The name of Yonge Dundas Square to Sankofa Square will be changed by next year.
City plans are underway to rename the Jane-Dundas Library and Dundas Subway station after prominent Black civil rights activists.
Members of the Confronting Anti-Black Racism Advisory Committee were instrumental in having Yonge Dundas Square renamed Sankofa Square by early next year.
The issue was brought up by the Committee last month in regards to the Legacy of the Transatlantic Slave Trade: Renaming Civic Assets bearing the Henry Dundas name.
The late Toronto lawyer Charles Roach is one of two people being considered to rename other City institutions to remove the Dundas name.
The committee was asked to have Jane-Dundas Library renamed later this year.
The members suggested the names of two prominent Black Torontonians which can be used for replacing Dundas, who fell out of grace due to his ties to the slave trade.
Lawyer Charles Roach, who was born in Trinidad, fought in court for many marginalized Black and minority people, including members of the U.S. Blank Panthers who sought refuge in Canada.
A civil rights lawyer, Roach was an activist and leader in Toronto’s Black community who fought tirelessly for social justice and equality for marginalized communities.
Roach never obtained Canadian citizenship because of his refusal to swear the Oath of Citizenship, as it contains a promise to bear allegiance to the Canadian monarch.
He passed away in October 2012.
The name of the late civil rights activist Dudley Laws is also being considered to replace the Dundas name in some installations.
Another name placed for consideration was another civil rights activist, Dudley Laws.
Laws is described as a Canadian civil rights icon who as Executive Director of the Black Action Defence Committee, which worked to combat anti-Black racism in policing.
He was vocal and staged protests against Toronto Police for a string of shootings in the 1970s and 1980s of young unarmed Black men. The demonstrations led to the formation of the Special Investigations Unit to investigate police behaviour in 1990.
The British-born activist lived most of his life in Canada and passed away in March 2011.
City officials were called on to undertake public education campaign to acknowledge the impact of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and slavery in keeping with the International Decade for People of African Descent and report back to Council later this year.
There was also a request for Mayor Olivia Chow to consider funding the program $50,000 in 2024 and 2025.