London, Ontario.Paul Haggis Park – London’s Rename Is Coming

There was no debate on Tuesday as city councilors in London, Ontario, backed a move to rename Paul Haggis Park and remove all references to the park’s current name from the city’s website.

A US jury has ordered the London-born screenwriter and filmmaker to pay at least $7.5 million in compensatory damages to a woman accused of rape.

A few days later, Haggis, 69, was ordered to pay an additional US$2.5 million in punitive damages, totaling US$10 million, or approximately C$13.3 million.

Named after Haggis in 2011, the park at 2875 Bateman Trail caught the attention of city councilors in 2018.

At that time – Ward 3 count. Mo Salih filed a motion requesting the director’s name be removed from the park, but he was subsequently overruled by a 10-2 vote across the city council, along with Salih and his Ward 4 Coun at the time. . Jesse Helmer offers her two votes in favor of removing Haggis’ name.

Ward 12 counts. Elizabeth Perosa, who represents the area where the park is located in south London, introduced a new motion to remove Haggis’ name from the park at a meeting of the Community and Conservation Services Commission on Tuesday.

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“The previous City Council promised to make London safe for women and girls, but in my opinion I don’t feel this has anything to do with it. It goes against that policy,” Perosa said. Told.

In addition to removing his name from the park and all related references to it from the city’s website, Perosa’s motion calls for the process of renaming the park to include consulting with neighbors about the new name. Instruct staff to start

Perosa told a colleague that she had been assured by city staff that removing Haggis’ name from the park would not cause problems for first responders to be called into the area, adding, “The street number itself is enough. I conveyed a message from the staff.

The committee voted 5-0 in favor of the motion, with Mayor Josh Morgan, the sixth member of the committee, absent from Tuesday’s meeting.

The renaming process will not begin until final approval is given by the entire City Council at its December 13th meeting.

— Using files by Amy Simon and Matthew Trevithick from Global News.

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