A major Toronto street named for a British politician tied to delaying abolition
The Dundas Street Renaming Debate
Toronto City Council voted in 2021 to rename Dundas Street over its namesake's historical role delaying the abolition of the slave trade, then reversed the decision in 2024 citing the cost of the change.
.jpg)
Advertisement
Dundas Street, one of Toronto's major east-west arterials, is named for Henry Dundas, a British politician who, as Home Secretary in the 1790s, played a significant role in delaying and weakening a parliamentary bill that would have abolished the British slave trade, pushing instead for a slower, gradualist approach that critics argue prolonged the trade's human toll by years. That history drew renewed scrutiny in Toronto following the broader 2020 reckoning over racial justice and historical commemoration.
A council decision, then a reversal
Toronto City Council voted in 2021 to rename Dundas Street and related civic assets, including the TTC's Dundas subway station, citing Henry Dundas's role in delaying abolition as inconsistent with the city's values. The renaming project stalled amid the practical cost and logistics of changing signage, addresses and records for one of the city's longest and most heavily used streets, and council ultimately reversed the decision in 2024, citing the projected cost, leaving Dundas Street's name unchanged even as the underlying historical debate about Henry Dundas's legacy remained unresolved.
Advertisement
Sources
Continue reading
.jpg)
Scotia Plaza
Rather than demolish the Bank of Nova Scotia's heritage-designated 1951 building, developers built one of…
The Hudson's Bay Company
One of the oldest companies in the world sold most of what's now Canada to Canada itself in 1869, became a…
Toronto's Airports
Canada's busiest airport, and — a fraction of its size but a straight shot to the downtown core — the small…
Magna International
Frank Stronach opened a one-man tool-and-die shop in Toronto in 1957. By 2008, the company he built into…