avenue to du Musée.
mare 10:51 on 2022-03-02 Permalink
Renaming streets is a bad thing. It disorienting and expensive for people and businesses.
Naming streets after living people is a bad idea. They might do horrible things during the rest of their lives and then you have to rename the street again. (Not saying this will happen with Zelensky, who hopefully will have a long and productive life.)
Maybe just don’t name streets after people, period. Especially not after politicians, local or foreign.
MarcG 10:51 on 2022-03-02 Permalink
Imagine we were invaded by the US and Kiev renamed a street Trudeau – it’s ridiculous, no?
Kate 10:59 on 2022-03-02 Permalink
I’d just like to imagine the Russians gritting their teeth as they changed their letterheads to read Rue Zelensky.
I had a school project to do: an in-depth report on a country. I don’t remember whether I was assigned the USSR or chose it myself. But my dad was excited. He read a lot of spy novels and wanted to see the Soviet consulate from inside. On the way over, he warned me that a consulate is legally considered the territory of that country, so you could be kidnapped and whisked away and nobody could stop them!
So it was with a delightful feeling of lurking danger that we walked up from the 144 stop to the big house on du Musée and rang the bell.
Later, my father referred to the man and woman who greeted us as as Boris and Natasha, so I now remember them as a tall, gothically sexy woman and a short gruff man, although at the time they were disappointingly ordinary-looking.
Boris and Natasha gave me an armload of materials. There was a hardcover book with a red cover embossed with a hammer and sickle, full of facts, which I wish I still had, brochures, maps, booklets, all kinds of stuff. With all this, I created a killer presentation, probably strongly inflected with Soviet propaganda, but that didn’t keep me from getting top marks.
Ephraim 11:45 on 2022-03-02 Permalink
There are SO many names you could use for the street that would annoy the Russians, like Raoul Wallenberg… Boris Nemtsov or Alexander Litvinenko. Or how about Peredvizhniki after the art movement?
GC 11:59 on 2022-03-02 Permalink
I’m all for sticking it to the Russians, but I also agree with mare. Not naming streets after living people just seems like a wise policy–and possibly just never naming them after people. See also: statues.
qatzelok 12:45 on 2022-03-02 Permalink
And our government could rename Russian Roulette…. “Freedom Roulette.”
CE 12:48 on 2022-03-02 Permalink
Cool idea bro.
Kevin 14:23 on 2022-03-02 Permalink
Sergei Magnitsky would be an appropriate choice.
Sal 16:41 on 2022-03-02 Permalink
It should be a French name, how about Poutine?
Le Hibou 12:11 on 2022-03-03 Permalink
How about a sign blade?
JoeNotCharles 11:30 on 2022-03-04 Permalink
“Rue Ukraine” would be simplest, doesn’t pull in any extra associations that a person’s name would, and would outlast the current conflict to be a permanent tribute to Canada’s Ukrainian population, which IIRC is 2nd or 3rd highest in the world (outside Ukraine itself).
For historical context which I just found out this week, BTW, Canada’s Ukrainian population is so high because of racist government policies, who deliberately targeted Ukrainians with offers of land in the prairies, choosing them to be white enough to be acceptable, but not a “respectable” kind of white so that they could still be an underclass to be manipulated.
(Also FTR the Ukrainian transliteration of the capital city is Kyiv. Kiev is the Russian transliteration. In English at least, not sure if it’s the same in French.)