Chronology of Events
Mount Pleasant Group of Cemeteries Visitation Centre and Governance
- April 2005 - Moore Park Residents’ Association (MPRA) becomes aware of Mount Pleasant Group of Cemeteries’ (MPGC) plan to build a 24,000 sq. foot Visitation Centre and 80-car parking lot on pristine greenspace in the Spring of 2005.
- Summer 2005 - The City of Toronto twice turns down MPGC’s site plan/tree removal applications as being inappropriate for land zoned “G” for greenspace.
- Christmas Holidays – 2005 – Chief Building Official (CBO) overrules the City Staffers’ decision and allows MPGC to submit their plans to build “as of right” because she says that the Visitation Centre is “not going to be a funeral home.”
- May 31 2006 – Community Meeting facilitated by Kyle Rae. Norris Zucchet makes presentation and angers 100+ people through being non-forthcoming and dismissive. Chief Building Official explains that she was “away over Christmas” but that since “the Visitation Centre is not a funeral home,” they are allowed to proceed. The number of paid memberships by the community to the MPRA increases 10-fold.
- August 15 2006 - Letter from MPRA sent to the Public Guardian and Trustee in regard to the Visitation Centre and MPGC’s status as a “charitable institution.”
- September 13 2006 – Issue goes to Community Council where both the site plan/tree removal applications are unanimously turned down. City Staffers say there was a record number, ~ 435, responses, against the proposed tree felling.
- September 25 2006 – City Council turns down both site plan/tree removal applications 41 – 2.
- October 12 2006 - MPRA receives Public Guardian and Trustee response – can’t help in regard to the Visitation Centre – but concur that MPGC is a charitable institution and that they will “work with it to address this concern.”
- November 23/24 2006 – The Ontario Municipal Board grants permission for MPGC to move ahead with their development plans.
- January 8/9 2007 – The funeral homes ask for a judicial interpretation at the Supreme Court of Ontario of the zoning by-law. The judge finds that she cannot rule out the building of a Visitation Centre/Parking lot on Toronto Greenspace. MPGC states once again that it’s not a funeral home.
- May 4 2007 – MPRA receives letter from MPGC accusing MPRA of spreading false statements.
- June 12 2007 – MPRA hosts a Community Town Hall Meeting mediated by Josh Matlow. Tim Costigan provides the legal background for questioning MPGC’s governance. Staffers from several Cabinet Ministers as well as the AG’s office are present.
- June 18 2007 – MPRA responds the MPGC letter, questioning as to whether the current board is constituted according to the legal statutes.
- June 29 2007 – MPGC dismisses question in regard to board composition and threatens legal action if issues not addressed.
- July 6 2007 – MPRA answers allegations and once again poses question as to how MPGC evolved from a historically public and open organization into such a closed one.
- August 8 2007 – MPGC responds to MPRA and refuses another offer to meet to discuss the issue.
- August 28 2007 – MPRA has a meeting with bureaucrats from the Ministry of Consumer and Government Services to discuss governance discrepancy issue. Mr. Michael D’Mello, Acting Registrar of Cemeteries, informs former MPRA President, Cindy Thorburn, that Mount Pleasant Group of Cemeteries’ plans include that the Visitation Centre is a funeral home(!) upon the completion of the regulations for the Funeral, Burial and Cremation Services Act.
- October 2007 - MPGC receives their building permit.
- November 11 2007– The funeral homes lose their appeal of the aforementioned decision.
- December 18 2007 – 39 trees are clear cut in the cemetery – a further 32 are displaced for transplanting.
- January 21 2008 – access into the cemetery along the Beltline Discovery Trail is denied across the municipal easement allowing passage. There is a fence with a padlocked gate.
- May 15 2008 – the MPRA offered a process to give input into MPGC governance to restore accountability and transparency as a result of the MPRA’s intent to publish an Open Letter to Premier McGuinty in the Globe and Mail.
- June 17 2008 – a working group struck by the MPRA presents the recommendations for restoring proper governance to MPGC to bureaucrats at the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services (MGCS).
- July 9 2008 – a final copy of the Recommendations document is submitted to MGCS.
- July 10, 2008 – the MPRA receives word that the file has now been transferred to another ministry, the Ministry of Small Business and Consumer Services (MSBCS), and the MPRA must start afresh with a new Minister and new Deputy.
- September 2008 – The MPRA informs MSBCS that since the file appears to have been dropped by the Ministry that the plans to publish the Open Letter are “back on” again.
- October 22 2008 – Government representatives from the Ministry of Small Business and Consumer Services meet with Mount Pleasant Group of Cemeteries and state that they concur with the Moore Park Residents’ Associations’ position that their board of governors is not properly constituted and request that MPGC come up with a list of recommendations to remedy the situation. These recommendations are due to the Ministry by November 15, 2008.
- November 15 2008 – passes yet MSBCS does not yet receive any recommendations from MPGC.
- End November 2008 - MSBCS receives some recommendations via email at the end of November; none of which contain a proposal for responsible governance as per the legal statutes.
-December 2008 – September 2009 – The Province continues to do nothing to enforce the statutes.
- September 23, 2009 – The Honourable John O’Toole asks a question in the House in regard to what steps are being taken by the government to restore accountability to a historic public asset. The Honourable Ted McMeekin said that the issue was complex and he couldn’t commit to re- establishing the trust because of that. He also stated he was working with “partners” to find a “win- win” solution.
- September 25, 2009 – The McCarthy Tetrault opinion letter was couriered to the Premier, Attorney General, Minister McMeekin and Minister Smitherman.
- October 21, 2009 – A government representative of Minister McMeekin’s meets with our community group, accompanied by a representative of Minister Smitherman. We are informed that Minister McMeekin’s office has made a request to the Chief of Staff of the Attorney General for a legal opinion from the Constitutional Law Branch. We are informed that we should expect to hear something in about two weeks.
- November 12/13 2009 – A phone call to the Constitutional Law Branch to ascertain the status of the MPGC and the McCarthy letter confirms that they have never heard of such a file or letter.
- November 20, 2009 – Minister McMeekin’s office assures me in email that this is incorrect information and that the file was passed to the Constitutional Law Branch of the Attorney General and is being “actively looked at.”
- January 2010 – Premier McGuinty shuffles the cabinet postings and Minister McMeekin is replaced by Minister Sophia Aggelonitis.
- January 28, 2010 – After writing two letters to the Premier in regard to the abyss that the community’s MPGC file has fallen into, Attorney General Chris Bentley confirms that his office is not reviewing the MPGC file.
- May 20, 2010 - Julia Munro, Conservative MPP for North York asks the Liberal government in the House why they have not yet responded to the McCarthy Tetrault legal brief sent to the Premier and AG.
- June 16, 2010 - We receive a letter from a Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Research and Innovation/Ministry of Consumer Services that calls the issue a "local dispute" and says the government will not update the legislation. (The last major update being made 140 years ago.)
- September 26, 2010 - Margot Boyd meets MPP Dr. Eric Hoskins (St. Paul's) at a fundraiser and mentions the fact that Mt. Pleasant Cemetery is within his riding. MPP Hoskins denies this, but finally acquiesces to read McCarthy Tetrault legal opinion. Three emails later (one which includes a diagram of his riding showing the location of Mt. Pleasant Cemetery) a telephone conversation with a staffer, Tigist Zemene, is set up for January 10, 2011 for 1:30 p.m.
- January 10, 2011 - MPP Dr. Eric Hoskins office fails to keep telephone appointment or answer my call to their office. They have never called back or answered any subsequent emails.
- March 25, 2011 – Margot Boyd meets with MPP Glen Murray (Toronto Centre). At this meeting MPP Murray agrees that MPGC is a public trust that is a Crown Corporation encompassing 1,200 acres of land around the GTA worth in the neighbourhood of $1 billion. (He changes his mind later in the meeting about the $1 billion.) When I told MPP Murray that MPGC denies they are a public trust, he said: “I really don’t care... I hope this is the biggest problem I hear about today.” He said that he would get MPGC’s financials and give me a copy, but never did.
- April 4, 2011 – Margot Boyd and Pamela Taylor meet with Marilyn Field-Marsham former (invalid) Trustee and former Chair of MPGC and Glenn McClary, President and CEO of MPGC. Ms. Field-Marsham denies they are a Crown Corporation, but Glenn McClary concedes they were created by a Special Act of the legislature. Ms. Field-Marsham states they only follow the Corporations Act. When Margot Boyd stated that the Special Act statutes (e.g. of MPGC, the ROM, AGO and TVO) supersede the Corporations Act, Ms. Field-Marsham said “we don’t share that opinion.”
When Pamela Taylor asked how the Public Trust became private, as we could find no evidence of a ‘sale,’ or process by which it devolved from the public domain to a private organization, Ms. Field-Marsham said that she didn’t have any documents that we did not have.
When Pamela Taylor said “Governance of what the government now calls colloquially ‘Crown Corporations’ - because you were created by an Act of the Crown in 1871 – that’s a whole other ball game.” Ms Field-Marsham said “that’s not something we subscribe to.”