A contemplative space nestled in the Queen’s Park area of city
TORONTO—If 11-year-old Jada McGregor gets her way, she’s going to be an astronaut. If that doesn’t work out, plan B is ballet.
Lofty goals?
Not if she’s anything like her great great grandma.
Jada’s mother’s father’s mom is the late Dr. Lillian McGregor, a Birch Island-born dynamo who moved to Toronto in 1940 and spent her years in the city helping others.
Dr. McGregor passed away in 2012, and on Tuesday, May 6, her contribution to the world was officially recognized by the City of Toronto at the unveiling of a splendid crane-themed park sited on 2.5 acres of some of the most valuable urban real estate in the world.
The greenery is an oasis of calm, surrounded by gleaming sky-high condos a few hundred steps west of Queen’s Park. Dr. Lillian McGregor Park is a study in gentle grassy slopes, broad promenades, a children’s play area, all adorned by stylized and effectively located sculptures—a swan, giant reeds and a humungous overhead feather, designed to reflect sun and offer shade to visitors. All the sculptures are the work of artist Kenneth Lavallee.
And at its centre, engraved in the cement, a medicine wheel. All the art was inspired by the McGregor spirit animal—the crane.
More than 100 friends, family, onlookers, drummers, singers and dignitaries attended the sunny Tuesday afternoon event. About a third of them were in fact McGregors. (One of the highlights was watching Dawn Madahbee Leach wrangle more than 30 kin into place for a family photo.)
What did Dr. McGregor do to deserve this? Here’s an EXTREMELY condensed answer.
Born, 1924 on the Whitefish River Reserve.
In 1940, at 16 she moved to Toronto. A Southern Ontario judge who vacationed near Birch was a friend of young Lillian’s parents. The judge suggested Lillian could work as a nanny to his two young sons. (She must have been a Mary Poppins-grade nanny: both boys grew up to be judges themselves.) Their dad helped subsidize Lillian’s schooling. She became a nurse.
For 20 years, she worked for the St. Elizabeth Nurses; another two decades at the Parkdale Nursing Home.
Along the line she became mom to Dave, Dennis and Ken, all of whom were all in attendance Tuesday.
As speaker after speaker pointed out, for Dr. McGregor, official retirement from the workforce merely launched a new beginning.
She became: A leader in the Friendship Centre movement; A founding member of the Native Canadian Centre: A board member of the Native Child and Family Services, the Aboriginal Advisory Council, Nishnawbe Homes, and Ontario’s Aboriginal Healing and Wellness Strategy. She was the first Indigenous woman to be awarded an honourary doctorate from the University of Toronto; UofT’s first Elder in Residence, the recipient of the City of Toronto Civic Award, National Aboriginal Achievement Lifetime Award and Order of Ontario.
Of course she made time for family. Commented her grand nephew Albert Baldwin, 37, of Toronto (his mom Laura is Lillian’s sister’s Colleen’s daughter), “auntie was always having us over for visits.”
Turns out one of Dr. McGregor’s lesser-known avocations was acting.
“Yeah,” laughed niece Cathie McGregor, “when I was doing post-secondary in Toronto, she was working on that TV show, Street Legal, and she’d call to let us know where the catering truck was so we could get a treat.”
The park was a long time in the making.
Then city councillor for the area (now MPP) Kristyn Wong-Tam helped spearhead the project. “You’re looking at 11 years of history here,” Ms. Wong-Tam, who worked with Dr. McGregor, told the crowd. The actual construction of the park was, she said, “an extraordinarily technically difficult project,” due to the fact that the 2.5-acres are actually on top of a parking garage. “Grass and trees don’t naturally grow on top of a garage.”
photo by Peter Carter
According to city regulations, after the park was greenlit by the city, Parks, Forestry and Recreation staff had to come up with a shortlist of three park names. The choices were “Dr. Lillian McGregor Park,” “Miigwetch Park” and “Aanii Park.” In an online survey, 1,464 votes were submitted and the results were as follows: McGregor (1,206 votes), Aanii (139 votes) and Miigwetch (119 votes).
Last week, all three sentiments were in evidence.
In her remarks, Dr. McGregor’s colleague and friend, elder Sylvia Maracle told the crowd, “We hope we can be as shiny as she was and that we can look to the future and find the love among us.”
Finally, one of the many speakers at the event was Dr. McGregor’s middle son Dennis. After retiring from a career as the marketing manager in the insurance business in Southern Ontario, Mr. McGregor returned to his ancestral home of BI and, like his mom before him, worked just as much after retirement as before.
Now chair of the Manitoulin Health Centre of Directors, Mr. McGregor spoke through tears.
“We know mom is here today and would be honoured and humbled by this recognition of 70 years of service to the city of Toronto. We love you and miss you always, miigwetch miigwetch miigwetch.”
