Rethinking Monuments: Black Histories and Black Futures

Colonial monuments are built into our cities, acting as daily reminders of Canada’s colonial past.

The monuments we see throughout our cities are said to represent Canadian history, but they often depict a one-sided point of view. The history embodied by colonial monuments can represent the domination, dispossession, and erasure of Black and Indigenous histories, among others. These monuments put intentional emphasis on the histories of those celebrated, not in spite of their acts of colonial violence, but because of them. 

How can Black stories be told in spaces that represent both Black histories and Black futures? Colonial monuments and other forms of public memory including street and place names are built into our cities and create an experience of moving through a space not built for Black people.

Monuments do not only have to represent domination and oppression; they can represent resistance, liberation, and life. Cities should be built to reflect the history, truth, struggle, lives, and love of Black people on these lands. Doing so will not only allow us to understand the past, but also allow us to create a better future.

Since the 19th century, Queen’s Park has been the site of numerous colonial monuments. More recently, it has acted as a gathering space for activism and counter-monuments.

Officially opened by the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) in 1860, Toronto’s Queen’s Park is one of Canada’s earliest public parks. Originally owned by King’s College (now the University of Toronto), Queen’s Park became so popular that, in 1859, the City of Toronto acquired it from the university and converted the space to a municipal public park.

Alongside the Ontario Provincial Legislature, it is home to several colonial monuments. The monuments in Queen’s Park were mostly erected during the late 19^th and early 20^th century. Prominent among these monuments is the statue of Sir John A. Macdonald, which was the first monument to be erected in the park in 1894. Queen’s Park is also home to the equestrian statue of King Edward VII; this statue was first erected in Delhi, India in 1919 but relocated to Queen’s Park in 1968.

In July 2020, the actions of Black Lives Matter Toronto reframed the colonial monuments in Queen’s Park.

On July 18 2020, Black Lives Matter Toronto (BLM-TO) claimed responsibility for pink paint splashed on several colonial monuments in Queen’s Park, including the statues of John A. Macdonald and King Edward VII. Three activists were arrested and charged with mischief for $5,000, a charge often associated with the destruction or damage of property.

Although this incident received widespread media attention at the time, it was not an isolated event, nor was it the first large-scale action led by BLM-TO in 2020; this was just the first to receive mass media and police attention. It stands with the many interventions of its kind against colonialism that took place across Canada in the summer of 2020. 

This intervention fell within a long Black activist tradition of property and infrastructure destruction as a way to challenge state power and colonial norms. The paint on the monuments highlight how this representation of state-sanctioned history is intentionally exclusive and untruthful. The paint demonstrates an alternative to “official” history, transforming these statues from representations of colonial rule to fixtures of Black resistance. The work of these Black activists questions the state’s legitimacy and authority, allowing for the possibility of living otherwise and creating a place for it. 

Counter-monuments challenge the traditional historical narrative, often highlighting silenced voices or alternative experiences.

In 2022, the Monument Lab, in collaboration with the City of Toronto, produced a report titled “A Monument for the Critical and Inquisitive”, detailing public desire for new approaches to public memory and monumentality. This report explores the concept of “counter-monuments” as a new alternative for public memory.

Counter-monuments are features of public space that challenge the viewer’s assumptions of history, reminding us of the incomplete nature of “official” history. Counter-monuments work to reinsert voices that have been silenced into public space. These features challenge prevailing practices of public memory by highlighting alternative experiences and histories. 

The report includes a number of findings that followed the uptick of grassroots intervention on monuments in 2020 and 2021. The report highlights how the City of Toronto is looking for opportunities to respond to sites that historically have been dominated by a singular narrative. It also signal a new desire to embrace community and grassroots approaches to heritage.

The actions of the Black activists in Queen’s Park in 2020 can be understood within the context of counter-monuments. Their actions underscore the need to embrace multiple perspectives when we consider what is or isn’t a “monument.”

For Toronto’s Black community, 355 College Street is more than a construction site: it is a site of solidarity, community building, and self-love.

The home of the Toronto Chapter of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) was once located at 355 College Street, just east of Kensington Market. The UNIA was an organization built by Caribbean immigrants and African Canadians based on the principles of Black activist and leader Marcus Garvey. Although the Toronto division closed in 1981, the divisions in Montreal, Quebec and Glace Bay, Nova Scotia continue to operate today.

While the Toronto division of the UNIA is gone, the space of 355 College Street serves as a reminder of when Black people in Toronto gathered to build community, solidarity, and celebrate Black self-love in Canada. The UNIA hall provided space for Toronto’s Black community to be “free” within a climate of discrimination and anti-Black racism that persists today. 

The site at 355 College Street provided a space for Black cultural and political fusion. The demolition of the building in 2019, which housed fixtures of Black culture and community in Toronto, stands with the long-lived legacy of city-building practices enacted at the expense of Black people, community, and culture. The historical importance of the site is marked only by the work of anonymous Black geographer “R”. R’s work provides another example of how counter-monuments are important within the city.

The work of anonymous Black geographer “R” recognizes the Black historical legacy in Toronto and offers the hope for a de-colonial future.

The recent work of the anonymous Black geographer “R” marks 355 College Street as a Black space, reminding the viewer of its history. On the fence that surrounds the site, R has written: “CITY OF TORONTO: DO NOT FORGET!!! THIS IS HERITAGE, UNIA CHAPTER 1925-1982, MARCUS GARVEY LIVED HERE.”