My local CBC outlet has a story about First Baptist Church in Toronto, a church founded in 1826 by Black Americans escaping bondage in the United States forty long years before the ending of slavery there. At the time the newcomers were barred from existing churches that, so the broadcast said, "only accepted free people." Hence the new church, which has been serving an increasingly multi-ethnic congregation ever since.
There are still not that many two hundred year old institutions around Toronto. It's another indication of how appropriate it is that a prominent Toronto gathering place be renamed Sankofa Square to acknowledge the long black contribution to this city and country. What did Lord Dundas bring to Toronto again?
Right, nothing. Even if the Canadian Historical Review won't admit it. As it said:
The Dundas episode illustrates a disturbing trend in historical reckonings in which everything is judged by anachronistic standards of contemporary social justice.
Sure it does.
