The TDSB is wrong to rename schools and judge historical figures by today’s woke standards. Pictured: Sir John A. Macdonald Collegiate Institute. Photo Credit: Wikipedia.
Given all the issues on their plate – budget mismanagement; deteriorating schools, poor student results, accusations of growing antisemitism within the system – one would think that Toronto District School Board’s trustees would have more important things to do than launch a divisive process to remove the names of historical figures from three of their schools.
But after a flawed consultation process that did not even include the input of historians, according to board trustee Weidong Pei, the board is changing the name of Dundas Junior Public School, Ryerson Community School and Sir John A. Macdonald Collegiate Institute.
Why? The report submitted to the trustees claims the change is needed because of the “potential impact that these names may have on students and staff based on colonial history, anti-Indigenous racism and their connection to systems of oppression.”
Rather than launching a thoughtful process that would weigh actual facts, including the historical context within which these individuals lived, the report largely dwells on what other schools and universities and public bodies with similar names had done, although it seems to ignore those school boards who chose not to rename their schools.
Historian Patrice Dutil called the decision “deeply disappointing both in substance and in process.” A professor in the department of politics and public administration at Toronto Metropolitan University, Dutil said “the staff study that was submitted was nothing short of an ideological farce. This is not about history, its about politics.”
It is ironic that at a time when American President Donald Trump’s attacks on Canada’s sovereignty are igniting a wave of patriotism that we haven’t seen in years, the school board is joining the forces that are trying to tear down the foundations that built one of the best countries in the world.
At a time when we need, more than ever, to heed the lessons of our actual history to guide us in coping with today’s challenges, there are too many who want to distort it for political reasons.
Who are these offensive individuals, whose behaviour is so odious that their very name above the door of a school building will traumatize students and staff?
Henry Dundas stands accused of prolonging slavery in what was then the British Empire which included Upper Canada as it was called at the time. But it was his intervention to amend a motion banning the practice that allowed it to be successfully passed after other attempts had repeatedly failed. Through his influence, Upper Canada was actually the first jurisdiction in the British Empire to ban slavery, enabling some 40,000 men, women and children to escape American slavery by following the “Underground Railroad,” the famous route to freedom.
Egerton Ryerson was the founder of public education and public libraries in Upper Canada. He stands accused of creating Canada’s residential school system for Indigenous children. But residential schools predated his birth and the system that has caused so much recent angst was established after his time. Instead, he was known as a supporter of Indigenous education who lived with the Mississaugas of the Credit, spoke their language and taught in their schools.
Sir John A Macdonald, our first Prime Minister is responsible for the founding of Canada and for fending off the real threat of American annexation. He was known as a social progressive in his day, responsible for giving Indigenous peoples the vote, ensuring that a smallpox vaccination program included Indigenous peoples and that food was provided to fend off starvation when the buffalo herds collapsed.
Were they perfect? Of course not. But to dismiss their major contributions to the quality of life we enjoy today is a major misstep. Worse, writing them off for offenses deemed unforgiveable in today’s woke world, is denying our children an opportunity to learn from our history, both the good and the bad.
In the words of Margaret Macmillan, noted Canadian historian: “we can have different views on the past but the past has happened and we can’t change that. We can’t change it by getting rid of people. The past is something you can debate about, you can have different opinions about but if we remove all traces of it, then we’re not even going to have those debates.”
Precisely.
Janet Ecker is a former Ontario Finance Minister, Minister of Education, Minister of Community and Social Services and Government House Leader in the governments of Premier Mike Harris and Premier Ernie Eves. After her political career, she served as the founding CEO of the Toronto Financial Services Alliance, a public-private partnership dedicated to building Toronto region into an international financial centre. She currently sits on a number of corporate and non-profit boards, agencies and advisory committees.
Ms. Ecker received the Order of Canada for her public service contributions and was recognized as one of the “Most Influential People in the World’s Financial Centres” by Financial Centres International. She also received a “Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Award” from the Women’s Executive Network and the Richard Ivey School of Business, among other awards. She is also one of the founders of Equal Voice, a national, multi-partisan organization working to elect more women.
