The debate over what Yonge-Dundas Square will be renamed to seems to finally have an answer: city council voted on “Sankofa Square.”
Coun. Chris Moise’s square renaming motion passed 19-2 on Thursday evening, days after the advisory committee that was in charge of developing a shortlist of new names for Dundas Street unanimously voted on “Sankofa” as a top contender for the new name.
But one expert is questioning how this will actionably translate into a more inclusive society.
“How are we going to really make this name represent the change we’re going after?” asks Carl James, York University professor and the Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community and Diaspora.
The original proposal was to rename all of Dundas Street, but that appeared to be off the table as of Thursday morning, replaced instead with a proposal to rename Yonge-Dundas Square and two subway stations that bear Henry Dundas’s name. The 18th-century Scotsman reportedly helped delay the end of the slave trade.
According to Moise’s motion, the 20-member renaming advisory committee set up in 2021 and composed of Black and Indigenous leaders as well as Dundas Street residents, unanimously decided earlier this week that Yonge-Dundas Square should be renamed “Sankofa Square.”
Read the full article on the Toronto Star website.
