Efforts continued Wednesday to extend an injunction and save historic trees designated for destruction on the grounds of Osgoode Hall downtown where an Ontario Line subway station will be built.
Liz Driver, Interim Chair of Build Ontario Line Differently (BOLD), said the transit authority Metrolinx is using a bully tactic against Torontonians.
“Think of how rare that is downtown: Green Space is rare in the beginning but rare, rare to be undeveloped. The archaeology has not happened, yet,” she said.
Last weekend the Law Society of Ontario announced that an interim injunction had been granted, which stopped Metrolinx from cutting down any trees designated within the Osgoode property.
The injunction is set to be in effect until Friday unless extended by the court.
The Bold Coalition said it will be encouraging every interested citizen in the city to attend the Wednesday meeting, which will be at city hall or also with a virtual option at 6:30 p.m.
‘Never been developed’
The Osgoode property is a heritage property with rare land that hasn’t been developed on before, Driver told Humber News.
“The land where those trees stand has never been developed,” she said.
“The issue with several issues at Osgoode Hall one is that Osgoode Hall is an historic site and trees form part of the look and feel on the corner of Queen and University, so they’re not just any old trees,” said Steve Munro, a Toronto Transit Activist.
Munro added that Osgoode Hall has received more attention in awareness when construction took place, due to its high profile.
“The other problem is that Metrolinx is a more fundamental issue, because Osgoode Hall is a high profile site, and has some reasonably well connected people involved with it, like the Law Society, it is getting the attention that other sites should have got as well,” he said.
“I’m not happy about the trees being destroyed, although many trees elsewhere on this and other Metrolinx projects have been torn down,” Munro said.
Munro told Humber News there are several issues with the Osgoode Hall site, but the main one being that it is historic.
‘A rare 19th century site’ downtown
“The trees are the effect of a bad process. The loss of the trees are the effect of a bad process, they were in a location where it relates to the look and feel of a rare 19th century site in downtown Toronto,” Munro said.
Metrolinx, a government agency controlling transport in the Greater Toronto Area and Hamilton area, is working on the Ontario Line, a new 15.6 kilometer subway line that when completed will span from Exhibition Place to the Ontario Science Centre.
Last May, it was announced that space near Osgoode Hall would be used to build a station entrance at the northeast corner of University Avenue and Queen Street West where trees more than 200 years old remain in the grounds.
The grounds and fencing currently date back to the confederation in 1867.
Trees marked for destruction within Osgoode Park. Photo credit: Jess Kerr
Driver told Humber News that it only took two days to take down trees at Moss Park, and that the neighborhood has quite a different population compared to Osgoode’s.
“Neighborhoods like the people at Moss Park, don’t have the same resources as we do here at the immediate intersection of University and Queen. Our community is lucky that we have the Law Society with all the finest legal minds to go to court and to get a temporary injunction to consider the matter,” Driver said.
Metrolinx defends move
Metrolinx, however, says that these disruptions are necessary to complete the line, stating that the new line is much-needed and overdue to help combat Toronto’s congestion.
“Metrolinx only removes trees that are absolutely necessary to accommodate construction, and the agency will plant three or more trees for every one tree removed for the Ontario Line project,” Phil Verster, Metrolinx president and CEO, said in a statement.
Driver said the way Metrolinx has acted has brought groups in the Osgoode area neighborhood to come together.
“I would say that the way that Metrolinx has behaved through the entire public process and most egregiously in the past week, has caused all of these different organizations and groups in our neighborhood to come together,” she said.
“It’s broken down walls between us all, you can be sure that Campbell House Museum, the Grange Community Association, Canadian Opera Company, Queen Street West BIA, the Law Society, and the courts, the courts themselves are going to be impacted by Metrolinx’s plans and their operation will be impacted. All of us are aligned in wanting to see a better solution for Osgoode station,” Driver added.