The campaign to rename city infrastructure named after Dundas was sparked in 2020, following聽the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by Minneapolis police in the U.S.聽
The campaign to rename city infrastructure named after Dundas was sparked in 2020, following聽the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by Minneapolis police in the U.S.聽
The “Dundas” name could be scrapped from TTC stations soon, as city council’s TTC board considers a partnership with 海角社区官网Metropolitan University to erase the name of Henry Dundas 鈥 a Scottish parliamentarian implicated in Britain鈥檚 slave trade to the Caribbean 鈥 from the city’s transit maps.
The proposed partnership will go to the board on Wednesday, where city councillors will consider renaming the station to “TMU Station.” The cost of renaming the station, which was previously pegged at $1.6 million, would be covered by the university.
As part of the partnership, TMU has proposed the creation of a “Transit Innovation Yard,” meant to help improve transit innovation in Canada. The new collaboration would focus on: data-driven transit optimization, improving way-finding and dashboards for customers, track-level security solutions and creating performance indicators for the TTC.聽
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The city and TMU have undergone transformations in recent years, attempting to shed controversial historical ties. Yonge-Dundas Square was renamed to Sankofa Square in December 2023 and TMU was renamed from Ryerson University in 2022, dropping its connections to Egerton Ryerson after concerns were voiced about his role as Canada’s primary architect of the residential school system.聽
The campaigns to rename TMU and city infrastructure named after Dundas were sparked in the summer of 2020, following the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by Minneapolis police in the U.S. 鈥 which sparked worldwide protests against anti-Black racism.
Born into an influential Scottish family in 1742, Dundas served as Britain鈥檚 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 鈥済radually鈥 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.
Andy Takagi is the transportation reporter for the
Star.聽Reach him via email: atakagi@thestar.ca
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