A team of citizens has successfully challenged the way the city's largest group of cemeteries is run.

Justice Sean Dunphy's New Year's Eve decision means members of the public will get a say in the operations of the Mount Pleasant Group of Cemeteries (MPGC).

MPGC controls 10 cemeteries on almost 500 hectares of land throughout the GTA, as well as more than $500 million in funds.

The decision is the culmination of a legal fight launched by the Friends of Toronto Public Cemeteries in 2013.

"I have to pinch myself every morning when I wake up to say 'Yes, we really were vindicated," said Margot Boyd, who heads the citizens' group

"I couldn't believe it, it was just this elation."

Soon after after the New Years Eve ruling, MPGC issued a statement saying "we are disappointed in the court's ruling."

The company plans to appeal.

Margot Boyd heads the group Friends of Toronto Public Cemeteries. The group recently won its legal battle to put control of the lands back in the hands of the pubic. (James Morrison/CBC )

Friends of Toronto Public Cemeteries argued that MPGC has been operating like a private company, ignoring a 170-year-old law that stipulates the cemetery overseers must be confirmed by members of the public at a town hall meeting.

The judge ordered MPGC's top seven directors be re-named trustees by March 31, and that the two sides then organize a public meeting, at which residents will have the opportunity to confirm those trustees or elect a new slate.

The pubic could soon have a much bigger role in the running of MPGC, after a New Years Eve court ruling. (James Morrison/CBC )

The citizen group had also objected to the fact that MPGC operates four crematoria and several funeral reception centres on cemetery grounds. It said those facilities should not be allowed on those lands.

Dunphy agreed that the visitation centres go "beyond the terms of the governing statutory trust," but he declined to rule on whether the crematoria are appropriate.

Although he ruled largely in favour of the Friends, Dunphy also noted that MPGC "is not a runaway train, and its directors have not gone rogue.

'It’s been a very difficult job to try to get to the truth,' said Pamela Taylor, who's a Toronto lawyer and member of Friends of Toronto Public Cemeteries. (James Morrison/CBC)

"The current proceedings are the result of a bona fide disagreement as to the application of the law, a disagreement which is rendered all the more understandable by the age of the rules under consideration," he said.



He found that by 1989, the trustees who administered the cemetery assets had declared themselves to be directors of the corporation, effectively shutting out the public from determining how the public trust is run.

For Boyd, this fight was not just about who controls the MPGC's land. It was also personal.

Her great-great-great grandfather was the attorney general, who in 1826 helped establish the cemetery as a public trust, with public oversight. The land was established as a non-denominational cemetery for rich and poor alike — something that was hard to find at the time.

This part of York Cemetery, in North York, was to be donated to the city for use as a public park. But a court ruling has all but scuttled that plan. (Mike Smee/CBC News)

Since then, approximately 600,000 people have been buried on MPGC properties.

Dunphy declined the Friends' call for an investigation into MPGC's finances, saying there's no reason to believe funds have gone missing or have been misappropriated.

The court ruling means the public will have a say in how the land is managed, which ultimately means transparency and accountability, according to Taylor.

"Ultimately we know that the philosophy underlying it will be for the public's benefit," said Taylor, who is also a lawyer.

"We've taken a lot of criticism, it's been an uphill battle."

City park deal derailed

Dunphy also ordered MPGC to pay the Friends' court costs.

Last year, the legal battle paused a deal that was in progress between MPGC and the city.

The group had been in the process of donating nine hectares of land in an unused portion of York Cemetery, near Yonge Street and Sheppard Avenue, in a ravine with a creek running through it.