In its childish effort to delete historical names from its schools, the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) appears to have violated its own bylaws.
In February, TDSB trustees voted to
named after Sir John A. Macdonald, Henry Dundas and Egerton Ryerson.
Their decision was outrageous on many grounds, one of which is that it may be in violation of the
that financial and budgeting information be publicly presented. Equally bad, after I reached out to TDSB trustees asking for them to comment on this apparent violation, they clammed up and have stayed silent for over a month.
To be clear, the issue is not about denying the injustice of Canada’s residential schools, nor the admirable goal of making our schools welcoming for all. This is about an altogether different subject — the misguided tearing down of our great leaders and the cack-handedness of the TDSB in doing so.
In addition to the bylaw breaches, the school board admitted that it did not consult
as part of its renaming review. Otherwise, it would have had more accurate portraits of these men than the marred ones recently painted by ideologues.
How can the TDSB determine and judge 19th-century events without the benefit of historical research? Simple: it was a sham all along, nothing more than the righteous application of a 21st-century woke purity test.
It’s time to speak out.
has been formed to do just that. We’re a newly created, non-partisan, grassroots movement dedicated to preserving and celebrating our rich Canadian history by protecting the historical names of our schools. And there is much to celebrate.
Save Our History works in concert with other groups such as the
Canadian Institute for Historical Education
, a group of notable historians who are setting the record straight and countering the false narratives that took root several years ago.
To dismissively erase Macdonald, Canada’s founding prime minister, from schools dishonours our history. Of important note, residential schools existed decades before he arrived on the scene.
Ryerson was an education reformer who founded our free, public education system and lived among the Mississaugas, but who has been erroneously condemned for simply writing a report about boarding schools for Indigenous youth that reflected the contemporary educational consensus, long after they had been established and long before they became government policy.
Henry Dundas was an active abolitionist who represented a runaway slave in the late 1700s, but who advocated a more tactical approach to abolition given the previous failures of others to do so amidst the prevailing politics.
All three men were ahead of their times. Were they perfect men? No. Were they great men? Yes. Should they be honoured? Yes.
Sadly, the TDSB doesn’t plan to stop at these three schools. It made known its intention to rename other schools, as well.
Nor is this only a Toronto issue. At least 10 other Ontario schools are named after Macdonald in various cities. Will their school boards also be divisively deleting his name from their schools?
Our schools are falling apart. Precious money is needed to carry out urgent repairs, which is surely a more pressing need and appropriate use of scarce resources than name changes. Our kids deserve better schools and, equally importantly, to be proud of Canada.
Given that the Toronto board educates around 239,000 children, its provincial overseers at the Ministry of Education should sit up and pay attention to what’s going on.
At a time when our country’s very existence is threatened by U.S. President Donald Trump, this is the worst possible time to give him added ammunition to question the validity of our country.
If the Toronto school board were truly interested in correcting the mistakes of the past, it would start with its own. But it is likely too far gone and too far captured by revisionists to admit that renaming schools was a mistake.
Right-minded citizens must stand up and our leaders must act. If you care about our national heritage, you must speak out. And the Ontario government must step in.
National Post
Mark Johnson is the founder of SaveOurHistory.ca. He was a Conservative candidate in Toronto in the 2021 federal election and is a corporate lawyer who has worked in the private and public sectors.
