Spacing, Author at Spacing Toronto spacing.ca - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from spacing.ca Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
2022 Toronto Heritage Award winners - Spacing Toronto spacing.ca - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from spacing.ca Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
EXCERPT: Indigenous Toronto, Stories That Carry This Place (Coach House Books, 2021).
NOW THAT WE KNOW
When I first accepted a faculty position at the downtown Tkaronto university where I now work, I was unaware of the legacy of the man whose name the institution bears. I didn’t know the significance of the statue I pass dozens of times each day. I didn’t know that this man, who as Chief Superintendent of Schools for what was then called Upper Canada, advocated free compulsory public day schools for white children only. I didn’t know he had a different vision for Indigenous children – a vision that would pave the way for the Indian residential school system. I didn’t know he enacted the 1850 Common Schools Act, a piece of legislation resulting in the ‘legal’ exclusion of Black children from public schools in Ontario and forcing them to attend segregated schools in communities across the province. I didn’t know he opposed education for girls beyond the elementary l