Ward's and Algonquin: The Island Village That Refused to Leave

At the eastern end of the Toronto Islands, past the beaches and the lawns of Centre Island, there is a small village with no cars. Narrow paths run between small houses and gardens on Ward's Island and Algonquin Island. It is the one part of the islands where people still live, and it exists because its residents would not leave.

A park that needed the houses gone

The islands were once a sandbar peninsula sheltering Toronto's harbour, until a storm in 1858 cut them from the shore. By the twentieth century they held a resort and a community of summer and year-round homes, from Hanlan's Point in the west to Ward's Island in the east.

Then the islands changed hands. The City of Toronto Archives records that the 1956 transfer of the islands to the new Metropolitan Toronto, to be a regional park, led to the destruction of over 400 homes. The communities on Centre Island and Hanlan's Point were cleared, and by the late 1960s, the Canadian Encyclopedia says, the communities west of Algonquin Island had been removed. The residents of Ward's and Algonquin defended their homes and won a series of short-term lease renewals.

The standoff at the bridge

The best-known day in the fight came on 28 July 1980. The Canadian Encyclopedia describes how residents learned that the sheriff was coming to evict them. A siren on the island sounded, a phone chain went out, and boats ferried residents and mainland supporters to the Algonquin Island bridge. By the time the sheriff arrived, hundreds of people were waiting. The acting sheriff negotiated with the crowd and agreed to hold off for 24 hours while a legal case over the eviction writs went on.

On 18 December 1981, according to the same account, the province passed a law allowing the islanders to stay until 2005.

The 1993 settlement

The lasting answer came twelve years later. The Toronto Islands Residential Community Stewardship Act came into force on 15 December 1993. A City of Toronto report sets out how it works: the Ward's Island and Algonquin Island residential lands were placed under the stewardship of the Toronto Islands Residential Community Trust Corporation, and leased to the Trust for 99 years so that it could sublease the homes to their occupants and develop housing on vacant land. The City archives put it more simply: the struggle continued until 1993, when a resolution was finally achieved.

So the islands carry both outcomes at once. Centre Island is a large public park, open to everyone who takes the ferry, made possible by the clearances. Ward's and Algonquin are the homes that stayed.

Visiting respectfully

The village is a residential neighbourhood. Keep to the public paths, do not photograph people's houses or look into windows, and keep your voice down. Ward's Island has its own ferry dock, and the City says Ward's Island is about a 35-minute walk from Centre Island. Ferries leave from the Jack Layton Ferry Terminal at the foot of Bay Street; fares and the seasonal schedule are on the City's ferry pages, and the schedule changes in mid-October, so check before you go.

How this connects to the waterfront walk

No Roamer tour goes onto the islands. The CN Tower and the Waterfront walk, nine stops over about two and a half kilometres from Union Station, ends at the Jack Layton Ferry Terminal, and its last stop looks across the bay at the islands. That is where the ferries leave, so it is the natural place to finish the walk and cross over on your own. For the wider story of who shaped the lakefront, read Who Got to Decide: Toronto's Waterfront.