Commentaire 326 – commentaires et rétroaction

Craig Saila

Two-hundred and 18 years ago, my settler ancestor arrived an hour's walk north of Taiaiako'n and made his claim on a plot of land near the shores of a river we now call Humber, but may have been called Tanaovate when he arrived. His success — my success — originated from harnessing the power of that flowing river's water and from cutting the trees from the land used by generations by people displaced by his very arrival.

His name is now a part of the city of Toronto, embedded in maps, emblazoned on countless buildings, and memorialized in golf courses and parks. The names of those he, we, displaced are long forgotten.

Seventy-five years after his arrival, and ten or so kilometres south of where Taiaiako'n was located, a new settlement was created. Built on the beautiful sandy shores of the lake we now call Ontario, Parkdale quickly became home to some of the wealthiest people in the area.

Then, almost halfway through Parkdale's history, a highway divide the neighbourhood from the beaches and water it was known for. The wealthy abandoned their opulent homes, which quickly converted into rooming houses for some of the poorest people in the city. Others houses were replaced by quickly built and shoddily maintained apartment buildings. Parkdale became Toronto's arrival city — home to generations of new resident who left their past behind in hopes of establishing a better future in a place called Parkdale. Although the village is now part of a giant city, and is beginning to gentrify once again, it remains one of the most densely populated and poorest parts of Toronto. Yet all its residents know what Parkdale is and what it means to who they are.

Of course the residents of Parkdale also know High Park. This is the vast expanse of green offering a welcome escape from the loud, busy streets of their neighbourhood. High Park is surrounded by the little neighbourhoods within different names, all of which have the kind of houses most in Parkdale could never afford.

All of this of is to say what we all know to be true: The names of the land people have lived on change.

But is also true that too often that change benefits the privileged people, the ones who can speak in the voice of establishment.

So, in deciding to name "Parkdale-High Park" "High-Park" it's hard not to see the pattern repeated again. Recognizing the name of a park over the the name of the place where so many new Canadians first voted echoes the systematic discrimination many face on a daily basis. Instead of building on the desire to be civically engaged, this proposed riding name will risk depressing engagement.

Furthermore, deciding to recognize "High Park" introduces even more confusion into the civic conversation, because the section of the riding home to the historical location of Taiaiako'n is in the north-western part of the riding, where the road named for my ancestor ends, is the area of the riding most associated with "High Park."

I know this letter has arrived later than you would like, but I hope that in it you hear one more person's desire that you reconsider the name change for this riding. Using "Taiaiako'n-Parkdale" or even just "Taiaiako'n" would meet the desire to start the reconcile the history of erasure my ancestor, John Scarlett, was such a part of while it would also serve to lift the hopes for all the new residents in this country hoping for even a bit of civic success he had.

Craig Saila