As he walks up the long driveway to Guelph’s former Ontario Reformary, Cliff Summers, a former inmate there and president of the Indigenous Justice Network, calls for ‘reconcile-action.’
With fallen leaves crunching under his feet and occasional stops to soak in the landscape, Summers explained that he found his culture while incarcerated and expressed support for turning the York Road property into a national urban park.
“We can't come together unless we take steps to do something that will bring us together and celebrate our togetherness, our sameness. One of the things that I always like to remind people is that we're all related,” he said during a Thursday afternoon tour.
“We recognize, as Indigenous people, that we have a responsibility for Mother Earth. But we also have a legacy that we have to pass on to our coming generations.”
Preserving public access to the property via a national urban park declaration is one way to do that, he believes. And not just for the Indigenous community, but people from all backgrounds.
A national urban park, he believes, would provide space for people to come together.
“I know that there's some resistance and not everybody is kind of onboard and supportive of a national park here in particular,” Summers said, referring to property’s potential to be used for a new or second hospital at some point in the future.
Hospitals, he said, are known to have used Indigenous children as “guinea pigs” for experimentation and can be associated with institutional trauma in ways similar to jails.
“As an Indigenous person, there's a bad taste in my mouth,” Summers said of the idea of using the former reformatory lands for a hospital. “We have this history, this very dark history not only with the so-called education system in residential schools but also with the health system and with hospitals in particular.”
Owned by the provincial government, the jail was decommissioned in 2001, though many of the buildings remain standing – boarded up and monitored against intruders by security staff.
Public access to the property in general, not the buildings, continues. However, the province has taken the initial steps needed in order to put it up for sale.
The national urban park program was launched in 2021 by Parks Canada, a federal agency that administers historic sites, national parks and more. One of the program’s stated objectives is to advance Indigenous reconciliation.
Summers is a member of the Oneida Nation of the Thames, located near London, Ontario. At the age of 17 in 1977, he was sentenced to two years less a day at the Guelph jail for car theft – something he didn’t expect would lead to him finding his culture … and his voice.
“Back then I would have been kind of considered a juvenile delinquent,” he said, explaining he knew little about his Indigenous culture outside of how it was portrayed at the ‘Indian day school’ he attended – as “savages and heathens.”
“And so up until that time, I really didn't have much exposure.”
While at the jail, Summers became a member of the Native Sons group, learning about Indigenous cultures and traditions. He went on to become the group’s president and a key figure in establishing sweat lodges at jails throughout the province.
“I'm very pleased to be invited (for Thursday's tour of the former jail site) because I wanted to be able to come back to the scene of the crime, so-to-speak,” Summers said, explaining he turned from a shy kid into someone who spoke out against the “bull-shit” he saw happening, such as the over-representation of Indigenous people in jails.
“I found my voice.”
Summer’s advocacy work continues to this day, as the founder and president of the Indigenous Justice Network, which raises awareness about Indigenous rights, poverty and generational trauma.
Next month, city council is set to consider approving a draft Ontario Reformatory Heritage Conservation District Plan and Guidelines, including a map of the area to be protected under the Ontario Heritage Act.
That map, noted P. Brian Skerret of Urban Park Guelph during the tour, likely aligns with the proposed urban park boundary, though he acknowledged having not seen what will be presented to council in staff’s final recommendation.
During that meeting, Coun. Erin Caton plans to introduce a motion that, if approved, would see city council declare support for the urban park proposal.
“This has been something that's been worked on for quite some time. There have been many postponements, and we think we are finally getting it to council,” said Coun. Phil Allt, who joined Caton on Thursday’s tour with Summers.
“There have been challenges, confusion as to what support is there and what support isn't there, confusions about issues associated with the potential for a hospital,” he added. “And we've been trying to just deconstruct where the obstacles lie.”
During the Nov. 13 council session, the public will have an opportunity to comment on the designation plan.
A staff report and recommendation regarding designation is expected to be publicly released on Nov. 1.
Summers, who told GuelphToday his organization will be formally endorsing the urban park plan, hopes it receives city council’s support as well.
“If there's anything more that I can do to support it, then I'll do whatever's necessary,” he said of the park plan.
“In fact … (there are) some other things that I think that I will certainly be able to do in my role as an advocate and to support this project going forward.”
