Not only has the chair of the Yonge-Dundas Square Board of Management stepped down, but the vice-chair Jan Mollenhauer has also resigned.

Both Mollenhauer and Mike Fenton say a lack of public and board consultation over the renaming of Yonge-Dundas Square to Sankofa Square is one of the reasons they’ve stepped down.

Last week, Toronto city councillors approved a motion to rename Yonge-Dundas Square and to ask the TTC to rename two subway stations, while at the same time pausing the renaming of Dundas Street.

Local city councillor Chris Moise says the Yonge-Dundas Square Board has been directed to rename the square by the end of the second quarter of the new year. Moise says members of the Recognition Review Community Advsiory Committee narrowed the choices down to four names in recent months and selected the name Sankofa Square last week.

The decision to rename Dundas street and other city properties with the name was made in 2021 in the wake of renewed awareness of anti-Black racism and a re-examination of the role 18th century Scottish politician Henry Dundas played in slavery.