Is this even a valid issue? NO..... - if one believes Toronto City Hall rationale on the name change issue then shouldn't Henry Dundas be targeted for name elimination in the Caribbean islands public spaces?
So, explain why JAMAICA CURRENTLY HAS A HISTORIC FORT - 'FORT DUNDAS' - NAMED AFTER HENRY DUNDAS, and operating as a tourist attraction next to a public school - and listed as a Jamaican National Heritage site.... That's correct - in Jamaica, where staggering losses of slaves lives accumulated from the horrors of slavery there. YET many other tourist sites in Jamaica still retain slave-owners/traders names. http://www.jnht.com/site_fort_dundas.php
Each year, Toronto councillors will get tens of thousands of requests from constituents to act on proposals for various issues. Unknown to most Torontonians, is that the overwhelming majority of these communications are simply ignored or shelved forever. The few proposals that councillors act upon on behalf of constituents, typically involve either a prestigious self-serving opportunity for publicized accolades, or to avoid embarrassing resulting blowback if the issue was ignored.
This is the basis of the Dundas St. West name change hoax by Toronto City Hall. In normal times, the citizen's request for a street name change would be laughed at, ignored, and tossed aside. It was that person's right to request it regardless - even if like a hail Mary pass. https://www.renamedundasstreet.ca/
But in this instance, Mayor Tory and his band of minions in council, desired to TAKE ADVANTAGE of the BLM period of effective social activity, by pretending they were reformed and dedicated anti-racists themselves. Their baseless claim was that they were correcting historical wrongs. Unfortunately MOST TORONTONIANS AND THE MEDIA BOUGHT INTO THAT PLOT. Mayor Tory is using history as a ruse. Councillor Thompsn publicly claimed arrogantly, that the name-change was about being on the right side of history! The petition of the citizen who 'won' the lottery ticket of getting their ordinarily non-issue proposal taken seriously, only had a petition of 15,000 online signatures; yet that person's twitter page for the issue ONLY HAS 100 followers - proving nobody actually really cared on the issue anyway in the end!!! https://twitter.com/DundasRename
Most Torontonians and the Black community in Toronto DID NOT ASK FOR NOR CARE ABOUT THIS ISSUE. So how is it that Mayor Tory and his 17 council minions felt they could put on jackboots and FORCE the self-serving plot upon Toronto tax-payers and the burdened Dundas St.West residents and businesses? Because - THERE IS ZERO ACCOUNTABILITY AT TORONTO CITY HALL. This issue more than most others, will lead to Toronto's removal as Mayor. People will decide to vote against Tory and his minions because of this FALSE-NARRATIVE history ploy.
If it were to be an issue, council could easily vote to choose what has been done in Scotland in this issue. PLACING OF ANTI-SLAVERY THEME STREET PLAQUES BESIDE THE 'OFFENDING' STREET SIGN. Simple and almost zero cost to tax-payers. Toronto's planners proved themselves too dim-witted to bother properly researching alternative options. This doesn't even include costly legal actions that will proceed against the City, launched by justifiably irate and shunned Dundas Street residents and store owners.
Mayor Tory and his ilk, and the citizen who proposed the name change, and the 100 twitter page followers are probably saying 'HUH!.... HUH!' now that they realize, name-changing IS NOT an issue in slavery ground-zero located Jamaica. https://www.my-island-jamaica.com/forts_in_jamaica.html
If Tory was genuinely pro-BLM inclined, why did he only fast track police body-cams during BLM protests. The police bodycams had its pilot project in 2014, yet it took over 6 years to finally force its official adoption. Had the usage been in place more would have been known about the death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet.