'Put that one to bed': 4 things to know about Mississauga council's Dundas Street renaming decision

Mississauga council has voted to cease contemplating renaming Dundas Road. Right here’s 4 issues to know in regards to the determination and road’s controversial namesake, Henry Dundas.

THE MOTION AND THE VOTE

Mississauga councillors who attended the Jan. 19 assembly voted unanimously to approve Ward 5 Coun. Carolyn Parrish’s movement, which halted consideration of renaming Dundas Road forward of a evaluate of town’s highway and place naming insurance policies.

Parrish stated on the assembly that she didn’t need “to get into what Dundas did and didn’t do” and that he that acted in his personal time.

“If we need to spend $1.8 million I am glad to place that into fairness and variety and initiatives and coping with the issues of the Black neighborhood. However I've no need to see $1.8 million going into one thing this frivolous,” she stated.

In the course of the assembly, councillor Pat Saito stated she obtained messages from Black neighborhood members in Ward 9 asking for the movement to be deferred so extra public feedback may very well be despatched in. Saito then requested Parrish for a deferral, which she refused.

Saito then withdrew her deferral request.

Mayor Bonnie Crombie and Ward 7 Coun. Dipika Damerla weren't attending the assembly on the time of vote.

WHO WAS HENRY DUNDAS?

Dundas was an influential Scottish politician and lawyer who held outstanding British authorities roles previous to his dying in 1811.

In 1792, a invoice in search of to instantly finish the trans-Atlantic slave commerce was offered to British Parliament and Dundas efficiently proposed so as to add the phrase “progressively” into the laws.

Debate data present Dundas stated that whereas the slave commerce “should finally be abolished” it needs to be carried out by means of “average measures which shall not invade the property of people, nor to shock too all of the sudden the prejudices of our West India Islands.”

The West India Islands, which embrace the previous British colonies of Jamaica and Barbados, have been main websites of the slave commerce that noticed tens of millions of Africans enslaved to work at European-owned plantations.

Fifteen years after the 1792 debate Britain ended the slave commerce. Between 1793 and 1807 greater than 500,000 Africans have been trafficked on ships from British ports.

Dundas defenders have argued that his efforts to decelerate the tip of the slave commerce have been to make abolition extra acceptable on the time.

Caribbean historian and College of Toronto affiliate professor Melanie Newton stated there’s no debate amongst specialists that Dundas was an anti-abolitionist and characterizing him in any other case is “revisionist historical past.”

“The whole lot of his monitor document as a politician makes it very, very clear that he was a pro-slavery politician,” she stated, including that there was standard help for ending the slave commerce in Dundas’ time.

CITY REVIEWING NAMING POLICY

The vote on Dundas Road occurred after council accredited a evaluate of town’s insurance policies on naming streets and different belongings by means of an fairness, range and inclusion lens.

Following the coverage evaluate, town employees report stated, Mississauga officers “might be in a greater place to decide on renaming current metropolis belongings, together with Dundas Road.”

“Workers due to this fact suggest conducting this evaluate first, earlier than any selections are made with respect to reviewing already named metropolis belongings, because the Metropolis of Toronto did with Dundas Road,” the report stated.

Crombie stated Jan. 20 that she would have most well-liked that the naming evaluate embrace Dundas Road as metropolis employees beneficial.

“I used to be very supportive of the employees plan however council has determined to place that one to mattress,” she stated.

IS THE DECISION PERMANENT?

Renaming Dundas Road in Mississauga may very well be thought-about once more sooner or later, topic to provisions below council process bylaws.

The problem can’t be raised once more for one 12 months except council passes a movement to rethink the choice, which should be moved by a councillor who initially voted on the profitable aspect.

After a 12 months has handed, any councillor can elevate the difficulty once more with out first passing a movement to rethink.