EXCERPT: Indigenous Toronto, Stories That Carry This Place (Coach House Books, 2021). NOW THAT WE KNOW When I first accepted a faculty position at the downtown Tkaronto university where I now work, I was unaware of the legacy of the man whose name the institution bears. I didn’t know the significance of the statue I pass dozens of times each day. I didn’t know that this man, who as Chief Superintendent of Schools for what was then called Upper Canada, advocated free compulsory public day schools for white children only. I didn’t know he had a different vision for Indigenous children – a vision that would pave the way for the Indian residential school system. I didn’t know he enacted the 1850 Common Schools Act, a piece of legislation resulting in the ‘legal’ exclusion of Black children from public schools in Ontario and forcing them to attend segregated schools in communities across the province. I didn’t know he opposed education for girls beyond the elementary level, his opposition grounded in the belief that a woman’s place is in the home. I didn’t know he found ‘hermaphrodite spawn’ a fitting insult to hurl at his enemies, an insult that amplifies the transphobia that settlers brought to the Americas.