Nazi-associations were raised by a resident on one of two streets in Gatineau, Quebec. Gatineau is the city across the Ottawa River from Canada’s capital city, Ottawa.
The streets, named for Alexis-Carrel and Philipp Lenard, were in the neighbourhood around the Gatineau Hospital, where many of streets are named for Nobel Prize winners.
Philipp Lenard was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 1905 for his research into cathode rays. Alexis Carrel was a French surgeon, awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1912, for his work with vascular suturing techniques.
Quebec’s Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs campaigned to have the names changed. Carrel was a supporter of eugenics and played a role in the Vichy government that was installed during the German occupation of France. Philipp Lenard was an advisor to Adolph Hitler, having been an early supporter of the Nazi ideology.
A petition to rename the streets did not receive enough votes to go before the City Council, but the councillor for the district, Gilles Carpentier took the cause on himself. He said his own “human values” led him to initiate the change, putting forth the motion to rename the streets.
Last night, (Tuesday) Gatineau City Council voted to 14 to 5 to change the two names; Lenard to Albert Einstein and, Carrel to Marie Curie, two Nobel prize winners whose names had not been used in the neighbourhood.
Paris, Nantes, and Toulouse, France have also changed the name Alexis Carrel.
Gilles Carpentier said those who did not vote in favour of the change were concerned about the “administrative burden”. Carpentier said the city of Gatineau would be giving assistance to the residents on the two streets to make all the necessary changes in their home addresses.
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