The University of Toronto Mississauga Students’ Union (UTMSU) has been lobbying to change UTM’s official land acknowledgement since the motion was submitted during their 2024–2025 Annual General Meeting. The Committee for Indigenous Justice and Collaboration was created in response. 

Although the motion was passed by the 2024–2025 UTMSU executive committee, the current executives have been engaged in preliminary conversations with UTM’s senior administration.

The UTMSU also have their own land acknowledgement, and is currently lobbying to recognize National Day for Truth and Reconciliation as valid for special consideration requests for extension on coursework.

Current wording concerns

In an email to The Varsity, UTMSU President Andrew Park shared some concerns identified by the student body and the committee about the specific wording of phrases in UTM’s current land acknowledgement. 

The current acknowledgement states, “I (we) wish to acknowledge this land on which the University of Toronto operates.” Park criticized the use of “wish to,” and wrote that “land acknowledgements should be intentional, and not aspirational.”

In the sentence, “we are grateful to have the opportunity to work on this land,” Park wrote that the word “grateful” can be harmful, as “not all Indigenous community members feel ‘grateful’ given histories of violence and dispossession.”

Apart from the language used in the current land acknowledgement, Park also noted that it contains no references to the treaties that cover the Toronto Area. 

UTSG and UTM are on Treaty 13 and 13-A territories, which were negotiated between the Crown and the Mississaugas of the Credit in 1805 and 1806. Treaty 13 has been legally disputed for its lack of documentation and clear land boundaries, which led to a $145 million settlement with the Mississaugas of the Credit in 2010. 

UTSC is on Williams Treaty territory between seven First Nations of the Chippewa of Lake Simcoe and the Mississauga of the north shore of Lake Ontario, which was signed in 1923. This treaty was struck after the government found that Indigenous valid land claims were valued at up to $30 million at the time, but the treaty exchanged the 355,000 acres of land for only $500,000. In 2018, the Government of Canada and the Province of Ontario settled with the seven Williams Treaties First Nations for $1.10 billion.

UTMSU’s current progress

Currently, the UTMSU is in “preliminary conversations with UTM’s senior administration and the Office of the Vice-Provost, Students, all of whom have been receptive to our proposals,” wrote Park.

The UTMSU plans to return with a formal proposal in the spring after finishing their research and consultations over the remainder of the year. The UTMSU will meet with them again in early December.

The original land acknowledgement at UTM was written in 2016 and revised in 2021. The revision was made in consultation with the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation (MCFN) to “better [represent] their past and present identity.” Park cited this revision, sharing that it “demonstrates both the capacity and precedent for future revisions.”

The revision was detailed in a letter to the UTM community on May 12, 2021, in which it was also stated that the revision “represents one of many necessary steps toward realizing a pillar of our institutional future,” and that “we look forward to instituting additional changes together.”

Park wrote, “this work is significant in both scope and impact. While the process will take time and care, it is essential that Indigenous voices across our campuses and communities guide each step.”