The children of the late Daisy Peterson Sweeney say they are happy with the way their meeting with Mayor Valerie Plante went, on Friday. The two parties met to try and come to an agreement over how to honour woman who taught the likes of Oscar Peterson and Oliver Jones the keys.
“The meeting did go well,” said Celine Peterson, Sweeney’s niece and the daughter of jazz great Oscar Peterson, who was not able to attend the meeting personally due to a personal matter, but has been vocal about the city’s lack of respect for her Aunt.
Relations soured last month after the city announced it would not be following through on a promise from the previous administration to honour Sweeney by renaming a street after her.
The city instead offered Guy-Paxton Park, a small green space in Little Burgundy that is slated for renovations in the coming months, as an alternative; the family immediately objected to the suggestions.
“[The Mayor] apologized for the way in which the city handled the changing of the plans to honour her,” Peterson said. “She was very open and willing to listen to her children about why it was upsetting.”
The family used the meeting as an opportunity to really explain to the mayor the kind of woman Sweeney was; her star student Dr. Oliver Jones made sure the mayor understood just how much she meant to the community.
“He spoke very passionately about Daisy’s contributions to Montreal and it was something that I think members of the city, and the mayor couldn’t really grasp until they heard about it from the people that loved her and worked with her and were mentored by her,” Peterson said.
Guy-Paxton Park is no longer on the table, according the Peterson. There are now two locations being considered; one is a street, the other is a different park.
Peterson would not go into further detail about either one of the sites out of respect for the family’s privacy.
“This weekend was the one year anniversary of Daisy’s passing,” she said. “This is a very difficult situation for [the kids]. Daisy was a very private person and this whole thing, while necessary to get the results we want, has been very difficult for them.”
An announcement will be made when a final decision is reached, according Peterson. She does not expect negotiations will take very long.