The name of one of the city’s most notorious slave owners is close to being wiped from the street running through the University of Toronto that bears his name.

Peter Russell was appointed in 1796 to be the first administrator of colonial Upper Canada, now Ontario, and was controversial even in his time.

He fought prominently against abolishing slavery. He suffered from a gambling addiction and had to hide from his creditors.

Contemporaries even alleged that Russell lived with his half-sister Elizabeth as man and wife.

And yet three streets are named after him in Toronto: Russell Street, which runs through part of the University of Toronto; Peter Street and Russell Hill Road.

On Thursday the city is poised to fix the problem on campus — an item on the Toronto and East York Community Council agenda recommends renaming the portion of the street that runs through the university after renowned scientist Dr. Ursula Franklin.

The community council has the power to approve the name change on Thursday, without having it later approved by city council.

“I think it’s important because it pushes up a conversation of what we as a city of the future value, about our history and heritage and who we value,” said Anthony Morgan, who leads the city’s Confronting Anti-Black Racism (CABR) unit.

Morgan said Russell looms large in the city’s anti-Black racism training course for employees.

In 1806, Russell posted an ad around the city for a Black woman and her son for sale: Peggy and Jupiter. A copy of that ad now forms part of the city’s anti-Black racism course.

“We specifically point to this street … to amplify the conversation about the legacy of slavery continuing to live with us and how we need to address that,” said Morgan.

Romain Baker, acting executive director of Black Urbanism T.O., said that while it’s a small thing to rename a street, what we choose to memorialize is important.

“To some it might seem like it’s just something that is tokenistic, but I think we can recognize that something as simple as a street name has a legacy tied to it, and is it the legacy we want to celebrate?” said Baker.

Franklin, a Holocaust survivor, was a distinguished research physicist and metallurgist in U of T’s faculty of engineering, teaching at the university for more than 40 years.

She held honourary degrees from more than 20 universities and was inducted into the Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame. She was a pioneer in the field of archaeometry — using scientific techniques to date archaeological specimens. She was an early feminist, founding the peace group Voice of Women. She died in 2016, at 94.

Russell Street is on the western edge of what is known as U of T’s engineering precinct and runs between St. George Street and Spadina Crescent.

“We should not be honouring awful people in spaces like this,” said Lucas Granger, vice-president, external affairs for the University of Toronto Students’ Union, which supports the change.

The renaming of Russell Street is supported by the Huron Sussex Resident’s Association and Meric S. Gertler, president, University of Toronto.

“Dr. Franklin made an extraordinary contribution to the University and to Canada as one of our country’s most accomplished scientists and as a renowned feminist and peace activist,” wrote Gertler, in his letter of support.

The effort to rename Russell Street was lead by Michael Valpy, a senior fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto.

But changing the street name and not renaming it after a Black person is an erasure of Black history, says resident Cheryll Case.

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“I think it should be given a Black person’s name,” said Case, who founded her own consulting firm, CP Planning. “Renaming Russell Street would have been an enormous opportunity to give homage to Peggy, who was the slave he kept who kept on running away, searching for her freedom.”

The cost to install street name signage is about $500. Seven addresses will be affected by the change, requiring residents to update all their address-based indentifications, according to a city spokesperson.

Russell Street was named in 1860 and the city does not have a record of the rationale for the decision. It is the only street renaming application under consideration for these reasons at this time, according to the city.

Controversies have also recently sprung up over naming things after Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada’s first prime minister, due to his role in creating residential schools for Indigenous children. A student-led campaign to rename Ryerson University also sprang up a couple of years ago over Egerton Ryerson, who helped shaped residential school policy.

A recent edition of the school’s The Innis Herald asked whether Woodsworth College should be named after social activist James Shaver Woodsworth, when he held some racist theories. While he lobbied for a living wage, Woodsworth also believed in eugenics.