SYDNEY, N.S. — The name of one of Whitney Pier’s most respected sons is now permanently etched on a Sydney street sign.
Crawford Crossing is the new name of the so-called “road to nowhere” that, when open, will serve as an alternative route to the overpass that has connected Whitney Pier and the Ashby area of Sydney for the past 60 years.
It’s also the namesake of the late Carl (Campy) Crawford, who is perhaps best known for becoming the first Black municipal police officer east of Montréal when he joined the Sydney police in 1964.
But Crawford, who passed away in 2003 at the age of 64, is being remembered for more than being a pioneer in local law enforcement. Longtime family friend and current CBRM councillor Lorne Green said Crawford was a pillar of the community both on and off the job.
“There were a lot of little things he did behind the scenes that many people didn’t even know about – he really helped the less privileged people in the community,” said Green, who also remembered Crawford as someone who was a very good athlete.
“He also loved to sing as he was one of the founders of what became the Inspirational Singers.”
Crawford’s widow, Iris, said her late husband’s active involvement in the local sports scene served him well throughout his life.
“He had some of the same friends from Little League baseball right up until his death,” said Iris, who turns 80 on Tuesday.
“Campy was such a good athlete. And because of sports, he became friends with so many people. So by the time he became a policeman he knew pretty much half the people in not just the city but all over the area.”
Iris also remembers her husband for both his love of singing and his gift of being able to put people at ease and to make them laugh.
“He was a people person. He loved people and he could communicate with everybody from the youngest to the oldest,” she recalled.
“They used to say that when he walked down a hall you would hear laughter coming out of every door he passed because he had made them laugh on his way through.”
Iris said she and her family are very touched that the new road, that meets up with Lingan Road at the Sydney Ports Access Road (SPAR) intersection, is now called Crawford Crossing.
“It’s quite an honour and I am sure he’s up there smiling – you know he was raised not far from there, just a few houses away from the road,” said Iris.
“I am just flabbergasted that Jim MacLeod would do something like this.”
MacLeod, of course, is the former Sydney and CBRM councillor who represented the Whitney Pier area for the better part of four decades. He is also a longtime friend of the Crawford family.
“Campy was an amazing person, but this is about more than him – it’s about the whole family, this family has been exceptional and their giving in this community has never stopped,” said MacLeod, who did not seek re-election in the October 2020 municipal vote.
“I am very, very pleased with the naming of the ‘road to nowhere.' I feel like it gives some closure.”
Indeed, MacLeod has been the driving force behind both the pending opening of Crawford Crossing and the name itself. In fact, he got in touch with Tony Ince, another Crawford family friend who is the province’s Minister of African Nova Scotian Affairs, and Derek Mombourquette, the Sydney-Whitney Pier MLA who presently serves as the Minister of Nova Scotia Lands. And because the road is built on land owned by the province, MacLeod’s request was granted.
Meanwhile, it is expected that Crawford Crossing will be opened to traffic by the end of this week. The road, which runs parallel to the main Sydney-Whitney Pier connector (a 700-metre viaduct that includes two bridges and a raised road), was built in 2013 as part of a 10-year, $400-million Sydney tar ponds and associated sites remediation project.
It can be accessed by taking Inverness Street east off Victoria Road. The new route travels over the lands of the former coke ovens that fed the blast furnaces of the once sprawling steelworks that dominated Sydney for 100 years until its demise at the turn of the century.
David Jala is a political reporter at the Cape Breton Post.
