A petition calling for Montreal’s Lionel-Groulx Metro station to be renamed after famed jazz pianist Oscar Peterson is gaining momentum.

Naveed Hussain, a resident of the Sud-Ouest borough, started the online petition in hopes it would get the city one step closer to recognizing the contributions that Black and Indigenous peoples, as well as people of colour, have made to the city.

“Oscar Peterson is someone that actually cared about this city,” Hussain said in an interview Friday.

Peterson was born and raised in the Montreal neighborhood of Little Burgundy, steps away from where Lionel-Groulx Metro station is now located. An eight-time Grammy award winner, he helped put Montreal on the map in the international jazz scene.

Hussain felt it especially important to start the petition as the city undergoes a reckoning on the issues of systemic racism and police brutality.

“I believe the City of Montreal, especially city hall, has a duty to its citizens to celebrate diverse origins and people of colour,” said Hussain.

The petition, posted Wednesday, had 3,070 signatures by Saturday afternoon.