Donald Trump’s recent anti-Muslim tirade has at least one Toronto city councillor calling for a name change to the Trump International Hotel and Tower Toronto. Josh Matlow, who represents Ward 22, will be sending a letter to Talon International Inc., the owners of the 68-storey hotel and condo development at Bay and Adelaide, later today.
“The owners of that tower use his name to market the building and it’s a brand that they clearly believe was a benefit to selling units and to attract visitors to their hotel,” Matlow says. “I’m writing to those owners to make a case that, in fact, the brand is tarnished and an embarrassment now. I think it’s fair to ask them to consider changing the name so that we don’t have one of the largest and most prominent buildings in the downtown core named after one of the most infamous bigots in the world.”
Comments that Trump made at a June political rally calling Mexican immigrants drug dealers, criminals and rapists incited protests outside the Trump Toronto in August. On December 7, the leading Republican presidential candidate in the 2016 U.S. election published a news release on his website calling for a ban on Muslim immigration to America.
“Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on. According to Pew Research, among others, there is great hatred towards Americans by large segments of the Muslim population,” the announcement reads. “Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in Jihad, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life.”
This morning, Matlow took to Twitter to voice his concern.
“It seems like every time Donald Trump opens his mouth, he conjures up a more hateful and inflammatory comment that all decent people who believe in celebrating diversity and being respectful need to push back on,” he adds. “Toronto is a city that really celebrates diversity. It’s in our city’s motto and our city’s strength. To hear comments like Mr. Trump’s is just so deeply offensive to us. It goes against everything we believe in, and I’d be very surprised if most reasonably decent people in this city disagreed with the request that I’m making.”
Matlow encourages other Torontonians to voice their concerns and find ways to peacefully protest the use of Trump’s name on a major city building. His Twitter statements have so far garnered support from other citizens.
The only other property in Canada bearing Trump’s name, Trump International Hotel & Tower Vancouver, is also being pressured to change. Former Vancouver chief city planner Brent Toderian is calling on developers Holborn Group and TA Global to remove Trump’s name before the building’s completion next year.
“As the discourse just gets more and more horrifying in the United States, it bothers me more and more that our second tallest building in this city has his name attached to it,” Toderian told the CBC.
Matlow agrees. He says that Torontonians shouldn’t stand for having a building bearing the name of someone “so clearly fascist in nature.”
“Gone are the days when Donald Trump was simply a silly circus clown getting into fights with Rosie O’Donnell. He’s now a leading contender to be the president of the United States, and the things that he is saying, these are platform promises if elected,” he says. “I think that the owners would be wise and be doing the right and ethical thing by choosing a name that wouldn’t be so offensive.”
michelled@nowtoronto.com | @michdas
