I feel like I just witnessed a lynching. Toronto City Council decided tonight to remove Henry Dundas's name from four locations in the city, starting with Yonge Dundas Square. Two subway stations with the name Dundas and a library will soon follow. Renaming all of Dundas Street is on hold, for now. Mayor Olivia Chow rushed the motion onto today's agenda, without notice and contrary to Council Procedures, taking everyone except the insiders by surprise. The low point of debate occurred when Mayor Chow uttered shockingly offensive lies about Henry Dundas, which appear to have had the desired effect. She was the last to speak. She accused Henry Dundas of promoting a plan to take African children to Europe and the US where they would be bred to produce more slaves for plantations. It was la la land stuff. Another low point was when Councillor Mike Colle accused Henry Dundas of being the prime minister's henchman who forced Haitians to pay reparations to slave owners for the loss of their slaves. OMFG, I was speechless. It was the French who required reparations from Haitians, and they made their demands 14 years after Henry Dundas died. After Chow and Colle spoke, councillors who moments earlier had spoken against the motion lost their nerve and reversed themselves. Going into today's vote, we had 50% support on council, and believed it could go either way. The final vote was 17-4 in favour of renaming. The process that led to this moment has a familiar ring: -proclaim a wrongdoing, -pick a convenient culprit, -ignore evidence and due process, -railroad the chosen culprit to a nearby hanging tree, - When it's all over claim that it was all done in the cause of justice and celebrate the grand victory over evil.