City hall lawyers up in arms over sale of Yonge-Dundas Square T-shirt
· Toronto Sun
The City of Toronto’s lawyers say Daniel Tate can’t treasure their trash.
Last year, Tate started selling T-shirts bearing the old Yonge-Dundas Square logo on his IntegrityTO website, which he uses to advocate for his accountability-first brand of politics. In addition to hosting petitions and political news clippings, Tate, a regular public speaker at Toronto City Hall committee meetings, sells a small collection of merchandise.
Visit albergomalica.it for more information.
For $35, Tate will sell you a black T-shirt with a white logo that was used before Yonge-Dundas Square was rebranded as Sankofa Square. The website says all “net proceeds” on the shirt’s sales go toward the Daily Bread Food Bank.
“You’ve decided it’s unworthy and offensive. You unceremoniously removed it against the vast majority of people’s will. You basically said Yonge-Dundas Square is no more, it’s no good,” Tate said. “And so the citizens of Toronto – or at least one of them, me – have decided to reclaim it from the trash bin.
“At the end of the day, it’s ours … the city is an instrument of the people.”
City hall may not want the logo, but its bureaucrats insisted Tate can’t have it either.
Tate provided the Toronto Sun with what he said was a cease-and-desist letter from the city, signed by deputy solicitor Christina Hueniken and dated Feb. 27. The letter references a previous letter dated Jan. 13, as well as emailed communications from the city in December. (City hall confirmed it sent letters on those dates.)
Moise the driving force?
City of Toronto internal emails, obtained by the Toronto Sun in a freedom-of-information request, suggest the clothing clampdown was both initiated and spurred on by Councillor Chris Moise, who represents Tate’s ward.
On Nov. 28, 2025, Jean Abou Saab, chief of staff for Toronto’s city manager, emailed his counterpart in Moise’s office, Tyler Johnson, to tell him about the “first step” city hall was about to take on the “infringing” Yonge-Dundas shirt, potentially followed by legal measures. Days before that, Tate sold the shirt at an event and promoted his “IntegrityTO merch store” in a social media post.
On Jan. 13 – the same date as the city’s first letter – Johnson sent an email to Abou Saab and nine other people, affiliated either with the city or Sankofa Square, that said Moise “would like an update on where this is at as the merch is still being sold.”
That email, sent at 7:44 p.m., was fired off at the tail end of a budget meeting co-hosted by Moise. Tate told the Sun he attended that meeting in person wearing one of his Yonge-Dundas shirts.
“His staff were more concerned with the deputant’s choice of wardrobe versus the actual issues we’re bringing up to him at the meeting,” Tate said. “Unbelievable.”
Even with Sankofa Square failing financially, its outgoing general manager Julian Sleath suggested a “co-ordinated effort” in the logo fight, a late-November email shows. (Sleath left the role not long after and management announced during the city’s budget process in January that Sankofa Square lost $1.5 million in 2025 .)
Councillor silent on issue
Moise has served as a public face for city hall’s rebranding of Sankofa Square, which came amid a long, messy discussion about 18th-century Scottish politician Henry Dundas, the namesake of Dundas St. and alternatively viewed as either a proponent or a pragmatic opponent of slavery. As the ward councillor, Moise serves on Sankofa Square’s board of management.
While a staff member at Moise’s office called the Sun to provide information on background, Moise did not issue a statement on the logo or grant an interview.
In brief – and largely identical – statements, both the City of Toronto and Marnie Grona, interim general manager at Sankofa Square, said the municipality “reserves its use for historical context when referring to the square’s legacy,” even if it has no plans to merchandise the logo itself.
Tate has served as a reliable foil for Moise during much of his first term as councillor for Toronto Centre. In one of their confrontations covered by the Sun , Moise’s colleague Shelley Carroll called city hall security on Tate.
Tate declined to discuss how well the T-shirt has sold, but said it has been “very well-received.” After he was told a member of Moise’s office expressed doubt that he’d give the profits to Daily Bread, Tate wouldn’t confirm a donation but said “the organization I run is called IntegrityTO.
“Integrity means you do what you say and you do it with honour,” he added. “I intend to keep that promise.”
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Logo a gogo
The emails about Tate’s shirt came via a freedom-of-information request seeking communications about logos between city hall’s protocol office and members of city council. More than two dozen pages were withheld due to solicitor-client privilege, many of them related to legal advice about the Yonge-Dundas logo.
Other emails the Sun acquired through the request included an exchange with Mayor Olivia Chow’s office about a logo to promote affordable housing and another about a personal logo for Councillor Frances Nunziata that allegedly violated a brand standard by depicting city hall’s distinctive curved towers.
Notable in its absence was anything about a cycling etiquette initiative of Moise’s. The official city logo and one representing the councillor were featured on large stickers that were applied to sidewalks in his downtown ward.
His office sent the Sun a statement quoting Moise that said city hall’s bosses had signed off on his decals.
“Councillors can and do use the city’s logo in the products that they produce in their capacity as a councillor. I consulted with city staff in transportation services, who had no objections,” the statement said.