Minutes: Friends of Egerton Ryerson Meeting April 26th, 2026

Attending: Ronald Stagg, Oskar Hanson, Wendy Ryerson, Rose Dyson, Elizabeth Trott, Lynn McDonald, George and Anne, Gord McNulty, Len Fortune, Irwin Pressman, Garry House, Charlie Lund, Bruce Weber, Mark, Kathleen McCrone

Regrets: Anne Venton, John Parker, Carolyn Edgar

Charlie Lund, a new friend was asked to introduce himself and a warm welcome was extended.

Treasurer’s Report: Oskar reported that we have $978 in the bank account.

  1. Annual Egerton Birthday (March 24th) event: Given the success of the March 25th event with Patrice Dutil speaking on Egerton Ryerson as a Humanist” and Ron Stagg responding, Rose proposed friends put on a yearly event in Ryerson’s honour. Wendy asked if Ron would be willing to help again with such an event. Ron moved the motion and Bruce seconded. The subsequent vote was unanimous among all attendees.
  2. Report on request for access: Rose is in the process of requesting access to information with the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario with regard to where the head of the statue is being stored. This has been taken as a last resort option as TMU has been evasive on this matter for a long period of time and many requests. Rose is following up on the request this coming week.
  3. Change.org petition by Ron Stagg: “Help Restore the Reputation of Egerton Ryerson.” We are looking for as many signatures as possible as the faster people sign the more momentum the petition will have. Ron mentioned he may go back and put in the original version of the title as change.org only accepted a short title.

The purpose of the petition is to put pressure on TMU to take the plaque down as they have been extremely evasive over the past 2 years. Michael Forbes continues to say that the school will take it down and are having committee meetings, but no results ever come only continued delay.

  1. Reward for the head of the statue: Lynn proposed putting out a public offer of $1,000 for the return of the head of the statue. The head was last seen on a pike in Caledonia, but doesn’t appear to be there anymore. Much back and forth discussion was had. Len Fortune then proposed that he will visit the site where the head was last seen and in the spirit of reconciliation attempt to come to an understanding with the locals there or possibly the spokesman for 1492 Land Back Lane camp, Skyler Williams.

Bruce said he will join Len on this trip and in the end it was decided to wait until they return from the trip to Caledonia to revisit Lynn’s idea of offering a reward for the head of the dismantled Egerton Ryerson statue.

  1. Professor Pressman mentioned that the statue was originally funded by small donations by students, teachers of Ryerson as well as the government of Ontario and he recommended that there be a plan for where to place the statue if it is returned. Lynn and Bruce responded with some possible locations such as the Toronto Reference Library, the ROM or ultimately at Queens Park.
  2. Summer in person event: Lynn discussed having an in person social event sometime around late August, location to be decided at a future meeting.

Petition reminder: Ron once again reminded people to sign the petition and it is going out to the full membership: https://c.org/y49b9TttP7

  1. New Business: The editor of the Broadview Magazine, Jocelyn Bell, gave an address about courage at the Rosedale United Church today. Rose later asked if Jocelyn would consider publishing an article on Egerton Ryerson, as founder of the United Church Observer, the precursor to the Broadview, to which Jocelyn responded that “he is quite controversial” but that she could possibly be open to it. Rose plans to follow up with the editor on this possibility.

Next meeting: June 7th, 2026, 4pm.

Overlooked Business: Discuss a possible event for Sept. 16 2026, the 200th anniversary of Ryerson’s arrival at the Mississaugas of the Credit, to be taken up at the next meeting postponed until the next meeting.