Vehement opponents of U of T’s plan to sell off the historic David Dunlap Observatory in Richmond Hill have decided to fight to the last. With the Feb. 15 deadline for bids on the 190-acre property fast approaching, the town council has appealed to the provincial government to step in. The university has made it clear that it intends to sell the site without consideration for the buyer’s plans.
The DDO, opened in 1935, was once one of the best facilities in the world for astronomical research. Its 1.8-metre reflector telescope remains the largest in Canada, but technological advances, changes in the field of study, and the advantages of high-altitude and orbital telescopes have long overshadowed the facility. Nonetheless, it retains a devoted following among scientists and amateurs, and a community of naturalists drawn to the observatory’s well conserved, vibrant grounds.
The DDO grounds were donated to U of T in 1932 by the widow of the Toronto businessman David Dunlap, on the condition that they always be used for astronomical research. The university reached an undisclosed agreement with the Dunlap family to sell the land.
Talk by Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty and education minister Kathleen Wynne has spurred hopes for an eleventh-hour provincial buyout to preserve the observatory.
“I tell you, I grew up in Richmond Hill and the Dunlap observatory was very much a part of my background, so it’s certainly something I would be willing to talk about,” Wynne told the Toronto Star.
Richmond Hill’s mayor David Barrow said he hoped the premier’s office would raise an objection to the sale and ask the university to reconsider.
Thornhill MP Peter Shurman and Richmond Hill MP Reza Moridi were among a handful of local politicians who attended a rally at Queen’s Park on Jan. 17 to show support for preserving the DDO and its grounds.
The protesters marched to Simcoe Hall to meet with U of T’s Governing Council. Asked by protestors whether the university would consider extending the deadline for bids, U of T’s vice-president business affairs Catherine Riggall was adamant that the Feb. 15 date would stand.
Some researchers have questioned the prevailing logic that the DDO is obsolete. Peter Martin, chair of astronomy at U of T, told the Toronto Star that the observatory is “still a vital spot where stellar spectroscopists gather important new observations at wavelengths unaffected by the brilliant light of a Richmond Hill night.”
