Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto
Mount Pleasant Cemetery is a cemetery located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and is part of the Mount Pleasant Group of Cemeteries. It was opened in November 1876 and is located north of Moore Park, a neighbourhood of Toronto. The cemetery has kilometres of drives and walking paths interspersed with fountains, statues and botanical gardens, as well as rare and distinct trees. It was originally laid out by German-born landscape architect Henry Adolph Engelhardt, inspired by the European and American garden cemeteries of the 19th century, and with influences from Mount Auburn Cemetery in Boston.[1]
Mount Pleasant Cemetery
November 4, 1876
Mount Pleasant Group
Mount Pleasant Cemetery National Historic Site of Canada
2000
As the final resting place of more than 168,000 persons, Mount Pleasant Cemetery contains remarkable architecture amongst its many monuments. The cemetery was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 2000.[2][3]
Controversy[edit]
Despite the cemetery having been created as a public trust by Special Act of the Ontario legislature in 1826 (Toronto General Burying Grounds Act), Mount Pleasant Group began to assert publicly that it had been converted in 1871 into a corporation subject to the Corporations Act of Ontario and that it was no longer a trust. Community activist Margot Boyd and others argued that its status as a public trust remained unchanged.
With donations from the community, Boyd engaged the McCarthy Tetrault law firm in 2009 to review the statutes pertaining to Mount Pleasant Group. An 18-page letter sent to Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty stated: “Legally, this trust might be characterized in several ways, but an accurate description of the trust in question is a ‘public trust.’ ” Local politicians Toronto Centre MPP Glen Murray and Ward 12 Toronto City Councillor Josh Matlow both agreed at the time.[9]
As early as 2006, Mount Pleasant Group began describing itself as a commercial privately owned entity, and refused to disclose its financial records, giving rise to allegations that it was engaged in the stealth privatization of a public asset. In 2012, Mount Pleasant Group commenced a public relations campaign against Boyd and others in an attempt to deflect criticism, and to discredit its detractors by labelling them NIMBYs.[10]
[11]
In December 2012, Boyd and lawyer and community activist Pamela Taylor organized a public trustee election in accordance with the requirements of the 1849 Special Act.[12]
In 2013, over the objections of local residents, Mount Pleasant Group installed a new crematorium. The siting of the facility was a mere 16.5 metres from neighbouring houses, and contrary to Toronto City By-laws.[13] Ward 13 City Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam sought leave to appeal against the Ontario Ministry of the Environment decision to allow the crematorium.[14]
Also in 2013, Boyd and Taylor, together with historian and environmental consultant Lorraine Tinsley, founded the not-for-profit association Friends of Toronto Public Cemeteries and brought an Application to the Superior Court of Ontario to interpret the cemetery statutes.[15]