Indigenous advocate and former inmate says the concept of utilizing the previous Ontario Reformatory property for a hospital leaves ‘unhealthy style in my mouth’ due to historic well being care system trauma
As he walks up the lengthy driveway to Guelph’s former Ontario Reformary, Cliff Summers, a former inmate there and president of the Indigenous Justice Community, requires ‘reconcile-action.’
With fallen leaves crunching below his toes and occasional stops to soak within the panorama, Summers defined that he discovered his tradition whereas incarcerated and expressed assist for turning the York Street property right into a nationwide city park.
“We can’t come together unless we take steps to do something that will bring us together and celebrate our togetherness, our sameness. One of the things that I always like to remind people is that we’re all related,” he stated throughout a Thursday afternoon tour.
“We recognize, as Indigenous people, that we have a responsibility for Mother Earth. But we also have a legacy that we have to pass on to our coming generations.”
Preserving public entry to the property by way of a nationwide city park declaration is a method to try this, he believes. And never only for the Indigenous neighborhood, however folks from all backgrounds.
A nationwide city park, he believes, would supply house for folks to come back collectively.
“I know that there’s some resistance and not everybody is kind of onboard and supportive of a national park here in particular,” Summers stated, referring to property’s potential for use for a brand new or second hospital sooner or later sooner or later.
Hospitals, he stated, are identified to have used Indigenous youngsters as “guinea pigs” for experimentation and could be related to institutional trauma in methods just like jails.
“As an Indigenous person, there’s a bad taste in my mouth,” Summers stated of the concept of utilizing the previous reformatory lands for a hospital. “We have this history, this very dark history not only with the so-called education system in residential schools but also with the health system and with hospitals in particular.”
Cliff Summers, of the Oneida Nation of the Thames close to London, talks about his want for “reconcili-action” and assist for a nationwide city park throughout a go to to the previous Ontario Reformatory property on Thursday. He stopped the stroll to check out the creek travelling under this bridge. Richard Vivian/GuelphToday
Owned by the provincial authorities, the jail was decommissioned in 2001, although lots of the buildings stay standing – boarded up and monitored in opposition to intruders by safety workers.
Public entry to the property usually, not the buildings, continues. Nevertheless, the province has taken the preliminary steps wanted so as to put it up on the market.
The nationwide city park program was launched in 2021 by Parks Canada, a federal company that administers historic websites, nationwide parks and extra. One of many program’s said aims is to advance Indigenous reconciliation.
Summers is a member of the Oneida Nation of the Thames, positioned close to London, Ontario. On the age of 17 in 1977, he was sentenced to 2 years much less a day on the Guelph jail for automotive theft – one thing he didn’t count on would result in him discovering his tradition … and his voice.
“Back then I would have been kind of considered a juvenile delinquent,” he stated, explaining he knew little about his Indigenous tradition outdoors of the way it was portrayed on the ‘Indian day school’ he attended – as “savages and heathens.”
“And so up until that time, I really didn’t have much exposure.”
Whereas on the jail, Summers turned a member of the Native Sons group, studying about Indigenous cultures and traditions. He went on to turn into the group’s president and a key determine in establishing sweat lodges at jails all through the province.
“I’m very pleased to be invited (for Thursday’s tour of the former jail site) because I wanted to be able to come back to the scene of the crime, so-to-speak,” Summers stated, explaining he turned from a shy child into somebody who spoke out in opposition to the “bull-shit” he noticed taking place, such because the over-representation of Indigenous folks in jails.
“I found my voice.”
Summer time’s advocacy work continues to this present day, because the founder and president of the Indigenous Justice Community, which raises consciousness about Indigenous rights, poverty and generational trauma.
Subsequent month, metropolis council is ready to think about approving a draft Ontario Reformatory Heritage Conservation District Plan and Pointers, together with a map of the realm to be protected below the Ontario Heritage Act.
That map, famous P. Brian Skerret of City Park Guelph through the tour, doubtless aligns with the proposed city park boundary, although he acknowledged having not seen what can be offered to council in workers’s closing advice.
Throughout that assembly, Coun. Erin Caton plans to introduce a movement that, if authorised, would see metropolis council declare assist for the city park proposal.
“This has been something that’s been worked on for quite some time. There have been many postponements, and we think we are finally getting it to council,” stated Coun. Phil Allt, who joined Caton on Thursday’s tour with Summers.
“There have been challenges, confusion as to what support is there and what support isn’t there, confusions about issues associated with the potential for a hospital,” he added. “And we’ve been trying to just deconstruct where the obstacles lie.”
In the course of the Nov. 13 council session, the general public could have a chance to touch upon the designation plan.
A workers report and advice relating to designation is predicted to be publicly launched on Nov. 1.
Summers, who advised GuelphToday his group can be formally endorsing the city park plan, hopes it receives metropolis council’s assist as properly.
“If there’s anything more that I can do to support it, then I’ll do whatever’s necessary,” he stated of the park plan.
“In fact … (there are) some other things that I think that I will certainly be able to do in my role as an advocate and to support this project going forward.”
