Constituents ‘insulted’ by Indigenous icon idea for TTC signs, board told

Pet project of chairman Jamaal Myers received lukewarm reception Wednesday during TTC board meeting

Published Jun 03, 2026  •  3 minute read

The TTC board heard an “Indigenous wayfinding” presentation on Wednesday, June 3, 2026, on using animal icons to guide riders through subway stations. Photo by City of Toronto

Rarely does the leadership of the Toronto Transit Commission look so lost.

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A presentation on “Indigenous wayfinding” got a lukewarm reception at the TTC board’s meeting on Wednesday, despite chairman Jamaal Myers making it public ahead of time that it was something of a pet project.

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While Paul Ainslie is a reliable ally of the city councillors on the TTC board, he broke ranks with them after the presentation. He said he has constituents who are “insulted” by the idea of Indigenous wayfinding and insisted on a formal vote rather than a quick show of hands – something that clearly bothered Myers, a fellow Scarborough councillor.

The vote passed with five in favour, but it served as a rebuke that anyone opposed the presentation given that the TTC board hadn’t been asked to approve any changes, but simply to confirm it had heard the pitch.

“It’s just (to) receive,” Myers said with a sigh during the vote, turning to face his vice-chairman Joe Mihevc. “It wasn’t supposed to go anywhere. It was just a presentation on what we can do.”

The TTC board voted to accept it had heard an “indigenous wayfinding” presentation, but did not agree to any changes. The vote was not unanimous. Photo by City of Toronto

‘Long overdue acknowledgment,’ presenter says

It was Cameron Stewart who showed the board a slide deck on how the TTC can “decolonize how people orient themselves.” He proposed that transit stations pair animal icons with exits, meant to work like landmarks to help riders find their way out of the system.

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“Most importantly, the animal icons are inspired by the seven grandfather teachings,” he said, things like love, honesty and bravery.

Stewart told the board that “every TTC station rests on Indigenous land,” so his proposal would serve as “a long overdue acknowledgment.”

Before Stewart spoke, Myers told the rest of the TTC board that he was “part of the first cohort of Indigenous fellows at the City of Toronto.” Stewart told the board he had worked in Myers’ office for months up until May and the presentation served as a year-end project for his fellowship.

Myers said that while Stewart put in the work, it was he and Mihevc, a municipal lobbyist and former city councillor, who had come up with the idea.

“I had actually suggested to him: Is it possible that we could incorporate some of our Indigenous knowledge in the TTC’s updated wayfinding strategy? And this was based on a comment from vice-chair Mihevc when we were discussing this,” Myers told the board members.

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‘More pressing priorities to worry about’

As Stewart sat to give his presentation, Myers beamed. “Nice to see you, Cameron,” he said.

While Stewart’s presentation had its fans – Councillor Dianne Saxe called it “great” – one of the TTC’s citizen commissioners was nonplussed.

“We do have far more pressing priorities to worry about,” Liane Kim said, citing safety and financial pressures. At Thursday’s meeting, the TTC board discussed a number of safety-related matters, customer dissatisfaction and the co-ordination of service closures.

The “cost and the energy put into putting pictures for wayfinding, I think, would just confuse people,” Kim said.

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Concerns about ‘information overload’

Ainslie agreed, saying he feared “a bit of information overload with the symbols” – but that didn’t appear to be his primary objection.

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“I guess I have the second largest Indigenous area in the GTA,” he said, “and I’ve talked with a number of members of it around using symbols from the seven grandfather teachings for wayfinding and nobody was really excited about it. I had a few people that were actually insulted by it.

“I think that there are better ways if we’re gonna look at how we’re dealing with truth and reconciliation within the TTC.”

Despite all the talk about culture matters, Councillor Alejandra Bravo told the committee: “There is no diversity imperative in here.”

She suggested that while the TTC uses things like letters and numbers to guide riders out of the subway system, others may benefit from the use of images of Canadian wildlife such as turtles and birds.

“We all have different kinds of brains,” she said.

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