Corp Comm Connects

Yonge-Dundas Square, TTC stations to be renamed under new city council proposal

A plan to rename all of Dundas Street appears to be off the table, replaced with a proposal to rename Yonge-Dundas Square "Sankofa Square."

thestar.com
Dec. 15, 2023
David Rider

Yonge-Dundas Square in the heart of Toronto will be renamed "Sankofa Square" as part of the city's repudiation of Henry Dundas, an 18th century Scottish parliamentarian implicated in Britain's slave trade to the Caribbean.

City council also voted Thursday, however, to halt its 2021 decision to rename all 23 kilometres of Dundas Street after projected costs to the city and businesses skyrocketed to between $11.3 million and $12.7 million.

Coun. Chris Moise's square renaming motion passed 19-2. Council also asked the TTC board to look at renaming Dundas subway station in collaboration with Toronto Metropolitan University -- possibly to TMU Station -- and to look at a new name for Dundas West station. The library board will look at a new name for Jane/Dundas Library.

"Sankofa Square" was the unanimous choice, from a four-name shortlist, by a city renaming advisory committee that includes representatives of Black and Indigenous Torontonians. A city staff report states: "The concept of Sankofa, originating in Ghana, refers to the act of reflecting on and reclaiming teachings from the past which enables us to move forward together."

Moise (Ward 13 Toronto Centre), who is Black, told council: "This really does allow us to move together. I know many young Black boys and girls, grandparents, are watching us here today and really reflecting and feeling that the city sees them, perhaps for the first time."

Indigenous members of the advisory committee suggested the square's new name reference Black heritage, Moise said, given Henry Dundas's past.

Coun. Amber Morley, another Black council member, applauded the changes, saying her own surname "belonged to somebody who used to buy and sell people. Certainly I can directly draw my own familial history to this transatlantic slave trade." Centuries of slavery still impact Black Torontonians today, she added.

The decision to rename all of Dundas had remained controversial because of the projected costs and inconvenience and also arguments from some, including Dundas descendants, that he was an abolitionist who is unfairly being blamed for extending the slave trade.

Indigenous members of the advisory committee suggested the square's new name reference Black heritage, Moise said, given Henry Dundas's past.

City staff, asked by Moise about Dundas's legacy, based on findings from city historical experts, academic sources and consulted experts, said: "Dundas delayed abolition of slavery in the British Empire," including parts of the Caribbean. Millions of Africans died during passage or being worked to death on colonial plantations, according to city sources. The name is to be changed by late 2024.

Mayor Olivia Chow, who during her June election campaign promised to continue the Dundas renaming, said she read Henry Dundas's speeches to British Parliament and has no doubts about the renaming initiatives.

The total cost of the city's new renaming plan is pegged at $2.7 million but TMU has agreed to pay the $1.6 million cost of rebranding Dundas station. After the reallocation of funds from other city initiatives, council will have to find about $700,000 during upcoming 2024 budget deliberations to cover the remaining costs.

Council heard that the library board, looking to rename the Jane/Dundas branch by June 2024, is considering Black Torontonians who contributed to literature and the arts. The advisory committee that helped choose Sankofa Square, from a list that included John M. Tinsley, Chloe Cooley and Lucie and Thornton Blackburn, is expected to help choose the new name of Dundas West subway station "preferably by 2025."

The city will also undertake a public education campaign "to acknowledge the historical impact of Henry Dundas’s actions and that of slavery more generally" and report to executive committee in late 2024 on actions to take with $50,000 in funding in 2024 and 2025.

Coun. Stephen Holyday opposed Moise's motion, saying the renaming process was inadequate and could cost the Yonge-Dundas Square board valuable sponsorship opportunities. He also said he has been persuaded by arguments that Dundas was an abolitionist not deserving of condemnation.

The original direction to the renaming advisory committee was to produce a short list of possible new names for Dundas Street that would go to public consultation and then city council. City staff the process was truncated as the city plunged into budget crisis and renaming cost estimates jumped. No details were given on the city's ongoing review of another 25 city asset name changes suggested by residents since 2021.

Born into an influential Scottish family in 1742, Dundas served as Britain's home secretary, secretary at war and lord of the Admiralty. Dundas Street was named in 1793 by John Graves Simcoe, the first lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada, who was appointed by Dundas. Simcoe also introduced legislation that year prohibiting the importation of slaves into Upper Canada.

Dundas is on the public record speaking against the slave trade. But in 1792 he successfully encouraged fellow parliamentarians to support a motion to "gradually" abolish the trade that supplied tens of thousands of Africans each year to British Caribbean islands. Historians have debated if he meant to extend a historical injustice, or to prevent calls for a quicker abolition that might have failed and extended slavery.

A committee of people fighting to stop the renaming called Chow remarks about Dundas prolonging the slave trade totally inaccurate. The committee urged councillors to not "spend one more cent on removing the Dundas name from its properties until it has the facts straight. In the meantime, it should retain an external expert to produce a fair and accurate account of the legacy of Henry Dundas."