City council votes to rename Yonge-Dundas Square to 'Sankofa Square'

Toronto city council voted Thursday to rename Yonge-Dundas Square to "Sankofa Square," and recommended a host of other landmarks be stripped of the Dundas name over connections to the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

The move comes over three years after council first received a petition raising concerns about the name at height of Black Lives Matter protests catalyzed by the police killing of George Floyd in the U.S.

In a late council session Thursday night, councillors voted 19-2 to rename Yonge-Dundas Square. Coun. Jaye Robinson, who represents Ward 15, and Coun. Stephen Holyday, who represents Ward 2, voted against the move. 

Dundas Street and other landmarks bearing the name are named after Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville, an Scottish politician active from the 1770s to the early 1800s, when the British parliament was debating slavery abolition motions.

On Thursday morning, Coun. Chris Moise tabled a motion recommending city council the square's name be changed to Sankofa Square by the second quarter of 2024.

"The concept of Sankofa, originating in Ghana, refers to the act of reflecting on and reclaiming teachings from the past which enables us to move forward together," the motion states. 

The new name was decided upon unanimously by a renaming advisory committee that includes external experts, the motion said.

The motion  also requested Jane/ Dundas Library be renamed by the second or third quarter of 2024. That was also passed by council Thursday. 

And it recommended that Dundas subway station be renamed fourth quarter of 2024 and Dundas West subway station by 2025.

Council agreed to rename the subways by a vote of 20-1, but changed the language to request the TTC Board to remove Dundas, rather than direct it to do so.