Ontario Superior Court Judge Sean Dunphy has found that the corporation known as the Mount Pleasant Group of Cemeteries is a trust and charity under the auspices of the Public Guardian and Trustee of Ontario. His decision seems to mean that the decades-long transformation of the large burial ground into a privately-run commercial system both of cemeteries and funeral homes must now be undone. As per the governing statutes, Dunphy said, the land held by the trust is to be used “exclusively” for the burial of the dead. Therefore the visitation centres and funeral home business that MPGC has funded exceed the terms of the trust. Judge Dunphy declared that the Act of 1849 governing the succession of trustees is still valid. As none of the current “directors” have been appointed in compliance with this act, there are currently no validly appointed trustees. Judge Dunphy has ordered that the seven most senior directors of MPGC shall be appointed by the court as trustees, and that notice of their appointment will be placed in the Ontario Gazette. The public may then call a public meeting in accordance with the provisions of the 1849 Act and elect one or more “inhabitant householders of the City of Toronto” in replacement of one or more of the seven trustees. The decision raises questions about the future of the visitation centre built on cemetery property on Moore Avenue during the McGuinty-Wynne years and which gave rise to the neighbours’ movement which ultimately led to Judge Dunphy’s decision. Five premiers mere spectators to mutation of Mount Pleasant Cemetery
