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Joseph Trutch

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The Honourable
Sir Joseph William Trutch
KCMG
Joseph Trutch, c. June 1870
1st Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia
In office
5 July 1871 – 27 June 1876
MonarchVictoria
Governors GeneralThe Lord Lisgar
The Earl of Dufferin
PremierJohn Foster McCreight
Amor De Cosmos
George Anthony Walkem
Andrew Charles Elliott
Preceded byAnthony Musgrave
Succeeded byAlbert Norton Richards
Member of the Legislative Assembly of Vancouver Island for Victoria District
In office
November 26, 1861 – February 27, 1863
Preceded byHenry Pering Pellew Crease
Succeeded byEdward Henry Jackson
Personal details
Born(1826-01-18)18 January 1826
Ashcott, England
Died4 March 1904(1904-03-04) (aged 78)
Somerset, England
NationalityEnglish, Canadian
Spouse
Julia Elizabeth Hyde
​
​
(m. 1855)​
EducationMount Radford School
OccupationPolitician
ProfessionCivil engineer, land surveyor

Sir Joseph William Trutch, KCMG (18 January 1826 – 4 March 1904) was an English-born Canadian civil engineer, land surveyor, and politician who served as first Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia.

Early life and career

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Joseph was born in Ashcott, England, the son of William Trutch and his wife, Charlotte Hannah Barnes.[1] William Trutch completed his apprenticeship to qualify as a solicitor in London, after which he moved to Jamaica. In 1822 he married Hannah Barnes daughter of Joseph Barnes, a prominent merchant, politician and slave owner. Trutch's early childhood was spent partly in Jamaica, although his family returned to England in 1831,[2] where he later attended Mount Radford School in Exeter.[3] Following an apprenticeship to civil engineer Sir John Rennie, he travelled to California after hearing news of the California Gold Rush of 1849. He arrived in British Columbia in 1859, following the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush of 1858.

He found employment by working various government contracts as a surveyor, and in 1862 was contracted to construct a portion of the Cariboo Road between Chapmans Bar and Boston Bar along the canyon of the Fraser River. Tolls collected from a suspension bridge along the road, along with prudent land acquisitions, made Trutch a wealthy man.

Colonial politics

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Beginning in the 1860s, Trutch became involved in colonial politics, serving as the Chief Commissioner of Land and Works, and became a well-known resident of Victoria. As the Chief Commissioner of Land and Works, he was a member of the Legislative Council of British Columbia in the colony. Throughout his political career, Trutch was noted for his hostility to land claims by First Nations people, and demonstrated contempt for their concerns.

In a letter to his mother, Charlotte, regarding the Indians of the Oregon Territory he wrote, "I think they are the ugliest and laziest creatures I ever saw and we should as soon think of being afraid of our dogs as of them." (23 June 1850, Joseph Trutch Papers, UBCL, folder A1.b.) And in a letter to the Secretary of State, "I have not yet met with a single Indian whom I consider to have attained even the most glimmering perception of the Christian creed." (26 September 1871, BC Papers Connected with the Indian Land, p. 101) In 1867 Trutch refused to recognize the legitimacy of the reserves established by the former governor, James Douglas, and had them re-surveyed, reducing their size by 91%.[4]

His memorandum of 1870 denied the existence of aboriginal title, setting the stage for the colonial assembly to prohibit aboriginal people from pre-empting unoccupied, unsurveyed, or unreserved land without special permission; this decision effectively established a 10-acre (40,000 m2) maximum and denied natives the right to acquire lands held by non-natives (A Sto:lo-Coast Salish Historical Atlas, page 164). These policies have had lasting repercussions in modern British Columbia politics with respect to the ongoing process of resolving native land claims.[citation needed]

Province of British Columbia

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In 1863 Trutch's sister, Caroline Agnes Trutch, married Peter O'Reilly and in 1870, Trutch's brother John married the sister of the colonial governor Anthony Musgrave. Trutch and Musgrave became close. Following the establishment of the Canadian Confederation in 1867 they worked together to negotiate British Columbia's entry, which occurred in 1871 after they secured a promise for the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR).

Trutch was the first Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia following Confederation, a position he retained from 1871 to 1876. Following his tenure as lieutenant governor, Trutch was appointed a "Dominion agent for British Columbia", and helped to oversee the construction of the CPR in the province.

He left this office in 1890 and returned to England.[5] He died there in 1904 in Somerset, the county of his birth.

Legacy

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The locality of Trutch, British Columbia (57°44′N 122°57′W / 57.733°N 122.950°W / 57.733; -122.950)[6] along the Alaska Highway, is named after Joseph Trutch. The location is now a ghost town.

In 2007, a panel of historians hired by The Beaver included Trutch in their list the ten worst Canadians in history.[7]

Streets in Vancouver, Victoria and Richmond used to be named after him.[8][9] There are plans to rename a street in Chilliwack bearing his name.[10]

A student residence building named for Trutch at the University of Victoria was renamed to Lansdowne Residence #1 in 2017 because of his actions and words related to Indigenous peoples.[8][11]

A residential street in the Kitsilano neighborhood of Vancouver was originally named Trutch Street until a decision in 2021 to rename the street with a Musqueam name due to Trutch's anti-indigenous policies.[12] On September 30, 2022, the second annual Day of Truth and Reconciliation, Musqueam gifted the new name "Musqueamview Street" (Halkomelem: šxʷməθkʷəy̓əmasəm) to the city of Vancouver.[13][14]

In May 2022, a residential street in Richmond, British Columbia, was similarly renamed from Trutch Avenue to Point Avenue due to the racism and injustice associated with Trutch, the first lieutenant-governor of British Columbia, and to honour the 28th lieutenant-governor of British Columbia, Steven Point.[15]

On July 11, 2022, Trutch Street in Victoria, British Columbia was renamed to Su'it Street (Lekwungen: səʔít). The name, in the language of the Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations, Lekwungen, means "truth". This was after a unanimous vote in February 2022 by the Victoria City Council to rename the street, to further reconciliation efforts by the city.[16][17]

References

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  1. ^ Fisher, Robin. "Biography – TRUTCH, Sir JOSEPH WILLIAM – Volume XIII (1901-1910) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography". www.biographi.ca. University of Toronto/Université Laval. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
  2. ^ (London) Weekly Dispatch, March 20, 1831, page 5
  3. ^ Green, Valerie (1995). Above stairs : social life in upper-class Victoria, 1843-1918. Victoria, B.C. : Sono Nis Press. p. 60. ISBN 1550390627 – via Internet Archive.
  4. ^ Fisher, Robin (1971). "Joseph Trutch and Indian Land Policy". BC Studies. 12: 3–33.
  5. ^ Lynch, Hollis R. (August 1961). "Sir Joseph William Trutch, A British-American Pioneer on the Pacific Coast". Pacific Historical Review. 30 (3): 243–255. doi:10.2307/3636921. JSTOR 3636921.
  6. ^ "Trutch". BC Geographical Names.
  7. ^ "Trudeau voted worst Canadian in 'unscientific' online poll". CBC News. 30 July 2007.
  8. ^ a b Britten, Liam (6 June 2017). "UVic to rename Trutch building because of colonial politician's racist legacy". CBC News. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  9. ^ "Richmond's Trutch Avenue under scrutiny". Richmond News. 8 June 2021. Retrieved 1 October 2022.
  10. ^ "Trutch Avenue in Chilliwack is going to be renamed". Chilliwack Progress. 18 June 2021. Retrieved 1 October 2022.
  11. ^ "University of Victoria renames building bearing name of alleged racist politician". 8 June 2017.
  12. ^ Dickson, Courtney (8 July 2021). "Vancouver city council votes unanimously to change street named after colonial leader". CBC News. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
  13. ^ Wilson, Odette (30 September 2022). "Musqueam gifts new name to City of Vancouver to replace Trutch Street". Musqueam. Retrieved 1 October 2022.
  14. ^ Kulkarni, Akshay (30 September 2022). "Musqueam Nation gives gift of new name for Vancouver's former Trutch Street". CBC News. Retrieved 30 September 2022.
  15. ^ Zhang, Steve (8 May 2022). "Richmond renames street after B.C.'s first Indigenous lieutenant-governor". CBC News. Retrieved 9 May 2022.
  16. ^ "City of Victoria unveils new Su'it Street during Sunday's renaming ceremony". 11 July 2022.
  17. ^ "City of Victoria renames Trutch Street, Su'it Street as an act of reconciliation". CHEK. 10 July 2022. Retrieved 3 February 2024.
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