Women Leaders in our Community
International Women’s Day, March 8th, grew out of the women’s suffrage movement of the early 20th century and was adopted as an official holiday by the U.N. in 1977. As the IWD website explains, the goal of this special day is to celebrate “the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women”. Not all of women’s achievements are marked with a plaque or a statue, however. Here are a few stories of the work local women did to improve life in the St. Clair West community.
Bridget Lynch and Loretta Brooks, for example, were instrumental in establishing Humewood School as a community hub. They petitioned the school board to allow them to set up a Moms and Tots group in one of the portables. This group developed into the Humewood Neighbourhood Association, and by the fall of 1979 they were offering after-school and evening programs in the school. At first there was some resistance to opening up the school in this way; it was a “radical thought” according to Annette Simms, and was opposed by the custodial staff amongst others. As treasurer of the St. Clair Community Youth Group, Annette took it upon herself to close up after basketball practice at 10 pm and she secured funding for a number of youth programs in the neighbourhood. Annette, Brigid, Loretta and others lobbied politicians to “get things done”, but as Brigid said, their chief motivation was to develop a sense of community and engagement. Perhaps their biggest achievement was the creation of the Humewood Fair which is still a going concern, covid permitting of course!
In her interview Bridget pays tribute to her friend and fellow activist, Loretta Brooks, saying:
“Loretta had the ability to speak truth to power in a respectful way that got results”.
We have Loretta to thank for the pedestrian bridge over the Cedarvale Ravine. The original bridge was built in the 1910s for vehicular traffic, but it had fallen into disrepair and was slated to be torn down. Loretta led a “quiet rebellion” to save the bridge for walkers and bicyclists which in the end was successful; in fact, the bridge has been recently upgraded and provides wonderful views of the ravine.
Cedarvale/Connaught Bridge (now Glen Cedar Bridge), 1915. (City of Toronto Archives, City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1231, Item 1979)
The Cedarvale Ravine itself was severely threatened back in the late 60s due to the proposed Spadina Expressway that would continue the Allen Expressway down into the heart of the city. Several women in our neighbourhood were active in the protests against the highway. Kathleen Dunphy was very concerned that the expressway would destroy the whole ravine system in Toronto. Along with other members of the local Ratepayers’ Association, she took her nine children up to Eglinton Ave. where the Allen Expressway ends and had a picnic on a berm that existed there. They made signs that said “Stop the Spadina” and got a lot of publicity for the peaceful but noisy protest (no truck horns, though, thankfully!) Partly due to her work at Ryerson where she researched and taught Urban Sociology, Joanne Naimann also took part in demonstrations against the expressway. She was relieved when her efforts paid off as the expressway would have gone right through her neighbourhood.
Stop Spadina, Save Our City Committee protest march in Toronto on December 8, 1969. (Bill Russell; York University Libraries, Toronto Telegram fonds, ASC00707)
Another protester was Mary B. She recalls the plans for a large development between Pinewood Ave. and Humewood Drive back in the 70s. The city had bought up a number of houses so that an apartment building or condo could be built there. Mary was adamantly opposed to this and felt the neighbourhood really needed more green space, so she petitioned her neighbours and got plenty of support. They took their proposal for a park to City Hall and managed to overturn the development; as a result, we now have the lovely and popular Humewood Park. Thank you for your activism, Mary! (Note: You can read more about the history of the park in our June 2021 blog-post.)
More recently, the creation of Artscape Wychwood Barns greatly enhanced our neighbourhood. Many women were instrumental in the decision to convert the old streetcar barns into a community hub. From the moment she heard from Harold Joy, the city councillor for the area in 1993, that the barns had been declared surplus to the TTC, Cookie Roscoe began canvassing her neighbours about how best to use the historic property. As she describes in her interview, there were almost too many ideas, and the whole project nearly bit the dust, literally, when the TTC made the decision to knock the buildings down. At the eleventh hour they were saved by the sleuthing efforts of another resident, Carol McLaughlin, who discovered that the TTC did not, in fact, own the property; it belonged to the City of Toronto. Cookie believes that was the turning point. She credits the leadership of Joe Mihevc for “building the crew that put the project together” and it is clear she was an integral member of that crew. In 2007 Ruth Baumann stepped up to become the first director of the Wychwood Barns Community Association, the parent organization of our very own St. Clair West Oral History Project. As Ruth explains, there was an informal agreement that the WBCA “would represent the interests of the community and the management of the space”. They worked hard to achieve this goal and faced numerous challenges throughout the years, but Ruth feels that overall, the Barns have contributed in a lot of good ways to our community. Hear, hear!
Our final example of a woman leader from our community is, of course, Carolyn Bennett. Carolyn points out in her interview that she comes from a line of strong women; both her mother and her grandmother owned flower stores and were members of the Soroptimists, a service club for business and professional women.
Though Carolyn did not grow up in our neighbourhood, she came to know it well when she became a doctor and later, certainly, as our Member of Parliament. Her assessment:
“St. Clair West is a place where you know that neighbourhoods matter.”
This is in large part due to the imagination, determination and hard work of countless women such as those we have had the privilege to get to know through our interviews.
By Marny Gibson
This March 8th, take time to celebrate the influential women in your life.
#IWD2022 #BreakTheBias