In a recent commentary “Downtown cemetery deserves more respect,” Mur Meadows raised awareness of Pioneer Square as a heritage cemetery. The Old Cemeteries Society (OCS) welcomes this interest.

The Old Burying Ground, today called Pioneer Square, has always been important to the OCS.

In the early 1990s, the Victoria Civic Heritage Trust contracted with us to prepare a report about Pioneer Square.

The report made many recommendations, including emphasizing the need for interpretive signage.

The main result was that the city permitted us to restore several graves and authorized us to place endangered tombstones in storage.

Many of those tombstones are works of art and would make an attractive and informative display at City Hall or the Art Gallery, as Meadows suggests.

To raise awareness of the Old Burying Ground, we give tours there annually, and we provide extensive information about the cemetery on our website.

This includes the burial records and a self-guided tour brochure. We also have a 60-page booklet about its history and the people buried there.

It’s true that most people don’t know that Pioneer Square is a cemetery. However, its official status as a cemetery has never changed; only the name has.

Our preference is to use “The Old Burying Ground,” which clearly conveys its historical nature and has been used in other cities, such as Halifax, to positive effect.

The Old Burying Ground is a repository of our history that deserves to be valued.

Yvonne Van Ruskenveld

President, The Old Cemeteries Society

I’m wondering, as the bad guys are partying in China, did we just hand the contract for new ferries to China, or did we also reach out to North Korea and Russia for quotations?

North Korea especially could use the work and may have given an attractive quote. Perhaps it is possible that China may sub-contract some of the work to these countries as a token of good will?

Inquiring minds want to know…

Stephen Kishkan

Victoria

The B.C. General Employees’ Union is the bookend of the NDP government. They have the same allegiances and objectives, members interchange with the party and vice........

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