City of Toronto policy nearly foils plans for a Salvador Allende street
Teachers who fled Chile after coup had been trying for years to have street named after former socialist president and were initially rejected because they didn’t have consent of relatives.

thestar.com
Aug. 12, 2014
By Brian Platt

A routine city policy almost foiled a decade’s effort by Toronto Chileans to have a street named after Salvador Allende.

The problem? They didn’t have the permission of Allende’s relatives.

Allende was the socialist president of Chile before a CIA-backed coup overthrew him on Sept. 11, 1973. He died when coup leaders stormed the palace.

On the coup’s 30th anniversary, Patricio and Luz Bascunan, teachers who had fled Chile for Toronto in the coup’s aftermath, approached Joe MihevcCouncillor Joe Mihevc (Open Joe Mihevc’s policard) about finding something in their neighbourhood to name after Allende.

For years, they checked in with Mihevc to see if anything had come up for naming, but only last year did a new street planned for a townhome development on Ossington Ave. give them the opportunity.

On Sunday, the Bascunans had just arrived home from vacation when they discovered the new street name was being rejected by city staff due to lack of “informed written consent” from Allende’s relatives.

“We quickly wrote a letter to his daughter but it wasn’t going to be in time,” said Luz Bascunan, referring to Isabel Allende, who is currently a senator in Chile. They scrambled and got letters from Chile’s Consulate General and local Chilean associations, but that wasn’t enough.

Instead, the Toronto and East York Community Council overruled the policy in a unanimous vote on Tuesday, and the new street name will go to city council on Aug. 25 for final approval.

During the meeting, Mihevc was told by Kerry Ferguson of the city’s Engineering and Construction Services department that the policy as written required permission from “the named party’s representative.”

“OK, who do you need in the case of a deceased president of another country?” Mihevc asked.

“I don’t know who that would be,” said Ferguson.

Mihevc asked if they would have to go through this if he was proposing a Nelson Mandela street. “Yes,” Ferguson answered.

Speaking after the meeting, Mihevc said he was caught by surprise when he saw the reason for rejection.

“As a general principle, I think the policy’s a good thing,” Mihevc said. “Should it be something that makes or breaks a naming? No... but that’s why we have council, to do due diligence about whether it’s reasonable.”

Luis Cortes, who spent five years in a Chilean prison after the coup, was watching from the gallery as the vote happened. He was among the thousands of Chilean refugees Canada took in (after significant pressure from activists) when General Augusto Pinochet started hunting down and “disappearing” socialist supporters of Allende.

He said it was “overwhelming, extraordinary,” to have a street near his home take Allende’s name.

Luz Bascunan said there will be a big celebration in her community when city council gives the final stamp of approval.

“We want our children, our children’s children, to see that there’s a place to remind them of this history,” she said. “We take it that Allende doesn’t belong to a private person, he belongs to the world.”