Commentary
Toronto’s political left fought tooth and nail to change the name of Dundas Street and eradicate the legacy of the individual that the name honoured, Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville. This controversial battle has ended in partial defeat and a state of total confusion.
Let’s explore why.
George Floyd’s high-profile murder by a white police officer on May 25, 2020, led to the Black Lives Matter protests. During this turbulent time, many supporters called for the removal of monuments and memorials along with name changes.
Dundas Street was part of this latter discussion. A
petition of nearly 14,000 signatories was submitted to Toronto city council in June 2020 calling for a name change. While this wasn’t an enormous tally, it was significant enough that it couldn’t be ignored. Many left-leaning city councillors were sympathetic. On July 6, 2021, the
executive committee voted 6–0 to change the street name and other civic assets related to Dundas.
Why was it targeted to begin with?
Name change supporters believe that Henry Dundas, a powerful 18th-century Whig voice in Scotland and a trusted ally of British Tory Prime Minister William Pitt, was rotten to the core when it came to the slave trade. The June 18, 2021,
report submitted by Toronto’s city manager to the executive committee summed up what would become the city’s position.
The report touted the
work of “many scholars” who felt Dundas had a “controversial legacy.” It said “the continued commemoration of Henry Dundas – who is described in peer-reviewed academic research as having played an instrumental role in delaying the abolition of the slave trade – is in direct conflict with the values of equity and inclusion that the City of Toronto upholds.”
The historical facts are somewhat different.
Dundas actually supported abolitionism. When William Wilberforce sponsored a motion to abolish the slave trade, he was onside. “I am of opinion with him, that the African trade is not founded in policy,” Dundas said during an April 2, 1792, House of Commons
debate.
“I am of opinion with him, that the continuation of it is not effential to the prefervation and continuance of our trade with the W. India Iflands, I am of opinion that there is no mortality in that quarter that is incurable, and that the human race may not only be maintained, but increafed in the Weft India Iflands. In all thefe great leading questions I concur with my Honorable Friend. It may then be afked, Do you not agree then, to the Abolition of the Trade? I anfwer, that neither do I differ in this opinion.”
Dundas also proposed an amendment to Wilberforce’s original motion, “That the Slave Trade ought gradually to be abolifhed.” He believed immediate abolition could lead to “other nations [to] take up the trade” and an illegal slave market. Hence, his “moderate measures” would hopefully prevent these potential scenarios from occurring.
The British Parliament adopted Dundas’s amendment. It passed by a vote of 230–85.
Dundas’s position to gradually abolish the slave trade remains controversial and debatable. Existing history and more recent research seem to prove it wasn’t motivated by racism or economic gain.
Professor Angela McCarthy’s August 2023
piece in the peer-reviewed journal Scottish Affairs suggests that Dundas was trying to find a middle ground and key abolitionists supported him. The Henry Dundas Committee for Public Education on Historic Scotland has also
produced overwhelming evidence that “Dundas proved, over the course of a lifetime, that he was genuinely opposed to slavery and the slave trade.”
This helps explain why Toronto city council didn’t barrel ahead with a planned name change. The cost was also a major drawback. The original 2021 total estimated cost impact in 2022–23 was between $5.1 million and $6.3 million. In August this year, the city’s
estimate stood at $8.6 million, out of the city’s total operating budget of
$16.17 billion. By the fall, the figure had soared to $12.7 million.
Councillors decided on Dec. 14 to forego renaming Dundas Street. Instead, they will rename Yonge-Dundas Square as Sankofa Square next year. The Jane/Dundas Library will also be renamed in 2024, and the Dundas and Dundas West subway stations could soon follow.
Sankofa is an odd choice. The word originates from Ghana’s Akan tribe and means “to retrieve” and “go back and get.” It’s also represented by a mythical bird. This has no real history or meaning in Toronto—or Canada.
There’s another aspect that’s more troubling. Andrew Lawton of True North
points to scholar A. Norman Klein’s review of historian Ivor Wilks, an expert on Africa and Ghana’s Ashanti Empire. The Akan, according to Wilks, was involved in the slave trade. They reportedly “exchanged their gold for these slaves, who rewarded their Akan masters by creating an ‘agricultural revolution’ during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.”
What are Toronto city councillors going to say and do about this? Time will tell. It seems unlikely they’ll abolish Sankofa as quickly as they wanted to abolish Dundas.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
