Vancouver Island family battles B.C. government over spelling of son's Indigenous name

A Campbell River, B.C., family's fight to officially register their son's Indigenous name with the province is heating up.

Crystal Smith and her husband Raymond Shaw have been hoping to name their nine-month-old son λugʷaləs, pronounced "Glu-go-lus."

Back in April, the couple spoke with CTV News when they were first trying to register their son's name with the B.C. government.

But after months without a response, the couple has now taken the matter to the B.C. Supreme Court.

At the time, the couple was told that the province couldn't accommodate the unique characters in the name.

"His name is spelled with a lambda, a U, G, raised W, A, L, schwa and an S," said Smith on April 18.

His father told CTV News that the name was based on a landmark near Sayward, B.C.

"His name comes from a mountain here, just like half an hour, 45 minutes in Loughborough Inlet," said Shaw at the time.

"It's a Kwak’wala word," said the boy's father, adding that it means "where people were blessed."

With little movement on the issue over the past six months, the couple has filed a lawsuit against the provincial government.

"I try and raise my children in culture as much as I can and I made a point of wanting to raise him in the language and only in the language," said Smith on Monday.

The couple's lawsuit has been taken on for free by a Vancouver law firm.

'TAKE THIS ALL THE WAY'

Smith says she understands these kinds of changes take time

"I do have a little bit of hope that [the province is] working on it, and if they're not working on it then it's incredibly disappointing," she said.

The couple has seen some success, with the nine-month-old finally receiving a Medical Services Plan number. However, the name connected to the MSP number is listed only as "Baby Boy Shaw."

"It was an unnameable amount of grief because it doesn’t have his name on it and saying Baby Boy Shaw is not how we envisioned anything," said Smith.

The B.C. Health Ministry did not provide CTV News with a statement on the issue Monday, though it will have to respond to the lawsuit towards the end of the month.

In April, when the matter was first flagged, B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix said the province was looking to make changes to its identification system.

"Yes I understand the distress and yes we’re absolutely committed to addressing it and changing it," he said at the time.

In the meantime, Smith says her family is committed to seeing things through.

"We’re willing to take this all the way and to make sure that the government can’t do this again and that other Indigenous mothers and families have the option to name their children in their language if they so wish," she said.