Holocaust centre urges Edmonton to rename road named after former Nazi

Savaryn Drive in Summerside. (Brandon Lynch/CTV News Edmonton)

A group is asking the City of Edmonton to rename a road that honours a former Nazi.

The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) on Wednesday called on the City of Edmonton to rename Savaryn Drive, a road in Summerside named after Peter Savaryn.

It says Savaryn served in a Nazi military unit during the Second World War.

In 2023, following the Yaroslav Hunka controversy, the Governor General’s office apologized for awarding the Order of Canada to Savaryn in 1987. Hunka and Savaryn served together during the war.

• How was veteran Yaroslav Hunka’s military unit linked to the Nazis?

Savaryn moved to Edmonton in 1951, served as University of Alberta chancellor from 1982 to 1986, and died in 2017.

Savaryn Drive

A local charity asked the City of Edmonton to honour Savaryn in some way in 1994, the city said in a statement on Wednesday.

Savaryn’s name was added to the Names Reserve List “based on (his) work of more than 60 years to preserve the Ukrainian language and culture in Canada as Edmonton has a very rich Ukrainian heritage and history.”

Edmonton’s Naming Committee approved the use of his name in 2007 “before the city was aware of Peter Savaryn’s history during the Second World War.”

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“In 2007, a development firm building the Summerside neighbourhood (following the road naming practice of the time, was required to name all roads within the neighbourhood starting with an S), submitted a Naming Committee application to use the name Savaryn which it derived from the Names Reserve List,” the City of Edmonton explained in the statement.

“That request was approved the same year and Savaryn Drive was the result.”

In order to rename it, the city explained that an area resident or business needs to make a request and that 75 per cent of impacted homeowners, building and business owners need to support it.

“The continued existence of these street names causes pain to Holocaust survivors, the Jewish community and all Canadians who cherish human rights and historical truth,” said Jaime Kirzner-Roberts with the FSWC.

“Such a disgrace also dishonours the 45,000 Canadian soldiers who gave their lives fighting Nazism.”