Wednesday 10 June 2020
Good riddance to Dundas St.
This dark, forbidding statue of Henry Dundas (aka Viscount Melvile, 1742-1811) in Edinburgh, Scotland depicts a well connected Tory, known mainly for his opposition to the emancipation of slaves during the creation of the British empire and "celebrated" by those who knew him at the time, like Robert Burns, poet of A Man's a Man for A'That, and Adam Smith, he of "The Wealth of Nations", as a "coarse" and "loose" character. Perhaps inevitably imperial gratitude for his role in empire building led to the name Dundas being threaded through the early streets of British colonies like Canada. At a time, over two centuries later, when the many ill legacies of empire, most notably slavery, are being dramatically re-called and re-lived yet again on the streets of North America and beyond it is time for the name Dundas to disappear from our streets. TorontotheBetter invites you to visit and sign the petition at: https://you.leadnow.ca/petitions/let-s-rename-dundas-street-in-toronto?source=twitter-share-button&utm_source=twitter&share=76156208-5e16-4f48-93c0-5ecb897dee7e
And thanks to Andrew Lochhead for setting this modern emancipatory movement in motion.
# posted by Taodhg @ 7:48 pm 
