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Hundreds of people gathered to reflect and call for a name change to the Oliver neighbourhood at a rally called End Racism Canada: A Response To Charlottesville on the steps of the legislature Saturday night.

The Edmonton rally follows the violence in Charlottesville, Va., where a white supremacist killed Heather Heyer, an activist who was countering protesters who opposed taking down the statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee.

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While the neighbourhood of Oliver, a plaque and pedway outside the Hotel Macdonald were named in honour of the man who created the first newspaper in Edmonton, the protesters noted he had a racist history.

Marisa Peters, one of the rally’s organizers, also created a petition on change.org to remove Frank Oliver’s name from the neighbourhood and have the Papaschase First Nation rename it. On the petition website, Peters quotes Oliver as calling the Papaschase people “lazy” and not “true Indians.”