- Osgoode Hall subway station project a cause for concern - April 22, 2022
- TLA helps members get a jump on next year’s bencher elections - January 26, 2022
- Law Society of Ontario approves budget increase for law libraries - November 2, 2021
By Tony Poland, LegalMatters Staff • The Toronto Lawyers Association (TLA) is concerned about the impact a new $10.9-billion subway line will have on the historic Osgoode Hall building and grounds and is seeking to raise awareness about the issue with Toronto lawyers and the bar at large, says president Michael White.
Announced by the Government of Ontario in 2019, Metrolinx is constructing the 15-stop Ontario Line that will start at the northeast end of Exhibition Place and run through the downtown core before ending at the Ontario Science Centre. Construction broke ground on March 27.
Toronto Mayor John Tory acknowledged construction of the line, slated to open in 2030, will be a source of angst.
“I think the first thing we’ve done is to be straight up with people … there is going to be disruption. And we simply have to get it built,” said Tory, according to CP.24.com.
Association looking for more information
The TLA only recently became aware of the issue and has not yet seen much detail about the plans for the proposed Osgoode Station.
“This is an important issue that will be in the news for some time and we anticipate this will become a hot topic in view of the proposed impact to the grounds of Osgoode Hall,” White tells LegalMattersCanada.ca.
Of particular concern to the TLA is the planned station at Osgoode Hall. White says he has been told the line is expected to be 34 metres underground and link to the existing University line.
The station itself will be above ground on the green space in front of Osgoode Hall.
He says subway construction is disruptive and takes years to complete, pointing to the upheaval caused by work on the Eglinton Crosstown light rail project, which has been ongoing for more than a decade.
‘Are courts going to be sitting with construction outside?’
“What will that mean for the courts, especially the Ontario Superior Court and the Ontario Court of Appeal? Are courts going to be sitting with this type of construction just outside, with the noise and vibration from tunneling?” White wonders. “This is also about understanding and preserving the historical and architectural significance of Osgoode Hall – a designated national historic site.”
Osgoode Hall opened in 1832 and originally housed the Law Society of Upper Canada and the Osgoode Hall Law School.
While White says the TLA is “not saying no to the subway stop, we just don’t believe that the way it is currently proposed is optimal.”
“We are asking if we can work together to find a solution,” he says. “Projects such as this invite further incursions down the road which is also unsettling.”
Former lawyers may share concerns about the station’s impact
White notes that Ontario’s Attorney General and the Minister of Transportation are lawyers and may share concerns with the proposed station’s impacts on Osgoode Hall. He also questions whether the Ontario Minister of Heritage, Sport Tourism and Cultural Industries, the federal Minister of Canadian Heritage and the City of Toronto’s Heritage Planning Unit and Toronto Preservation Board are aware of the full extent of the impact of the proposed station on a historical site.
White says the TLA has formed an ad hoc committee to investigate the plan and will seek to work together with other stakeholders who share the association’s concerns.
“The Osgoode Hall property, in our view, does not seem to be the proper place to build a subway station. Once you take that green space away, you cannot get it back,” he says. “We need to preserve the dignity of Osgoode Hall.
“These are public grounds, to a large degree, and as much as the public benefit from mass transit, the health of Ontarians depends on green space, as well as recognition of our history and our national historic sites.”
More from the Toronto Lawyers Association:
