Fort York Guard disbanded over “racist” newsletter article

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Two centuries later, Fort York was the ground for a very different kind of battle.

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Acrimony between City Hall and Friends of Fort York (FOFY), a non-profit that advocates for the living history site and helps with its programming, grew to the point that a consulting firm was brought in to facilitate discussions and catalogue the problems.

In that consultant’s report, the breakdown is blamed on many things: COVID-related shutdowns, staff turnover at Toronto’s museums, the city’s financial woes, the “unilateral ending” of the Fort York Guard program and a heated debate about the FOFY newsletter Fife and Drum.

Both sides emphasized to The Toronto Sun that things are now better, with a new memorandum between City Hall and the non-profit expected to be signed very soon.

“They basically have said to us, ‘Very sorry for what happened, let’s put Humpty Dumpty back together again,’ and we are doing so, which is good news,” said FOFY board chairman Don Cranston.

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But the report, dubbed a “relationship review,” shows how bad things got.

The document, published in September 2023, was released to the Sun in heavily redacted form after a freedom-of-information request. Pages are marked “highly confidential” and many passages are blanked out. A need for “open communication” is a repeated theme.

The review begins: “In January 2022, FOFY published their Fife and Drum article.” After a redacted portion, the paragraph continues: “EDC (the city’s economic development and culture division, which oversees municipal museums) consulted with their internal corporate supports and the decision was made to suspend the relationship and commence a review.”

Emails from another freedom-of-information request show the article in question was scrubbed from the internet by FOFY at the direction of city bureaucrats. However, included in those emails is the original version of the newsletter with the article intact.

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Headlined City hires human rights activist as new chief curator, the article covers Armando Perla, who was then beginning his brief tenure with City Hall.

“While Perla ticks off only a few of (the) boxes” in terms of qualifications for the role, the article says, “he is exquisitely aligned with the museum system’s new focus on anti-racism, anti-oppression and decolonization.”

In an interview, Pat Tobin, the EDC general manager, said he’s limited in what he can say about human resource matters. He told the Sun there had been bitterness concerning “some of the staff who were commented on and who perhaps were new to government and didn’t realize the level of visibility attached, took issue with their portrayal, and I think their director, when they raised that with them, raised those employees’ concerns with the Fife and Drum.”

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Documents prepared by the city’s museum and heritage services unit, led then by director Cheryl Blackman, refer to the Perla article as a “racist attack,” with “all references to his strengths and character … qualified by racially biased editorial comments.”

In an email to Perla and another museums official, Blackman called the article “racist garbage” and “absolutely unacceptable.” The article quotes Blackman as saying Perla has mestizo heritage.

(Blackman, who left City Hall in April 2024, had a hands-on role with the Dundas St. renaming project and attended all three meetings covered in a recent Sun report on the committee tasked with that work. An attempt to reach her for comment was unsuccessful.)

Caught in the middle was the Fort York Guard program, in which high school and university students dress in period uniforms and perform drills. The program relied in part on a $15,000 municipal grant, a briefing note shows, and emails between Cranston and Blackman make clear City Hall’s participation was seen as essential.

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In an April 2022 email, city staff warned Blackman that cancelling the program would be seen as “punitive to the students” expecting a summer job, and unfair given they “hadn’t begun the work” to get FOFY on board with the city’s expectations.

Days later, Blackman, on official letterhead noting her temporary title of EDC’s interim general manager, told Cranston “we must continue and expand a review we began following the article,” which she called “racist, damaging and highly inappropriate.”

“While we recognize Friends of Fort York has taken steps to meet with city staff and offer some apology, we take these matters very seriously,” the letter says. “We have decided to put our relationship with Friends of Fort York on pause, effective immediately … the pause includes the city’s participation in the 2022 Fort York Guard and Drums summer program.”

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Cranston told the Sun the guard will return, but it “looks like 2026.” “All institutional knowledge has been lost,” he added.

It appears that decision had the blessing of City Hall’s leaders. City manager Chris Murray and his deputy, Paul Johnson, are said in the documents to have been briefed, as was Councillor Michael Thompson, then a deputy mayor.

Thompson told the Sun he had supported city staff on a complicated decision after “brighter minds than I” had studied the matter. He said it was his understanding the shelving of the guard program would be temporary and he “wasn’t aware of the fact they were still shut down.”

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In an email days before Blackman’s letter, Marilyn Nickel, also with EDC, said there had been “several years of discussions … around issues of decolonization and the direction the city is taking to bring an anti-oppressive and anti-racist approach” to Toronto’s museums.

“From what I am aware of, there has been no indication of support from Friends of Fort York for this direction or action taken to ensure their organization is taking a similar approach to their operations,” she added.

Tobin, however, defended the programming at the colonial fort, and said FOFY has long done laudable work to show the role First Nations played in the War of 1812. He added that while Blackman initiated the relationship review, the city’s framework with FOFY had been overdue for a second look.

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Tobin said Blackman’s departure from City Hall was “not at all” related to the issue. Thompson echoed those comments, and said Blackman was “outstanding” in her work with the city.

Perla could not be reached, as his current employer, the Textile Museum of Canada, told the Sun he is on leave. The City of Toronto confirmed his employment in 2022 but said it wouldn’t comment further on a personnel matter.

jholmes@postmedia.com

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