A letter written by law firm McCarthy Tétrault on behalf of local activist Margot Boyd and sent to Premier Dalton McGuinty states that their client notes Mount Pleasant Cemetery is a public trust, meaning the cemetery belongs to the people. However, Boyd said, the governing board of the cemetery is acting as if it is a private corporation. 

“They were calling themselves a commercial, privately owned cemetery,” said Boyd. “They’re not a regular corporation, they’re not Stelco or RIM.” 

According to the letter, in 1826 a Special Act of the Legislature of Upper Canada set up Mount Pleasant Cemetery as a public trust, intending that it be used by locals as a non-denominational burying ground. The cemetery continued to operate under the same enacted trust until just after Ontario officially became a province when a new document was issued. In 1871, the province issued a Special Act of the Legislature, which deemed the cemetery a non-profit, non-share capital corporation. According to the Special Act, the cemetery was still to be governed under the same guidelines set up by the public trust. 

Boyd said, however, the board is not governing itself as a public trust. In 1991, board members changed its name from the Trustees of the Toronto General Burying Grounds, to the Mount Pleasant Group of Cemeteries (MPGC). Boyd said that the MPGC has been neglecting several rules, such as financial transparency and an open election process. “They have no public process any more,” she said.

Rick Cowan, spokesperson for the MPGC, said the governance of the board is a matter of interpretation: “Ms. Boyd has a different perspective.”

Boyd says she originally stumbled upon the two documents declaring the MPGC as a public trust in 2005. At the time, she was part of the Moore Park Residents’ Association and was protesting the MPGC’s bid to build a visitation centre and parking lot in Mount Pleasant Cemetery.

She said she assumed, when she brought the matter forth with the government, the cemetery would be restored immediately to its public function. However, she said she has largely received the cold shoulder. 

In October 2008, she secured a meeting between the Moore Park Residents’ Association, MPGC and the Ministry of Consumer Services, which manages the Ontario registrar of cemeteries.

Stephen Puddister, from the Ministry, confirmed correspondence with Boyd and said the ministry has advised MPGC to change some of their processes. However, Boyd said the meeting brought little change.

When she submitted the McCarthy Tétrault letter, she received no response until last April when, she said, a letter was sent to her from the Ministry of Research and Innovation essentially dismissing her findings.

Cowan said Boyd has had little progress because the board is, in fact, conducting itself as specified under the 1871 act. He said the designation of non-profit, non-share capital corporation means the board is governed by the Ontario Corporations Act, which allows for greater board management freedom.

“There is a long list of legislative pieces that dictate how a corporation needs to operate to be held accountable,” said Cowan. “The Corporations Act is key to this.”

However, Boyd said by doing this, they are neglecting the crucial part of the 1871 declaration, which instructed the board to continue operating as a public trust.