海角社区官网

Toronto鈥檚 mayoral byelection has nudged the issue back on stage, with some candidates saying they鈥檒l rescind or review the decision, even as a city committee prepares to publicize a shortlist of new street names this summer.

The controversy over Dundas has raised concerns not just over who we choose to honour in our streets and our monuments, but how those decisions get made and who gets to make them.

It鈥檚 part of a cultural reckoning taking place in cities around the globe.

Critics of the name-change point to a disputed historical record about Dundas and the lack of broad community consultation underpinning the decision.

For some, the focus is on the cost and inconvenience 鈥� Dundas is home to more than 97,000 residents and 4,500 businesses, 60 with Dundas in the name. The latest estimate for the name change is $8.6 million, a high price to pay, say opponents, as 海角社区官网struggles to maintain its roads, libraries, pools, programs and services.

Chanelle Ramsubick, co-owner of Ode, a boutique hostel on Dundas Street West, agrees with the intention behind renaming Dundas but says she can鈥檛 support the price.

鈥淚n a perfect world, if we could rename the street at minimal cost, I would be 100 per cent behind it,鈥� says Ramsubick. 鈥淏ut given the proposed cost, instead of spending millions on the renaming, this money would be better spent actually investing in Black businesses and communities.鈥�

Those who support the name change argue that focusing on cost misses the point 鈥� and Dundas鈥檚 history is troubling enough. They see renaming as an opportunity to redress the hurt caused by an official tribute to someone complicit in the slave trade and to finally honour those who for too long have been excluded from commemoration, and the process of deciding who to commemorate.

鈥淏lack and Indigenous and racialized people have been inconvenienced for centuries,鈥� says Rick Monture, a member of the Mohawk nation, Turtle clan, from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory, and an associate professor at the McMaster Indigenous Research Institute.

The expense, he points out, represents a fraction of the city鈥檚 annual operating budget, a cost and inconvenience that cannot be compared to the atrocities of the slave trade that Dundas upheld in his lifetime.

鈥淪o this is a small price to pay, really, if that鈥檚 the way people want to go on this issue, to rename it 鈥� to spend that money.鈥�

For Melanie Newton, co-chair of the city鈥檚 community advisory committee on renaming Dundas, and an associate professor of history at the University of Toronto, the answer is clear.

鈥淩enaming the street makes a statement about whose lives we actually value, whose ancestors we value.鈥�

How did it start?

It鈥檚 fair to say that until the summer of 2020, few people in 海角社区官网knew who Dundas Street was named after.

A campaign against a prominent statue of Dundas in Edinburgh had been building in Scotland since about 2015, led by a Black professor. That campaign was brought to 海角社区官网in the summer of 2020, following the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by Minneapolis police. The murder was caught on video and led to worldwide protests against anti-Black racism.

海角社区官网resident and artist Andrew Lochhead was aware of the Dundas controversy in Scotland and started a petition that summer calling on 海角社区官网city council to rename Dundas Street.

The petition quickly garnered 14,000 signatures and was presented to city council in June 2020.

鈥淓veryone had seen the horrific video of George Floyd鈥檚 murder by Minneapolis police,鈥� says Lochhead.

鈥淭he Dundas petition offered people a way to be together, to be in solidarity, at a time when being in the streets was not always an option for everyone, given the global health crisis,鈥� he says.

鈥淩enaming Dundas felt and feels like a novel and tangible first step.鈥�

It鈥檚 too late to go back to the days when few people knew or cared about who Dundas was named after, Lochhead believes.

鈥淭his is one of the ways that power reproduces itself uncritically 鈥� forgetting the origins of our place names or the stories behind the monuments we create. That鈥檚 the trick of power 鈥� that it becomes invisible, it becomes normalized, and part of the background of a larger built environment.鈥�

The protests that summer helped push 海角社区官网Metropolitan University to change its namesake from Egerton Ryerson, who was instrumental in the design of Canada鈥檚 Indian Residential school system.

TMU president Mohamed Lachemi says the renaming has been a success, unifying the university community while aligning it with the institution鈥檚 long held values and aspirations.

鈥淔or many members of our community, there was a sense of redress and a restored sense of confidence in the responsiveness of our institution to members of our community,鈥� says Lachemi, adding that people adapted quickly to the name change.

As part of its research into whether to rename Dundas, 海角社区官网city staff reviewed more than 400 other cases, mostly in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K.

Reactions varied widely. In some cases, decisions against renaming were made based on cost or because the identity of the person the asset was named after had largely been forgotten.

The review found that statues of Canada鈥檚 first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, whose government founded the Indian Residential Schools, were toppled or removed in Montreal, Regina, Charlottetown, and Hamilton. Victoria spent $30,000 to remove a Macdonald statue in front of city hall in 2018 as a gesture towards reconciliation.

Mississauga council voted unanimously in January 2022 to stop studying whether to rename the Dundas Street in their municipality. The motion, moved by Coun. Carolyn Parrish cited potential costs and disruption, the difficulty in determining the motives of historical figures and lack of public support for the proposal to rename the street.

Who was Henry Dundas?

Henry Dundas was born into an influential Scottish family in 1742, and became one of the most powerful politicians of his era. A friend and trusted lieutenant to British prime minister William Pitt, Dundas served as home secretary, secretary at war and lord of the admiralty and became the first Viscount Melville.

According to city staff, 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 on an early April day in 1792, he stood in the British House of Commons to encourage fellow members to support a motion to 鈥済radually鈥� abolish the slave trade, which was then supplying tens of thousands of Africans each year to British Caribbean islands where they were routinely worked to death on sugar plantations.

He succeeded.

Historians have long been parsing his motives.

A foundational source of information behind the city鈥檚 decision to rename Dundas Street was an academic paper by Stephen Mullen, which appeared in 2021 in the peer-reviewed Scottish Historical Review, called .

Mullen is a research associate in history at the University of Glasgow. He argued that Dundas added the word 鈥済radual鈥� to the motion to abolish the slave trade because he wanted to delay abolition as long as possible, to benefit his slave-owning friends and supporters on sugar plantations in British colonies.

Mullen also argued that Dundas prevented the passage of another abolition bill in 1796 by requiring Scottish MPs, whom he controlled, to vote against it.

Newton, an expert in Caribbean and Atlantic world history, says Mullen is right about the meaning and purpose of Dundas鈥檚 鈥済radual鈥� abolition. The idea, she says, was to appease the public while giving slave traders a window of many years to ramp up the trade. The goal was to establish a slave population in the Caribbean large enough to reproduce a new generation of slaves without having to travel to Africa.

鈥淲e hear the term 鈥榞radual abolition鈥� now and think, oh, that鈥檚 an abolitionist position. It was not. It was the position supported by slave owners and slave traders,鈥� says Newton.

鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 mean that there aren鈥檛 other people involved,鈥� says Newton. 鈥淚n his position as minister of war and colonies, (Dundas) really pursued, with a quite incredible degree of single-mindedness, an expansionist, pro-slavery policy in the Americas.鈥�

Dundas supporters argue that when he added the word 鈥済radual鈥� to the motion for abolition of the slave trade, he rendered it palatable to a larger number of MPs, thereby securing its success in the House of Commons in 1792.

It later died in the House of Lords.

Writing in the journal Scottish Affairs, in May 2022, Angela McCarthy, a professor of Scottish and Irish History at the University of Otago, New Zealand, was . She argued that Dundas cannot solely be held accountable for the delay 鈥� there were numerous forces at work that made abolition unlikely, including fear that the ideals and violence of the French Revolution would take root in Britain.

McCarthy鈥檚 view is shared by Adam Hochschild, author of 鈥淏ury the Chains, Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire鈥檚 Slaves,鈥� a book about the abolition of the slave trade in Britain.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 think Dundas鈥檚 adding the word 鈥榞radually鈥� or anything else he did had a particularly nefarious impact, because there were two obstacles to abolition,鈥� Hochschild says in an interview. He cited a hostile House of Lords and Britain鈥檚 endless war with France in that period. 鈥淲ars are never good for progressive social movements.鈥�

As a result of the campaign against Dundas, a new plaque was affixed to the statue in Edinburgh that was erected in his honour after his death.

The revised plaque reads in part: 鈥淒edicated to the memory of the more than half a million Africans whose enslavement was a consequence of Henry Dundas鈥檚 actions.鈥�

Sir Thomas Devine, professor emeritus at the University of Edinburgh and a leading expert in Scottish history, empire and slavery, says that laying the failure of the abolition of the British slave trade at the foot of a single person is ahistorical 鈥� the failure was due to reasons that were layered, nuanced and complex.

鈥淓ssentially, he鈥檚 been called a mass murderer,鈥� says Devine. 鈥淥n a public plaque in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. My single concern is that this is a conflict with historical truth as we know it. It鈥檚 a national dishonour.鈥�

Descendants of Henry Dundas believe their ancestor has been unfairly charged. They are agitating to have the plaque in Edinburgh removed.

鈥淭his is not about racism, it鈥檚 about standing up for our family history to be accurately stated,鈥� says Jennifer Dundas, a former CBC reporter, retired Alberta Crown prosecutor, and distant Dundas relative, who has spent two years researching the issue and protesting the changes made in Edinburgh and Toronto.

To Lochhead, the author of the 海角社区官网petition, the academic argument has become a distraction. Dundas was, at the very least, a committed colonialist and imperialist.

The fact that few people in 海角社区官网even knew who Dundas was before the petition doesn鈥檛 matter, Lochhead says. We know now.

鈥淚 think often history gets used as a distracting tactic in order to make people throw up their hands and say, well, this is complicated, this is just an argument among scholars, why should I care, or why should I pay attention,鈥� says Lochhead.

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 very important to note that that is not the point. The point we should be focused on is the harm, that these are continued celebrations of white supremacy.鈥�

A question of process

The city has also faced criticism of the consultation process that underpinned the decision to rename Dundas. The process raised the question of what the right approach should be when consulting on an issue that affects everyone but acutely affects certain minority groups.

From the outset, the city indicated it wanted to place Black and Indigenous communities at the centre of the consultations, but as part of a larger plan to reach out widely to experts and the broader public.

After receiving advice from QuakeLab, a company with extensive experience working with equity-deserving communities, consultations were held with 25 Black and Indigenous community leaders, representatives from Business Improvement Areas and Black business owners and entrepreneurs across Toronto.

QuakeLab founder and CEO Sharon Nyangweso says the city鈥檚 intention was to run a broad consultation and that the city was 鈥渧ery nervous鈥� about agreeing to her recommendation to focus the discussion on 25 representatives.

鈥淚 run an equity justice inclusion firm and that is the lens with which we approach our work. Oftentimes that might not make the most sense to folks who are not using that lens,鈥� says Nyangweso.

鈥淲hen you are talking about equity, justice, inclusion and the course-correction of historical injustices, you cannot go to majority rule because that is what got us into this place in the first place,鈥� she adds.

鈥淚f we were to put the question of 鈥楽hould this be done?鈥� to the entire population, we would be essentially replicating the very same systems that put us in this moment to begin with.鈥�

Lochhead supports the decision to centre Black and Indigenous voices.

鈥淭hose opinions ought to weight much more heavily,鈥� he says.

He points to .

Wesley Crichlow, one of the experts consulted by the city on the renaming issue, agrees with the path the consultations took. He believes 鈥渃olonizers鈥� should not be part of the renaming discussion at all.

鈥淐olonizers make the colonized doubt themselves and it forces you into this place of having to constantly prove yourself to the oppressor. The oppressor, the colonizer, they never have to prove themselves. They are always right: this is what we call plantation politics,鈥� says Crichlow, a critical race decoloniality intersectional theorist at the Ontario Tech University.

He believes a national decolonizing monuments and renaming committee should be struck to come up with guidelines for the practice.

Times are changing

Naming civic assets has always been an inherently political process, says Steven High, a professor at Concordia University and president of the Canadian Historical Association.

He points to Montreal, where he lives, as an example.

鈥淎fter the Quiet Revolution, the government really instituted a process of renaming many, many, streets and parks that were once English place names, to French place names. So I think it does reflect sort of wider debates about whose country this is.鈥�

In 2019, Montreal鈥檚 Amherst Street was renamed Atateken Street, a Mohawk word meaning brothers and sisters.

The stated reason was that Amherst was a British general who advocated using blankets contaminated with smallpox to infect people in Indigenous communities, in an effort to quell rebellions.

Amherst also negotiated the capitulation of Montreal and New France in 1760.

鈥淚n some ways I think what we鈥檙e seeing is some belated demographic changes amongst professional historians. We鈥檙e seeing the first real wave of Indigenous and Black historians into the professoriate. That changes the conversation,鈥� says High.

鈥淎 wider diversity leads to new kinds of questions, new kinds of methods.

鈥淚 think we鈥檙e having important conversations. And they鈥檙e not easy conversations, but I think they are long overdue.鈥�

Members of racialized groups do not see themselves reflected in the built environment around them, notes Lauren Beck, an associate professor at Mount Allison University, and author of the recently published 鈥淐anada鈥檚 Place Names and How to Change Them.鈥�

On average, about 85 per cent of places named after people in Canada are named after men, white men in particular.

She says both the past and the present have to be considered when naming civic assets, and the impact of names on our neighbours.

鈥淚f you keep Dundas around, does that make the Black population feel disrespected somehow? Does it retraumatize certain members of the Black population? I think these are important questions if we all come from a community where we care about our neighbours. We need to care about everybody鈥檚 different experience of place names.鈥�

The current list of proposed new names, chosen by a community advisory committee with strong representation from the city鈥檚 Black and Indigenous communities, is based on celebrating the stories of Black Torontonians, according to the city.

There may be Black people who won鈥檛 care if Dundas is renamed, Nyangweso, of QuakeLab says, but she believes renaming Dundas will have a profound impact.

鈥淚 do think there is pride in being recognized. We not only exist, but we are here and we are important and we are part of the collective history.鈥�