Queen Victoria died at the turn of the twentieth century. A hundred years later, the remnants of British colonialism still pervade the University of Toronto and Canada at large
If you’ve ever eaten in Burwash Hall, Vic’s colossal dining room, you might have taken notice of the large flag at the front of the room. Its bright colours and animal motifs make it clear that this is not the symbol of a modern nation-state, but rather part of Britain’s imperial remnant that still has a place in Canada – particularly at the University of Toronto – to this day. The flag is the Royal Standard of Queen Victoria, the nineteenth-century British monarch who serves as the college’s namesake. It is not abnormal to see someone’s belongings end up in a place named after them, but when examining the monarchy’s position in Canadian history and contemporary politics, the presence of these nominative and vexillological symbols takes on a great deal of additional weight. Britain’s colonial history lives on throughout the world, and as students of Victoria College, a symbol of British heritage in Canada, it is only right to understand the empire and the queen with whose trappings we cover ourselves.
Students living in residence are required to purchase meal plans which take them into Burwash often. The flag hanging above them becomes a constant companion, watching over college life, becoming white noise as students eat and chat with friends. Eventually, the novelty wears off, and the banner fades into the burnished wood tables and chandeliers as part of the ambience of life at Vic. But the banner has a lot to say. The Queen was not able to adorn her flag with lions and harps merely because of her love for zoos and musicians. Rather, the symbols are representative of Britain’s envelopment of other countries throughout its history. The English triple lions on the top left and bottom right comprise only part of Great Britain; the single lion on the top right is Scottish, and the harp on the bottom left is Irish, and those three nations being joined together on one piece of cloth was no happy accident. Scotland was folded into the United Kingdom through marriage in the eighteenth century, bringing an end to years of strife between the two nations. Ireland, on the other hand, would see war, disaster, and revolution that stretched far beyond Victoria’s reign into the past and future of the British Isles. While retaining control of Scotland, the United Kingdom holds only a sliver of the neighbouring island in the form of Northern Ireland, after years of conflict between Britain and the Irish nation. In active use, the queen’s flag often flew high above British castles, but now, it sits behind glass in a Canadian cafeteria. The reason it was chosen to rest here lies amid British and Canadian history, who Queen Victoria was, and the changing nature of what it means for a country to have British roots.
Canadians have a very positive relationship with our former colonisers compared to other countries. The nation gained its independence through meetings and legislation in the first few decades of the twentieth century, as opposed to armed nationalist revolution like our neighbour to the south. While the United States has repaired its relationship with Britain since the eighteenth century, the legacy of the revolution is strong in that country, and leaves little room for fuzzy feelings about their British history, with the British loyalists having fled elsewhere after the establishment of the republic. Instead, Canadians took independence piecemeal, becoming first a Dominion in the nineteenth century, an independent nation in the 1930s, and finally a country with its own constitution in the 1980s. This was done with only moderate British resistance at the beginning of the process, slowly conceding independence to their former North American holding. This process has allowed for the continuance of British sympathies to outlast the island’s control over Canada; if there was never violence in parting, why would there be hatred in absence? After Canada became a separate nation, it remained particularly connected to British symbolism. It flew the Union Jack as part of the Canadian flag for decades after independence, only developing the maple leaf in the 1960s. Canada chose to remain a constitutional monarchy, keeping the king as the head of state, and governor general as a representative. While the two positions are largely symbolic and consist of ceremonial duties, it is still the governor general’s signature affixed upon every law passed in Parliament. Symbols have weight, and it is clear that for all of the strides Canada made towards its independence, tradition and a lack of political will kept the nation tied to its British roots throughout the twentieth century.
Canada has gone through several British monarchs as its heads of state throughout history, but the nation’s relationship with Queen Victoria had particular cultural emphasis. Victoria began her reign as Queen in 1837, which came to an end with her death in 1901. During this time, Canada confederated, becoming a single Dominion in 1867, and the Queen exercised her influence by helping to place the capital in Ottawa and taking an interest in the colony’s development. During the nineteenth century, Victoria College was formed with royal assent, went on to borrow the queen’s name, and would become a notable part of her commemoration in Canada. After Queen Victoria died, Vic College was endowed with her standard in 1921, which is how it ended up being hung in Burwash to begin with. The flag flown to symbolise Queen Victoria in life would find its resting place in a university named after her far from the British Isles, a fitting end for the heraldry of an empress.
One of the peculiar quirks of the British Empire is that the British monarch is rarely associated with the title of ‘emperor’ or ‘empress.’ It makes sense, to a degree. Britain has not been an absolute monarchy for centuries, and the idea of an emperor evokes imagery of total control and domination over one’s subjects. And while British colonialism was undoubtedly brutal, Queen Victoria and her family did not oversee these decisions as unitary executives. Instead, they governed as somewhat ceremonial members of a ruling class including Parliament. However, linguistically, the ruler of an empire is an emperor, and a queen rules only a queendom. Victoria embodied this principle, being the first British monarch actually crowned as Empress of India in the late nineteenth century; this symbolic gesture of dominance accompanied the British government’s assumption of direct control over India. Under Victoria’s rule, Britain achieved dominance over what is now New Zealand, India, Myanmar, Egypt, and Sudan, amongst other places, becoming the behemoth global empire of the public imagination.
Victoria also ruled over Canada, a British colony won in part from the French in the Seven Years’ War, decades before Victoria’s reign. It is standard practice to name institutions and infrastructure after a nation’s political figures. However, Victoria’s continued popularity in Canada more than a century after her death is something of a unique phenomenon. Victoria Day, which the nation celebrates in honour of the woman’s birthday every May, is almost exclusive to Canada. No other nation publicly celebrates Victoria to this extent—not even the British themselves. The fact that Canada has not been under foreign rule for decades, and still chooses to actively honour a person symbolic of their colonisation in a vacuum, speaks volumes about Canada’s amicable relationship with its former coloniser in contrast to other countries around the world. The opposite circumstances are true regarding Barbados; the longtime British colony was taken over in the seventeenth century and became independent in the 1960s, three decades after Canada. However, in the twenty-first century, Barbados underwent a massive symbolic change by becoming a republic in 2021, removing then-British monarch Queen Elizabeth II as their head of state, and continuing the process of casting off the last of their colonial ties. While Jamaica has started a similar process, and will perhaps also move towards (small r) republicanism, Canada, as a fellow British colony, is not making similar strides.
As aforementioned, Canadians find the issue of monarchy to be a matter of little importance. 2023 polls have demonstrated that many Canadians bear some ill will towards the monarchy. Writing indicates that others believe it to be a holdover from the past that will eventually fizzle away. In most variations of the survey question “Should Canadians remove the British monarchy?” people answered “Yes.” Whether by a slim percentage or a large margin, the anti-monarchist argument projects a majority victory. However, the question remains as to whether a national referendum like that would even be conducted, and how it would work. It’s argued that people simply do not care enough about the issue to make a big deal about the Crown—that it is simply out of sight and out of mind for the average Canadian while other political issues take precedence. Nonetheless, some actions have been taken to step away from Canada’s colonial legacy.
Since the surge in support for Black Lives Matter in 2020, there has been a sweeping movement to rename Toronto landmarks associated with Henry Dundas. Dundas was a politician in favour of continuing slavery during the nineteenth century when it was eventually brought to an end in the British Empire. Last year, the city council voted to rename Yonge and Dundas Square to Sankofa Square by 2024. Echoing the Ghanaian term for “reflecting upon the past and moving forward with that knowledge,” this name change was indicative of Torontonians’ desire to distance themselves from the unsavoury past of men they previously honoured.
This goal is further evidenced in postsecondary education with the revaluation of Egerton Ryerson’s legacy in Toronto. Ryerson, who was supremely influential in the education landscape of colonial Ontario and Canada at large, was an early supporter of residential schools, and his ideas – including the separation of children from their parents and Christian indoctrination – helped shape the system’s entire operation. What is now Toronto Metropolitan University was once Ryerson University, and its name change took place after a massive backlash in 2021 regarding Ryerson’s place in Canadian history, where protesters vandalised and eventually tore down his statue. However, Ryerson’s legacy in modern education stretches beyond his former namesake university. Egerton Ryerson was one of the founders of Victoria College in 1836, serving as the principal and an instructor at the school. Years later, with Vic now a part of the University of Toronto and Ryerson’s legacy being addressed by the college’s crosstown counterparts, there would be something of a reckoning. Ryerson’s portrait, which hung in Victoria’s central building, Old Vic, was removed in 2021 due to “security concerns.” In early 2023, a new installation was unveiled: the frame that Ryerson’s portrait once rested in was left blank and placed back on the wall, next to a printed letter discussing his past. This installation, as a part of the “Reflections on Art & History at Victoria University” program, seeks to address an aspect of Victoria College’s colonial legacy, as well as to amplify Black and Indigenous voices by demonstrating works of student art.
Victoria College is enveloped by the trappings of Canada’s colonial past. Vic’s name, founder, and proudly displayed standard are all attached to different examples of the nation’s and our former empire’s history. The history of Britain and her former colonies often mirror one another, and while Canada as a whole has not taken such drastic steps as revolution or ending our monarchical ties to Great Britain, smaller institutions have made moves to distance themselves from Canada and Britain’s past. While the present has yet to see a Republican Canada or a renamed Victoria College, the trend of distance from the past seems to be going nowhere, with ancient names being changed to reflect modern sensibilities. That said, this coming September will see the next generation of students eat, chat, and study in Burwash while Victoria’s standard watches silently from above.
