Newsletter Friends of Egerton Ryerson
March 2026
By Lynn McDonald, co-founder
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Zoom: Friends meeting Sunday, March 1, 2026, 4 p.m.
Zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86323650592?pwd=MDWtzrXp707Wcw0RFYeOp19zbEpraS.1
Agenda
Chair: Rose Dyson
- Minutes of previous meeting
- Reports from committees:
- Outreach—need for new chair
- Finance (Oskar Hanson)
- Visit to Metropolitan United Church, February 22
- Further United Church connections: try Trinity -St Paul’s Church?
- Letter to the TMU Search Committee (for the next president)Next steps: send out to members for co-signers? Copy to Minister of Colleges and Universities?
- Recovery of the Statue: Reportby Rose Dyson on exchange with Michael Forbes re attempts to gt head back; advertising? Offer a reward?
- Access to information
- Selection of chair, commentator
- Other business
- Date of next Meeting
- Our next event, March 25 7 p.m. Patrice Dutil on “Egerton Ryerson as a Humanist,” in person and zoom
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Letter to the Minister responsible for Heritage Trust, Graham McGregor Friends to offer a reward for return?
Draft letter to Hon. Graham McGregor;
re: Ontario Heritage Trust
Dear Minister, We write with concern about the disappearance of the fine bronze statue of Egerton Ryerson, which was paid for by public subscription after his death in 1882, unveiled on 24 May 1889 on the grounds of the Education Department, at what was then named St James Sq. On the establishment of Ryerson Institute of Technology in 1948, it was moved to the south entrance of the campus on Gould St. It was toppled in 2021, the head thrown into Toronto Harbour, then recovered and taken to Caledonia, where it was last seen on a pike.
You may know that the attacks on Egerton Ryerson in recent years have been based on false accusations, of his supposed responsibility for the harmful residential school system. He had nothing to do with its establishment, but supported the voluntary day schools, bilingual (English and Ojibwe) that Indigenous parents wanted. When requested, he gave suggestions for “industrial schools,” which would teach farming to those Indigenous youth who wanted to become farmers. Again, such schools would be entirely voluntary, and of course with no punishments for using their native language.
Ryerson was always pro-Indigenous. When with the Mississaugas of the Credit he learned their language, assisted them with farming and supported their claim to exclusive rights to their fishing grounds. For his support, an Ojibwe chief named him a “brother” and gave himan Ojibwe name.
Officials at Toronto Metropolitan University inform us that they have the body of the statue in safe keeping, but do not know, and apparently do not care, where the head is.
We are an NGO seeking to restore his good name, which we know ill take time. We appreciated the provincial government’s bringing in legislation to stop uninformed schoolboards from proceeding with their proposed re-namings.
Given that the mandate of the Ontario Heritage Trust is “to conserve, Interpret and share,” we call upon your office to take action to see that the statue is recovered and repaired as needed. We believe that TMU should pay the necessary expenses, noting that its administration did nothing to protect the statue—no security, not even CCTV, yet vandalism was rife in Toronto then, with the murder of George Floyd and the apparent discovery of “unmarked graves.”
We would be happy to meet with you and/or your officials about how to proceed.
For information on Ryerson see:
Lynn McDonald, “How a ‘Maker of Canada’ was Framed: The unjust treatment of Egerton Ryerson.” The 1867 Project: Why Canada should be cherished—not cancelled, in Mark Milke, ed., Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy, 2023, 108-18;
Ronald Stagg and Patrice Dutil. “The Imbecile Attack on Egerton Ryerson.” Dorchester Review(3 June 2021) : The Imbecile Attack on Egerton Ryerson – The Dorchester Review 12 August 2021
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