The Fort York Foundation

06/14/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1JNKd4oYHc/

Anishinaabe Elder Garry Sault (1946-2025) is remembered as a "guiding presence" in this University of Toronto Mississauga post last autumn: https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/main-news/guiding-presence-utm-remembers-elder-garry-sault

Elder Sault was Knowledge Keeper for the Mississauga of the Credit First Nation. He is shown here on Toronto's western waterfront, April 2013, leading a public commemoration of the defence of York by Mississauga warriors, British and Canadian soldiers and militia, against attack by U.S. forces that landed on the shore of Humber Bay, 27 April, 1813. (photo by A. Stewart)

06/04/2026

The Gore is an important element within a suite of parks, both realized and unrealized, south of Fort York National Historic Site. It forms part of the plan for a continuous green open space connecting Coronation Park on the waterfront to Fort York NHS and Stanley park to the north (see plan).
Located opposite the Princes’ Gate, the Gore has always been a key element of the opportunity to create a formal public space in front of the Princes’ Gate. The Gore contains significant heritage. The original Toronto shoreline runs through the Gore. The Western Battery, where Drum Major Thomas Kelly was taken down by an American rifleman during the Battle of York (17 April, 1813; https://friendsoffortyork.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/fife-and-drum-sept-2016-1.pdf) was located on the shoreline on or near the Gore. Gore Park Pumping Station (1924) is a listed heritage building (https://www.acotoronto.ca/building.php?ID=2595). Overall master planning for parks and open space south of Fort York, as outlined in many planning documents over the past 30 years, including this one by dTAH, is now being compromised by the construction of a large building (athletic training facility) on The Gore.
Have your say: https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/planning-development/construction-new-facilities/park-facility-projects/new-park-at-the-gore/

05/31/2026

Check out the Canadian history resources at the Canadian Institute for Historical Education...
https://cihe.ca/our-resources/

04/30/2026

New and thoroughly revised edition of Carl Benn's 2002 Essential History volume... including specially commissioned maps and over 50 new images... for sale in the Canteen Museum Store, Fort York National Historic Site. Dr Carl Benn, Professor of History at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University) is the leading authority on Fort York and Upper Canada in the years leading up to the War of 1812.

04/22/2026

This Sunday... Battle of York Day at Fort York National Historic Site.... https://tinyurl.com/yeaefwn4

04/21/2026

General Brock in the news... "Forward Guidance" by Prime Minister Carney on YouTube. Major-General Brock is, today, a Canadian symbol of forward thinking and strategic planning who took full advantage of American unpreparedness at the start of the War of 1812. He was the civil administrator of Upper Canada, 1811-12 until his death at the Battle of Queenston Heights in October 1812. The seat of his executive administration was Government House at York Barracks (today's Fort York). https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/brock_isaac_5E.html

04/13/2026

The boundary for a theoretical (speculative) Fort York National Urban Park might follow the boundary of Garrison Common (the Military Reserve) in 1812, as seen on this map. The map shows both some early nineteenth-century features and the modern road grid and shoreline around Fort York National Historic Site. (Map by A. Stewart for The Friends of Fort York and Garrison Common, 2012)

04/06/2026

With the new federal initiative announced last week to create and expand national urban parks across Canada, is it too much to hope for the creation of a "Fort York National Urban Park" that combines Fort York National Historic Site with much of Exhibition Place (including the area where line engagements took place during the 27 April, 1813, Battle of York (see map), the New Fort and Fort Rouille) and Coronation Park?
(Map created for the exhibit "Finding the Fallen: the Battle of York Remembered", part of the City of Toronto's War of 1812 Bicentennial Commemoration in 2012)

03/30/2026

Battle of York commemoration, 26 April, 2026, at Fort York:
https://www.toronto.ca/explore-enjoy/history-art-culture/exhibits-events/?event_id=75a58b7c-46dc-4d7d-8e5d-3e515fa7f8bb&event_name=Battle%20of%20York%20Day%20at%20Fort%20York&calendar_date=2026-04-26T10%3A00%3A00-04%3A00