MacDonald Laurier Institute
Toronto’s “Sankofa Square” – The terrible folly and historic injustice of erasing the legacy of abolitionist Henry Dundas
From the Macdonald Laurier Institute
By Lynn McDonald
Canadians’ keenness to repent for the misdeeds of the past has its merits, but has also led to gross errors of judgment.
Mayor Olivia Chow and Toronto City Council went even more over-the-top in their choice of “Sankofa Square” for Yonge-Dundas Square. Other renamings in the city have either substituted a banal name, like substituting Toronto Metropolitan University for Ryerson University, or, more frequently, selected an Indigenous name as a substitute for “colonizer” monikers. The Ghanaian word “Sankofa,” however, was selected for its meaning: “learning from the past.” But what can we learn about slavery in Ghana?
Slavery was rife both throughout Africa and much of the world in centuries past. Under its previous name, the Gold Coast, Ghana was a prime place for the sale of slaves to European slave traders. As well, its version of slavery included the horrible practice of executing the slaves of a chieftain who died, so that they could serve him in the afterlife.
In 1847, a Methodist missionary, the Rev. George Chapman, sent an account of this practice from his mission post in Kumasi, the second-largest city in Ghana. In an article in the Toronto Christian Guardian titled “Horrid Treatment of Infants in Ashanti,” Chapman explained that both men and women slaves, of all ages, were executed. When a woman slave with a nursing infant was beheaded, her baby fell to the ground “with her headless body.” Such an infant was regarded as an “abomination.” It gets worse:
“The body of the mother may remain in the street all day exposed to the gaze of every passer-by, and by her side may remain her helpless, living infant exposed to, not only the heedless foot of the multitude, but suffering intensely from the direct rays of a tropical sun. Seldom does any eye pity; no one would ever think of taking away that child and thus saving its life—it remains in the street until evening, and then, as the individual whose business is to drag away the bodies of these victims, takes away the mother; he may at the same time take away the child, not to pity and save it, but to cast both mother and child into the cell where these wretched victims are thrown, and they both remain to putrify [sic] or to be devoured by swine or carnivorous birds.”
In the same article, Chapman described being alerted to the beheading of a female slave in a nearby village. The dead mother’s baby, still alive, was left by her side. Starving, it had crawled up to his mother’s body to lick the blood from her bleeding neck. The missionary hastened to the execution site to try to save it, but he was too late: a bystander saw Chapman coming and prevented rescue by standing on the infant’s neck to kill it.
Ghana abolished slavery only in 1874, roughly 100 years after it was abolished, through court cases, in 1772 in England, and in 1778 in Scotland. For Scotland, it was Henry Dundas, as a lawyer, who won over the Scottish law lords on the appeal case he headed of an escaped enslaved man, Joseph Knight. They not only freed him, by a solid 8-4 majority, but ruled that there could be no slavery in Scotland, and thus freed all other slaves in the country.
This was Henry Dundas’s first achievement as an abolitionist.
Ontario, thanks to John Graves Simcoe, the first lieutenant-governor, has the merit of being the first jurisdiction in the British Empire to abolish slavery, albeit gradually, in 1793, about 80 years before Ghana got around to it. Simcoe, it should be noted, was an appointee of Henry Dundas, a fellow abolitionist.
Yet Mayor Chow called the renaming of Yonge-Dundas Square “beautiful,” and even claimed that she could not “think of a better a name for a gathering place at the heart of our city” than Sankofa Square. To Chow, Henry Dundas’s actions were no less than “horrific.”
Dundas and Ryerson: the Christian Guardian connection
Rev. Chapman sent his story to the Christian Guardian, a weekly Methodist magazine based in Toronto, for which Egerton Ryerson was the founding editor. He was no longer the editor when this story appeared, but he had himself written on abolition in the British Empire and the United States. Ryerson, notably, was a visitor in the British House of Commons on May 14, 1833, for the last debate and adoption of the law to abolish slavery in the British Empire. He gave a superb report on it in the Christian Guardian titled “House of Commons: Colonial Slavery.”
Ryerson also happened to be in Boston, en route to England in 1850, when the United States Congress passed the draconian Fugitive Slave Act. This required the return of slaves caught in free states, where they previously would have been safe. That law meant that escaped slaves from the American South would have to make it to Ontario to be safe, which sparked the development of the “Underground Railroad.” In a report written for the Christian Guardian, Ryerson condemned the law as an attempt to “trample under foot” the “rights of man,” adding that it was “incredible to me” that slavery was being championed in Boston, “the cradle of liberty.”
The abolition of slavery in Africa
The British law of 1833 that abolished slavery in the “British colonies” effectively meant in the West Indies; it also included Canada, which by comparison, had very few slaves. It would take decades more for slavery in Africa itself to be abolished, as well as the slave trade on the continent’s east coast. Recall journalist Henry Stanley’s “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” on finding missionary doctor David Livingstone alive, but ill, on the coast of Lake Tanganyika in 1871. Livingstone had himself witnessed the beheading of 400 local slaves by slave traders from Zanzibar.
Given Ghana’s significant role in the transatlantic slave trade, and Dundas’s clear opposition to slavery, it makes little sense to strike Dundas’s name off of Toronto’s most famous public square. But so far, Chow is sticking by her assertion that Dundas’s legacy with regards to slavery is “horrific.”
The inconvenient truths about slavery and its abolition
Canadians, and especially Torontonians, are keen to repent of the misdeeds of the past, both against Indigenous people and enslaved Africans. This new humility has its merits, but has also led to gross errors of judgment, especially false accusations against supposed “colonizers” or “colonialists.” Ryerson himself was accused of responsibility for the “colonialist” past, although he himself was born in Ontario, on a farm north of Lake Erie. Neglected is the documented fact that Indigenous societies themselves were slave societies. The losers of wars between Indigenous societies could be killed, mutilated, and/or enslaved, and even sold as slaves. Those more fortunate were adopted by the conquering group, in other words, assimilated – another no-no in today’s world.
No Indigenous society is known to have actually abolished slavery. Indeed, Indigenous slaves were among those freed by the abolition laws of Britain and Upper Canada.
Nor did any African state ever abolish slavery or the slave trade of its own accord. It took decades of pressure from Great Britain, and sometimes bribes from it, to achieve its abolition. Again, Dundas had some understanding of the key role of African leaders in slavery and the slave trade. As he stated in 1792 in the House of Commons when defending his amendment to William Wilberforce’s motion for abolition of the slave trade, to make it “gradual”:
“If once a Prince of an enlightened character should rise up in that hemisphere, his first act would be to make the means of carrying off all slaves from thence impracticable. What reason had they to suppose that the light of Heaven would never descend upon the continent of Africa? From that moment there must be an end of African trade. The first system of improvement, the first idea of happiness that would arise in that continent, would bring with it the downfall of the African trade, and that in a more effectual way than is done by regulations of this country.”
Dundas had a much better understanding of the complications of abolishing slavery and the slave trade than other abolitionists, certainly more than Wilberforce, the Parliamentary abolition leader. But even Dundas had no idea that it would take nearly a century to get rid of it everywhere, and that until it was abolished everywhere, with thorough enforcement measures as well as the adoption of laws, it would remain in force, and many would be its miserable victims.
A better name than “Sankofa Square”
There is good reason not to go back to “Yonge-Dundas” Square, for Sir George Yonge, when governor of Cape Colony, South Africa, made money on the slave trade. Yet neither Mayor Chow, nor Toronto’s previous mayor, John Tory, ever condemned him. This is not to suggest renaming Yonge Street, for too much Ontario history has passed along it. The Rebels of 1837 marched down Yonge Street from Eglinton Street, only to be stopped at Maitland Street. Egerton Ryerson, in his first post as a Methodist minister, had his start as an itinerant preacher riding the “Yonge Street Circuit.”
Reasonable titles would be “Dundas Square,” or, better, “Slavery Abolition Square.” “Ryerson Square” would suit, but only when the anti-Ryerson people come to realize that they fell for false accusations. The square is close to where he developed such great educational reforms as free schools for all, teacher training, and free public libraries, initially for Ontario, in time adopted throughout the country.
Lynn McDonald, CM, Ph.D., is a former Member of Parliament, a professor emerita of University of Guelph, and a fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
Immigration
Mass immigration can cause enormous shifts in local culture, national identity, and community cohesion
By Geoff Russ for Inside Policy
It matters where immigrants come from, why they choose Canada, and how many are arriving from any single country. When it comes to countries of origin, immigration streams into Canada have become wildly unbalanced over the last decade.
Few topics have animated Canadians more than immigration in the past year.
There is broad consensus among the public that the annual intake of newcomers must fall, and polling shows both native-born and immigrant citizens agree on this. In Ottawa, the Conservative opposition has called for lower numbers, and the Liberal government ostensibly concurs.
While much of the discussion surrounding immigration has focused on economic factors like affordability and the shrinking housing supply, less attention has been paid to the cultural and political changes of welcoming more than 5 million people into the country since 2014.
Specifically, attention must be paid to the possible outcomes of importing hundreds of thousands of people from regions embroiled by war or prone to conflict. This is a necessity as digital technology proliferates and guarantees the world will be interconnected, but not united.
Mass immigration brings in far more than just people. It can cause enormous shifts in local culture, national identity, political allegiances, and community cohesion.
It matters where immigrants come from, why they choose Canada, and how many are arriving from any single country. When it comes to countries of origin, immigration streams into Canada have become wildly unbalanced over the last decade.
In 2023, almost 140,000 people immigrated to Canada from India, while the second-largest intake came from China, with 31,770 people.
This new trend is at odds with Canada’s historical immigration policies, which were more evenly weighted by country. In 2010, the top three national pools of immigration were the Philippines at 38,300 newcomers, India with 33,500, and China with 31,800.
Other countries that Canada has received increasing numbers of migrants from includes Syria, Pakistan, and Nigeria.
Past federal governments took consideration for details like economic needs and capacity for integration. Canadian immigration policy in 2025 should take into account modern communications and conflicts within certain regions as well.
21st century technology continues to advance and innovate at dizzying speeds, giving rise to immersive social platforms and instant messaging platforms like WhatsApp or Signal. This has brought the world closer together, but rather than promoting peace and understanding, it has amplified foreign conflicts and brought them to our own backyards.
Tens of thousands of migrants from the Levant have arrived since 2015, a region where anti-Zionism is deeply ingrained in the cultures, as well as full-blown antisemitism.
Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas War in 2023, the entire West has borne witness to antisemitic violence in Europe and North America, often perpetrated by ideologically motivated migrants.
Earlier this year, a Syrian migrant in Germany went on a stabbing spree with the intent of murdering Jews, while last September, Canadian police foiled the plot of a Pakistani man in Ontario who had planned to commit a mass killing of Jews in New York City.
Canada’s political culture has been profoundly affected by these same waves, with demographic changes forcing the federal government to alter its longstanding foreign policy positions. For example, the newly-minted Minister of Industry Mélanie Joly allegedly remarked last year that her shifting stance on the Israel-Hamas war was due to the “demographics” of her Montreal riding.
Montreal itself has become a hotbed of anti-Israeli and anti-semitic violence. Riots, property damage, and the storming of the McGill University campus have been carried out by radicals inspired by Hamas and their allies.
In 1968, the great Canadian thinker Marshall McLuhan co-authored War and Peace in the Global Village, which warned of the consequences of modern technologies erasing the boundaries of the world. McLuhan explicitly cautioned that technology would make the world smaller, and lead to conflict in his theorized global village.
Today, that village is one where Jewish students are routinely harassed on college campuses in Vancouver and Toronto, while synagogues are burnt to the ground in Melbourne. It does not matter whether the victims are Israeli or not. They are seen by their assailants as legitimate targets as part of an enemy tribe.
On May 21, two staffers at the Israeli embassy in Washington DC were shot dead by a man shouting pro-Palestinian slogans.
These sorts of imported feuds go beyond the Middle East. Global tensions in regions like the Indian subcontinent present another threat of foreign-inspired and funded violence, as well as undue political shifts.
India and Pakistan are locked in a long running standoff over the disputed territory of Kashmir.
Last month, several tourists were murdered in Kashmir by militants that India accused Pakistan of backing, leading to several low-level exchanges between the Indian and Pakistani militaries before a ceasefire was brokered. Tensions are far from dissipated, and the possibility of a full-scale confrontation between India and Pakistan remains high.
Considering those two rivals have massive diasporas in the West, a potential war on the subcontinent could radically change domestic politics in countries in Canada, Australia, and Britain.
In 2022, violent clashes broke out between Hindu and Muslim youths in the British city of Leicester following a cricket match between India and Pakistan. The street battles lasted for weeks, and threatened to restart later that year following an escalation in India and Pakistan’s clash over Kashmir. In London, demonstrators from the Pakistani and Indian communities came close to violence.
If a sporting rivalry can inspire hooliganism, a war will spark something far worse, and the globalization of the Israel-Gaza conflict is a glimpse into what that might look like.
There is historical precedent in Canada for how overseas conflicts affect domestic politics.
During the 19th century, hundreds of thousands of Irish—both Catholic and Protestant—emigrated to Canada before and after Confederation in 1867. They brought their religious feuds with them.
The militantly anti-Catholic Orange Order, run by Protestants, became one of the most powerful political forces in Ontario. They held a virtual monopoly on municipal politics in Toronto, excluded Catholics from jobs in the public service, and took part in brawls with the city’s Irish Catholic community for more than 100 years.
Thomas D’Arcy McGee, one of the Fathers of Confederation and an Irish Catholic migrant, was murdered for speaking out against the republican Fenian Brotherhood, which had infiltrated politics both in Canada and the United States.
Integration throughout successive generations mitigates and even practically eliminates the impact of imported conflicts. This was the case with the Irish sectarian divide, though it took over a century to fade away.
Worth noting is that roughly 300,000 Ukrainian refugees currently reside in Canada, having been admitted under a special visa program following the Russian invasion in 2022. It is intended to be temporary, with the expectation of repatriation once a stable peace returns to Ukraine.
Similarly to Irish-Canadians, the vast majority of the established Ukrainian-Canadian community has its roots in pre-modern Canada, and is largely well-integrated into the country’s social fabric. To date, there has been no major violence or anti-social harms inflicted upon their Russian-Canadian counterparts despite the war, or vice-versa.
Furthermore, the Canadian government has a longstanding close relationship with Kyiv, and there is far more trust and transparency regarding intent and collaboration. This is not the case with governments like China and India, the former of whom actively interferes in our elections, and the latter of which has been accused of assassinating dissidents on Canadian soil.
The existence of the iPhone, the internet, and opportunistic foreign governments makes it incredibly dangerous to not change course. That is not to imply that the average migrant is an active foreign agent. But the sheer quantity makes vetting them all a challenge.
Mitigating these threats requires strategic planning when crafting immigration policy.
Other parts of the world like Southeast Asia, Southern Europe, and Latin America are relatively stable and peaceful and are potential sources of newcomers with far lower risk of foreign interference and diasporic violence.
At-play is the stability, unity, and integrity of our political system. Canadian politics must remain fully Canadian in its focus and priorities. That cannot happen if we sleepwalk into becoming a battleground for the rest of the world.
Geoff Russ is a writer and policy analyst, and a contributor for the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.
Health
Medical organizations and media let Canadians believe gender medicine is safe and universally accepted. It’s not
The Macdonald Laurier Institute
14 physicians sign statement for Inside Policy
Many Canadians are likely unaware that several other medically advanced countries—like Britain and multiple EU member states—have restricted hormone therapies and surgical interventions which have documented harms and no clear benefits, writes a group of Canadian doctors.
Following similar actions by peer countries around the world, United States President Donald Trump signed a Jan. 28 executive order declaring his administration will not “fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support” so-called “gender-affirming” medical treatment for minors—which prescribes hormone therapies and surgical interventions that change sex-determined physical characteristics. Now, a recent report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services confirms what many other medical bodies and advanced countries have already recognized: the science and reasoning behind this form of medicine is deeply flawed.
This news appears shocking to many ordinary Canadians, as well as legacy media outlets like The Globe and Mail. That’s largely because Canadian medical organizations and governing bodies—presumed by the public to speak for physicians—have vocally supported “affirmation”: an approach that unquestioningly supports the choice of patients to undergo these treatments. This has left the public with the false impression that such treatments are safe, effective, and universally accepted by physicians. We, a group of 14 Canadian physicians, feel it is vital for the public to know that many—and perhaps most—physicians believe there must be restrictions on gender therapies that permanently change a minor’s body.
Many Canadians are likely unaware that similar restrictive policies are already in place in other medically advanced countries, like Britain and several EU member states.
Most notably, the U.K. government commissioned Dr. Hilary Cass to produce what has become known as the Cass Report, a thorough review of the literature around the treatment for gender dysphoria. Cass investigated whether there is actually proof that these therapies “save lives,” as many activists will insist, or if there is evidence that such interventions make patients’ lives better? Dr. Cass concluded that although medical treatments for gender dysphoria can cause significant harm (as is the case with any medical intervention), there is no conclusive proof of benefit. Hormone therapy and surgeries can lead to chronic pain, incontinence, sterility, and more. They are permanent and irreversible. Therefore, Britain and many other countries restrict most of these treatments for minors.
Here in Canada, Alberta has been the leader in following the evidence. In 2024, the province introduced legislation mandating a minimum age before children could consent to make these permanent, life-altering changes to their bodies. Many physicians were involved with drafting the well-considered legislation. Many more applauded it—some publicly, others quietly.
Despite that, the usual suspects leapt forward to pillory Premier Danielle Smith’s government. The CBC, Globe and Mail, and other legacy media outlets ran headlines like: “Medical experts warn Danielle Smith’s restrictions on gender affirming care will harm vulnerable youth in Alberta.” Most articles quoted bodies such as the Alberta Medical Association (AMA), Canadian Pediatric Society (CPS), and the venerable Canadian Medical Association (CMA), all of which very quickly released statements decrying Alberta’s stance. Such articles give the public the impression that these organizations speak for physicians, expressing a majority, if not unanimous, view.
These organizations do not speak for all physicians. It is hard to know what percentage of physicians oppose “gender-affirming care” for minors because many are afraid to speak their minds in a climate where any dissent is couched as “transphobia.” Physicians who speak out have been subject to investigations and penalties by regulatory organizations, particularly after the passing of federal Bill C-4 in 2022, which potentially makes it a criminal offence to refuse support of a child’s belief that he or she is transgender.
In 2025, one needs to take statements from physicians’ groups with a grain of salt.
Engagement with the CMA is in decline. In 2018 (when membership remained mandatory for doctors in many provinces), the association claimed 87,000 members. By 2024, membership dropped to 75,000 despite an increase in the number of physicians in Canada. Many are members only in a nominal sense, and have little meaningful involvement with the CMA. Rather than taking the pulse of the medical profession as a whole, seeking diverse viewpoints, and making statements that represent this range of views, the CMA is captured and directed by a radical progressive fringe. Unfortunately, this fringe retains the historical imprimatur of being the “voice of physicians” in Canada.
The same phenomenon has occurred with provincial physicians’ organizations like the AMA, which collect mandatory dues but seek minimal engagement from members. Activists have exploited this vacuum to take the helm of these organizations.
This same phenomenon can be seen in organizations like the CPS, CMA, and similar specialty bodies. Their mission statements and missives increasingly read like Marxist screeds rather than wise and measured comment. Just one such example is the CMA’s “ReconciliACTION Plan,” which “challenges anti-Indigenous structures in the health care system.” When physicians with more conservative and scientifically-based views attempt to engage these groups, they have often been met with indifference or hostility, and are systematically prevented from holding positions within these organizations.
This shows that these organizations do not speak for all physicians. When mainstream media rely on such organizations as their sole source for “expert” comment, they miss the real story and avoid engaging with facts. Legacy media portrays this as a battle between science-denying right-wing bigots on one side, and empathetic experts on the other. This could not be further from the truth.
The science is not “settled” by any means. So-called “gender-affirming care” has proven risks and harms, but unproven benefits. It is not “life-saving,” but it is permanently life-altering. We are 14 of the many physicians who strongly believe that minors should not be allowed to make such decisions. The self-proclaimed “experts” do not speak for us.
Written and signed by,
Dr. Arney Lange MSc, MD, FRCPC
Dr. Brent McGrath, MD, FRCPC
Dr. Chris Millburn MD
Dr. David Zitner MD
Dr. Dion Davidson MD, FRCSC, FACS
Dr. Duncan Veasey MD
Dr. Julie Curwin MD FRCPC
Dr. Lori Regenstreif MD, CCFP (AM), FCFP
Dr. Mark D’Souza MD, CCFP (EM), FCFP
Dr. Martha Fulford MD, FRCPC
Dr. M.J. Ackermann MD
Dr. Richard Gibson MD, FCFP
Dr. Roy Eappen MDCM, FRCP (C)
Dr. Shawn Whatley MD, FCFP (EM)
This statement is an initiative of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, written and signed by concerned physicians from across Canada who are calling for a more careful, evidence-based, and ethically responsible approach to the treatment of gender issues.
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