Every February is Black History Month in Canada to honour the legacy of Black Canadians, past and present.
Brampton Rotary was pleased to have a presentation by Angela Carter, Exec. Director of the United Achievers’ Community Services (UACS), charitable organization, which focuses on uplifting the Black & Caribbean communities in the Region of Peel. Angela emigrated from Barbados 30 years ago, and has been an advocate for improving individuals and families from these areas.
Her presentation spoke on Black History is Canadian history and the contributions that have been given here since the 1600s, with the first Black person to arrive in Canada Matthieu de Costa in 1608, who was an interpreter of the Mi’kmaq language on the Samuel de Champlain voyage. We were surprised to know that the first Black slave in Canada in 1628 was a six year old boy, property of Sir David Kirke. He was sold many times and lastly to Father Paul Le Jeune, who baptized him as a Catholic with the name Oliver Le Jeune.
In Angel’s talk, she spoke of many Black’s from Marie Joseph Angelique, enslaved Black women in Montreal who was convicted, tortured and hanged charged with arson as an object lesson for all Blacks, to the Coloured Corps – 30 men from the Niagara region who fought at the critical Battle of Queenston Heights. Many people have heard about the Underground Railroad and Harriet Tubman, helping slaves (30,000) escape slavery in the US and bringing them to “freedom”. She named many from Robert Sutherland from Jamaica, Elijah McCoy – “the real McCoy”, Delos David – the first Canadian Black lawyer to practise as a solicitor in 1885 and barrister in 1886, appointed as King’s Counsel in Canada in 1910. Mifflin Gibbs helped guide British Columbia into Confederation. Gibbs was first black person elected to public office in BC. Lincoln Alexander, Michaelle Jean, Phil Edwards, Donald Moore and many other notable Blacks who have left and continue to leave indelible footprints in this land of ours – Canada.
In 2018, Viola Desmond became the first Black female to grace the face of a Canadian banknote – The $10 bill. In 1946 Viola Desmond took a stand and refused to sit in a Black-only section of a movie theatre in Glasgow, Nova Scotia, she was forcibly removed from her seat in the white-only section, fined and jailed. In 2010 the Province of Nova Scotia granted pardon and an official apology to Desmond.