We the undersigned call on the Government of Ontario to take whatever steps may be necessary to stop the Toronto District School Board from carrying out its plan to remove the names of Sir John A. Macdonald, Egerton Ryerson and Henry Dundas from three TDSB schools.

BACKGROUND

(1) Macdonald, Ryerson and Dundas each played an important role in Canadian history and their significant achievements and legacy should be celebrated not denigrated; it is unfair and intellectually lazy to judge historical figures solely by 21st century standards without making an honest effort to understand them and their actions in the context of their times.

(2) The recommendation to change the school names resulted from a rushed and opaque process that made no effort to seek input either from the effected communities or from the public at large, and did not consult with any reputable historians who could have provided a balanced assessment of the contributions to Canadian history of Macdonald, Ryerson and Dundas, but instead relied solely on the testimony of three sociologists whose ideological bias is clearly shown by the ridiculous assertion in the staff report that the three were "associated with systems of oppression."

(3) Any renaming of public assets like roads, schools or universities should only come after a thorough and transparent process that involves the effected communities and stakeholders, and consults with recognised experts including historians; the threshold for renaming should be high and the default should be against changing a name.  (Examples of groups that have developed detailed naming and renaming policies include Yale University and Princeton University; the Canadian Institute for Historical Education has developed it's own document in this regard which is available on our website, cihe.ca, as a resource.

SUMMARY

Therefore, we the undersigned call on the Government of Ontario to take whatever steps may be necessary to stop the Toronto District School Board from carrying out its plan to remove the names of Sir John A. Macdonald, Egerton Ryerson and Henry Dundas from three TDSB schools.