By Sheldon Taylor
In his seminal study, Needs of Rural Black Communities of South Western Ontario (1976) completed for the National Black Coalition of Canada NBCC), sponsored by the Department of Manpower and Immigration (Ontario), the late Kenyan-born and North American-trained demographer, Augustine K, Ingutia, wrote:
A. Often the white bureaucrats in the service of the white establishment will immediately point out a few famous Blacks who have made it in the Academics, business, politics, or religion, and [state] that this is evidence Blacks in Canada are making it just like any other ethnic or racial group. This could never be further from the truth!
B. In the first place these few Blacks who have become famous have done so exclusively on their own merit. [Lincoln] Alexander[1] or [Leonard] Braithwaite[2] would certainly have been elected even if their colours would have been green rather than [b]lack. Most important however is the fact that these Blacks who have succeeded on any significant basis have had to cut their roots in the [b]lack community and have found it necessary to state publicly that they were not elected to represent [b]lack interests – unlike their fellow white representatives who do not have to disclaim who they are representing. (p.26)
There in lies the problem for people of African descent in Canada. Since their earliest time of arrival dating to at least the opening decade of the 17thth-century their presence has been determined less so on the basis of self-contained communities, more so as entities: superficial living spaces, in which they huddle in response to the welcome and treatment they experience from the rest of the population.
So it is no wonder that now in the 21st-century in which Canada continues its posturing and pretensions of being a major player in a globalizing world African Canadians are having difficulty in defining their identities. They struggle continuously to maintain their superficial communities, and, are having to respond to the harsh realities of disrespect, domestic underdevelopment, and political neglect in Canada; home of: “The True North Strong and Free.”
A statement by activist and author Jane Jacobs who predicted dark days ahead for humankind is worth repeating here, for it sums up what is tragically wrong with the black psyche in Canada. “Some men tend to cling to old intellectual excitements, just as some belles, when they are old ladies, still cling to the fashions and coiffures of their exciting youth”(brainyquotes.com). It would be wrongheaded at this point to attribute such behaviour to all of more-recently arrived groups of people of African descent. Many of these immigrants arriving in significant numbers after 1980 and originating mainly from the African continent, and elsewhere in the Americas, seem to be charting for the time being a different course than the older black communities; certainly the ones with roots mainly in the Caribbean.
The nostalgia of the kind mentioned above is evident in parts of black Canada; very much so in black Toronto, where as its vanguard dies out some people sit on their laurels earned in the good old days. Paraphrasing author Austin Clarke it was: a time “when we were free and young and used to wear silks.” Unfortunately, some of these people have not always made the successful transition from activists of the 1960s, seventies and eighties to that of becoming definitive settlers, actors, and doers with the vision to imagine the Canadian landscape as theirs too, to shape and mould, by using their own black agenda as hammer and chisel. Without an imaginative blueprint and even though desiring to follow in the footsteps of earlier black leaders their footprints are less likely to become indelible in a land in which the black legacy should not easily be ignored.
It is true as the African-Canadian Legal Clinic pointed to in its account of Anti-Black Racism in Canada, that feelings and actions against black people “are deeply entrenched in Canadian institutions, politics and practices. But such actions are rendered invisible to the larger society. And these racist behaviours are characterized by particularly virulent and pervasive racial stereotypes.”
However, as the society in which almost one million people of African descent mainly struggle to survive builds a firewall to protect itself from “The Blacks.” And as the economic and political elites in Canada by throwing crumbs to members of other ethnic groups feel some comfort that African-Canadian claims of racism and inequality can then be nullified, many black people are doing little to respond appropriately. Instead, as they are further targeted by the police, suffer increasing unemployment rates and see their children grow ever more frustrated in school, they hide behind dreams of eternal life, and a greater possibility of milk and honey in the hereafter.
This does not mean people of African descent of the sort being referred here have not done well for themselves. As individuals, Blacks have established radio stations, nursing homes, and transport companies. They have earned degrees and are competitive in the sciences and the arts for example. They have gone down into the mines, climbed mountains and read the news on the Canadian Broadcasting Network (CBC). It is no longer possible to speak of world-class Canadian literature without noting the 1997 Governor General Award winner for poetry, Dionne Brand’s accomplishments; or, Austin Clarke, the 2002 Giller Prize winner for literature. If time and space permitted many more examples could be mentioned.
However what has not occurred is most of the individual success stories have not transitioned into the kinds of community action that by now should have been converted into a Canadian black agenda. Nor have any such victories made the journey forward easier for especially the under thirty-somethings and for many other people of African descent. In other words, these types of successes have not as yet served as positive community building instruments with which to carve an African-Canadian pathway in Canada’s bitter snow. Of course this also has a lot to do with the absence of real physical spaces that can correctly be called black communities.
The soul, vision and mission of a city are embodied in commerce, learning institutions, cultural translations and a multitude of other human interactions. That is what the city, the polis is all about. If one’s cultural identity, presence and legacy are not recognizable in the city’s tapestry, then his/her past, presence and future contributions will only vaguely exist, if they exist at all. This is the dilemma for black people in the City of Toronto, Hamilton, and Montreal for example where a well defined and representative characterization of blackness and Africanness is absent. As such, most emblems of black involvements and images in Canadian city life have been lost in translation.
This is certainly true in the Province of Ontario where even the historic and once bustling Windsor black community is mostly a shell of its former existence. In the early 1970s after making a trip there as the editor of Spear, Canada’s then existing Truth and Soul magazine, J. Ashton Braithwaite[3] wrote an article, “From Windsor with Unhappiness.” He went there with anticipation, only to find what Ingutia also found elsewhere in Southwestern Ontario: a shrinking black presence, and many claims of, “used to be owned by my family;” reference to land and buildings that changed hands (one way or the other) and was making someone else wealthy and happy.
Black people’s invisibility in Windsor is apparent with an exploration of the Windsor Star. Doing a search using the word “Black” in that newspaper reveals there is more of a chance of results referring to the “All Blacks New Zealand Rugby Team” than any information describing black people in that part of the province with a legacy dating to even before the start of the Underground Rail Road.
Where does a visitor to Toronto really go to see Blacks operating in their own right? It is a question many African Americans when they visit Canada’s largest city with the nation’s sixth largest economy often ask. “My brother,” the call is heard as another black person appears in sight, “tell me where I can get some good soul food and listen to some black-Canadian music” the sister asked. Put another way: Where is Toronto’s black community, and how do I get there to spend some of my money? The respondent stutters unsurely, and with some embarrassment, then tries to satisfy the hungering eyes with a half-assed empty response.
Being without a structured community means there is no magnet that leads to the generating of money that can be reinvested. The lack of a community space makes it harder for politicians to get their photo-op and so the black people in the picture taken with other ethnics in other peoples’ communities are soon forgotten. The divisions and dissuasion of building real black communities beyond short stretches of the imagination on Eglinton Avenue, west of the Allen Road reflect the cleavages that Ingutia referred to.
Poor black people in Toronto can hardly support their historic religious institutions much more expansive places that would better define and crystallize their identities. Richer Blacks, the individual success stories are less likely to be in those joints working-class Blacks patronize. Their uppity brothers and sisters opt instead for the linen cloth as opposed to the checkered table cloth that remind them of countries and mindsets they wish to remember only on exotic trips back home.
Ingutia’s points are prescient and form part of the story that is repeated from generation to generation. For many Blacks in Canada the flaw is that far too much emphasis has been placed on the bone fide building of community. Sociologists and urban planners agree that a community is more than an abstract collectivity of aspirations. It has to grow to become a concrete blue print, a physical reality that allows for hubs of activities: construction, reconstruction and transition.
It must be a physical space or spaces that expand, shrinks, or maybe even relocates elsewhere; but it cannot be imagined forever and ever only in the mind, or else it becomes like El Dorado: always being talked about, but never found and mapped; so it cannot be coveted or protected since there is no value to be assessed. Unfortunately, most of the building funds being nursed by island and indigenous black organizations have amounted to little since disunity and insular identities ensure there is no pooling of these monies for a multidimensional space and buildings around which a community collective could grow and prosper.
The presence of the outer shell of black community found on Eglinton Avenue West has existed for several generations. But even this example speaks to the stymied existence many Blacks in Toronto are subjected to or box themselves in. In this city area one finds barbershops, hairdressing salons, an historic church, supermarkets and the smatterings of other small-based commercial activities expanding westward from the location city planners hoped sometime ago would be an expressway. That location is often described as ‘The Caribbean community” that extends past Dufferin Street, but then comes to an end before reaching Keele Street.
Stuck in the vortex of yesterday neighbourhood business people in this city area have worked long and hard to be like entrepreneurs elsewhere. In fact, their operations have rendered them more so wage labourers than entrepreneurs. However, this corridor of activity filled with houses, small businesses and apartment buildings is hard pressed to attract any major enterprise or big box stores that would increase pedestrian and consumer traffic and stimulate an uptake in the cash receipts of local black enterprise.
History has dogged black people in Canada. Firstly, the nation’s recollections have mainly omitted their presence, contributions and even their failings are not acknowledged. This means the alpha, their origins, beginning point of their efforts is harder to pinpoint and has served to remove them from the story as a people who at least arrived with explorer, Samuel de Champlain. It is not by accident that with each fresh arrival of immigrants they look to black people as having gotten of the boat with the annoying question: “Where are you from, Jamaica?”
But the way they are defined is an indication of how black people have been juxtaposed, positioned, sidelined, in a country that until recently only First Nations’ Peoples could honestly call home. The where you’re from question, can, and should be answered not by words, but in the fight back; the struggle to belong and the tenacity to do the documentation and the storytelling if others grudgingly prefer not to include African-Canadian history into the Canadian narrative. But to do so mean choosing the facts carefully and recording what is meaningful and impactful.
William Peyton Hubbard (1842-1935) was born in Toronto and is lauded in the city, especially among old line black families and Anglo Saxons whose lineage dates back many generations. Hubbard is still remembered as a visionary and civic leader whose abilities endeared him during his lifetime to white people and Blacks alike. His former home on Broadview Avenue is a testament to the individual pursuits and successes of a black man with a legacy that straddles the 19th- and 20th-centuries. Legend has it he may have even saved one of the fathers of Canadian Confederation, George Brown’s life.
Brown was the founder of the newspaper the Globe that later merged and became part of the Globe and Mail. He was an important player in moving Canada from British colony to that of a nascent nation. He was known within his circle to favour a glass or two, maybe three, of strong drink. On one occasion while travelling along a pathway near the Don River, his horse-drawn carriage hit an embankment and Brown supposedly fell into the river, only to be saved by Hubbard. What is verifiable is that Brown and Hubbard were friends. Hubbard also served as a Toronto civic politician after being elected in 1894, and from 1904-07, he was City Comptroller.
The position of City Comptroller made him a mover and shaker in civic politics since that role gave him influence over municipal expenditures and revenues. So influential was Hubbard that even after retiring and during the dark days of the Depression period the media sought out his opinions on Toronto’s financial progress. However, when he is mentioned in the city’s black community, it is for being mayor during the elected mayor’s absence for one day.
The point is being made to illustrate the extent to which emphasis is placed on the superficial as opposed to the substantive. In other words, it is like ignoring Austin Clarke’s over four decades of contributions to Canada’s literary landscape and emphasizing instead, his limited appointment to Canada’s Refugee Board. Hubbard’s significance as a civic leader and comptroller of the city’s purse strings is subordinated by his superficial role as a honourary fill-in for a day. Some Blacks in telling this part of his story and by overemphasize it as an important black historical moment trivialize the impact of an important civic leader of African –Canadian descent. One seldom hears the average working black speak of Hubbard to begin with. The status fetish falls within the group Ingutia calls the “black establishment.”
The above example has to do with the need for Blacks to find acceptance and validation from those in control and authority as opposed to making their own decisions to validate their contributions to Canada’s history. In the end it means success becomes generationally terminal and has less meaning across longer moments. Hence there is always the temptation to speak of uniqueness, individualism, and not of how well Blacks in the collective have done to affect the course of human events in Canada.
So it as Ingutia points out there exists a gulf between the achievements of those who make it and became part of the black establishment and the ones who number among the black masses with alienated feelings and disassociation from the accomplishments of their more fortunate brothers and sisters. If this is true, discussion about classism and other economic factors that fall outside of the scope of discussion here are worth studying.
Who are the ones with the capability of seizing the compass and moving in a direction that will encourage the creation of a black agenda? Without appearing provocative, is it legitimate to inquire if there is indeed any black Canadian agenda, or if instead, there are various sub-agendae reflecting the diverse solitudes of blackness or Africannes in Canada? That seems to be what Ingutia means when he refers to the disconnection between black people.
Social Scientists like Daniel Hill previously defined black communities in Toronto according to their members’ time of arrival, places of origin and history. All of which are variables that stagger cohesion by creating quasi communities that progress at different rates. Members experience differing degrees of acculturation and observable solitudes are created based on class, and socio-economic factors. Stephen Speisman highlighted a similar set of sociological developments for earlier Jewish immigrants to Toronto.
The establishment of the National Black Coalition of Canada (NBCC) was meant to address such issues and encourage greater cohesion and fellow feeling. Its demise in the 1970s made clear such a goal was not realized and after the NBCC disappeared it was replaced by national black associations with membership criteria based on countries of origin or local entities defined on the basis of geography and parochial needs and issues.
There are those people, especially ones in the broader as well as in the academic community who are all too anxious to remind people of African descent of their dissonant voices. In other words: unity as a goal cannot be achieved based on determinants of skin colour. Being desirous of harmony or cohesions amounts to a reaction to the manner in which people with black skin are treated in Canada. Sociological factors associated with race, the lack of empowerment and classism have sometimes motivated Blacks to search for common ground using color as a cohesive agent from which to improve their circumstances, right wrongs: racialized immigration, improve education quality for black students, fairer public accommodation practices, etc.
Blacks in Canada, either ones born here or those who arrived as immigrants were plagued by social distance: the relationship between themselves and white people. Now it is not just a matter of the tragic currents defining black-white relationships, but also the complexities brought about by the dynamics precipitated by a more diverse society that Canada is. Whatever the case, the resulting interpretation of racial existence is compounded by how the majority powerbase, Whites, respond and treat Blacks. Other ethnic groups following the conformist model tend to translate their way of seeing the racial Canadian paradigm through white lenses. Black people facing this complexity in human relations continue to find themselves in greater numbers at the bottom of as John Porter called it in his 1965 study, “the Vertical Mosaic.”
This compelling problem calls for a common response. Complicating the issue however is how black people in cities like Toronto are embracing diversity within their ranks. Now they are establishing rather complex connections with the broader society. Black people are no longer affected only by the modality of race. A cosmopolitan existence encourage their participation in a wider framework of survival outcomes based on multidimensional factors: indigenous or foreign born status; the polarities associated with biculturalism, sexual orientation, local geography, time of arrival in Canada, language, life experiences, socio-economic status, and even political party affiliation.
Multiethnic and multiple involvements summon them to seek shelter under a broader umbrella where they attempt to address ills associated with social and economic inequalities. Living in Canada means being subjected to the dimensional pull of race, but too, all of the ideological paradigms manifest in the varying solitudes other Canadians struggle with. It is ironic that increasing numbers of blacks in Canada are having more successes in addressing broader social issues. So it becomes easier for black parents to join forces with other parents in deciding on the merits of uniforms for school children. And it is more difficult for both groups of parents acting as citizens in the community to validate antiracist education as part of school curriculum.
The goal for some is to forge a common black or African-Canadian agenda of convenience. Nothing is wrong with embracing such an option, especially in a globalizing world where social media provides linkages and inter and intra connectivity with like minded partners and colleagues sharing the same visions, missions and objectives. If this methodology is to be embraced the traditional sense of community which really doesn’t exist could be replaced with one in which shared goals and common ideas in forming critical mass for Blacks act to energize a movement of activities and foster desired outcomes.
Such a way forward should not be one based on romantic notions of what blackness and Canadianness is all about. As has already been indicated, agendae linked to blackness or black identity, African-Canadian identity in a pretentious multicultural society is not easily determined. But what is necessary is to try and find a way forward that allows for the creation of solidarity as was done in the past based on issues like South African apartheid, immigration, antiracist education, etc. This would mean that Blacks would not necessarily seek to link arms on every issue, but on issues that are important to them. In fact, this was done before in Canada where at times certain groups took the lead, and other ones provided support. After achieving desired outcomes, coalitions either morphed into other activist models or dissolved.
Even within formal institutional frameworks, census data collecting for example, there is not as yet an approach to blackness and Africannes. The confusion doesn’t stop there. Already getting the courts to make the link with identity, racial origin and inequality in Canada has been problematic. And with the country’s formative and vague part of the Canadian constitution referring to “rights and freedoms” it seems unlikely people of African descent can count on the justice system for comprehensive interpretative guidelines or redress.
Canadian courts at the provincial and federal levels have appalling historical records in matters of human and civil rights and only more recently have they given any serious consideration to gender inequalities. Interpretations such as with Edwards v. AG Canada in which a fundamental guideline was needed as to whether or not the word “persons” in the British North America Act (1867) included both genders required Privy Council action, if women, ironically deemed to be a minority, were eligible to be members of the Canadian Senate. Just imagine how matters involving gender and race could be further complicated. Blacks did not often find the scales of justice to be on their side federally and/or provincially until, and only sometimes, after the enactment of the Canadian Bill of Rights in 1960.
Arguments for example before the courts claiming the exclusion of Black people from taverns and restaurants was a contravention of practices in the best interest of the “public good went no where. Courts including the Supreme Court of Canada decided not with the victim but as in the case Rogers v. Clarence Hotel (1940) with the status quo. Tragically enough people of African descent could shed their blood for Canada during World War Two, and then were refused accommodation in some cheesy Canadian restaurant. Consequently, the general impression among Blacks was the courts were less concerned with protecting and more concerned with prosecuting them. Having to exist in such an environment requires as the need to change Canada’s immigration Act illustrated, innovation and the joining in of forces that share common interest.
Rights and freedoms are construed by the courts less so as ones posited for example along lines of the American constitution, and in particular, the US Bill of Rights with its amendments and decisions based on what the framers intended. As opposed to in Canada where an overwhelmingly conservative judiciary did not and may not be willing to favourably interpret what judges perceive as ahistorical issues of racial oppression. Such attitudes make it almost impossible for Blacks in Canada to be seen as a community of, meaning a collective of people seeking redress.
In any case it is known that attempts to seek redress using “injured parties” or “common cause” status is almost nonexistent at the federal judiciary level. This may not be as difficult a set of circumstances for a group of nondescript Canadian consumers suing a supermarket chain for price fixing. But a group of black people wanting to take similar action may have a harder time.
The Canadian establishment is less sympathetic to any kind of activism from senior law benches which mean a Brown versus Board of Education, Topeka Kansas court battle would have taken a further 100 years before becoming an upper level Canadian legal issue, let alone making it to the Supreme Court of Canada to be decided upon. Thus the possibility of the 1954 ruling that resulted in a favourable US Supreme Court decision would have been less likely in Canada. Without confidence in the law; with a rather detractive and usually unfriendly police forces in cities like Toronto and knowing that commercial elites have enough influence to turn back the hands of time many African Canadians still believe their issues will not be given the full weight of due process and result in fairly decided upon outcomes.
For them justice as a goal is much the same as achieving racial harmony in their lifetime; nothing more than pie in the sky After all this is still a nation in which a senior whose health circumstance requires electricity in the home, but who finds his or her financial situation wanting could very easily feel the impact when the local utility takes the option of cutting off the power without fear of either public outcry or political intervention. For if it isn’t about hockey, keep your socks on, stay as warm as you can, and, as the oft repeated phrase reminds the injured party: “If you don’t like it here; leave!”
Law enforcement and the courts are not the only vehicles of injustice in Canada. Reference has been made by healthzone.ca to a University of British Columbia study published in Social Science & Medicine journal detailing “the health impact of colourism, discrimination targeted more strongly at darker-skinned than lighter-skinned people of colour.” Darker skinned black Canadians were found to have “a 4.8 times likelihood of poorer health.”
What then are the options for Blacks in cities like Toronto as elsewhere in Canada? How should they counter racist behaviours directed at them? Whether they are part of inclusive and viable communities is no longer the only issue. As before, solidarity remains important and minimizing the stress and health issues associated with sufferings caused by racist behaviors must be minimized. Peaceful responses in the face of the growing menace linked to racism and abuse are the best options. However, be they black ones or part of other small potential powerbases everyone has interests too, and moving forward should learn to protect their rights.
Earlier on divergent attitudes between classes of black people in Canada were referred to. This disconnection and alienation has supported perceptions in the broader society where some people construe, “those blacks will never get together. As such, there is no need to take them seriously.” The status quo’s intentional sidelining and willingness to work only with a small group of hand-picked people of African descent has led to name calling, suspicion and condescension in certain sections of Toronto’s black community where the belief reigns: if a black person is favoured with a white person’s hand on his or her shoulder, trust in that individual is unlikely.
Thus as Ingutia pointed out disconnection is manifest when, the making-it Blacks, move away from the rest of the crowd. Without the workings of a middleclass, the origins of ideas and analysis from the intellectual class and the support of the small black working class elite, black progress is also unlikely. People of African descent in Canada must find the means to more ably work together despite the sustained efforts of the white establishment to keep them in their place. Fearing a backlash some black people have avoided offending whites with power and influence which in Canada could provoke a rather vicious response. But black inaction to inequality and unfairness has to change. There really isn’t at present any unique way of tackling the problems other than getting started, and getting the job done.
The case of Iceland responding to the rest of the European Union and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) comes to mind. As a consequence of the worldwide economic downswing Iceland is in a great deal of financial difficulty. Its banks now nationalized owe more than $100 Billion. With a population not much larger than 300,000 people paying this foreign debt back would add untold burdens to Icelanders. It is not that they don’t want to honour their obligations. What they refuse to allow is to be unfairly dictated to, abused and exploited by their much larger European cousins and the IMF bent on placing citizens of the tiny nation in servitude until they could barely be recognized from the dearly departed.
So Icelanders imposed their rights as a sovereign country, reworked their constitution, and negotiated with their betters on terms advantageous to their future mental health and well being. While the country’s actions may be a work in progress, having the vigilance and the guts to stand up to more powerful forces empowered the Icelandic people and restored a measure of Icelandic dignity. Similarly, working within the law, African Canadians have rights and freedoms that to date have been inadequately tested within the legal jurisdictions. Partly this is because of a mistrust of the court system and also because of financial burdens associated with mounting legal human and civil rights challenges. However, this is why organizations such as the Canadian Civil Liberties Association exist.
Many Blacks in Canada who quietly feel their patience have been severely tested and their dignity intentionally attacked should respond by invoking their rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. For example, should groups of blacks from certain nations in the continent of African be forced to provide DNA tests when wishing to immigrate to Canada? Human rights commissions provincially and federally for example should also be pressured to defend Blacks more seriously, and without any fear of political interference against racism and employer abuses. African Canadians should also join forces with those members in the broader society who are experiencing attacks against their communities. The questions that follow are ones Blacks should answer:
Is it not the case some/many black people in Canada are subjected to the constant threat of police harassment?
Is it not the case many black elementary and high school students in Canada are miseducated?
Is it not true that justice for black people in Canada’s court system is harder to find than a butterfly on a Toronto’s winter day?
Is it not the case that many Blacks are willfully ignored by the political powers and policymakers at all levels of Canada’s political systems?
Is it not the case Blacks in Canada are subjected to having to pay taxes without effective political representation?
Is it not the case that in many instances through no fault of their own Blacks are overrepresented in public housing, and that cities like Toronto are among the largest slum landlords in the country?
Is it not the case Blacks are maligned as welfare cheats?
Is it not the case that while laws in Canada claim everyone should be treated equally in consideration for hiring in the workplace for example, that this does not hold true for many people of African descent?
Is it not the case that there is overrepresentation of Blacks in Canada’s prison populations?
Is it not the case there is underrepresentation of black students in Canada’s college and university systems?
Is it not the case that at present Canada’s Immigration Act is discriminates against potential black-skinned immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean for example?
Nothing that’s beneficial to black people in Canada has come easy: the abolition of slavery; fairer immigration policy; fairer accommodation and employment laws; desegregating education; being able to live in neighbourhoods of choice; fairer credit; more equitable insurance rates; competitive pricing on larger consumer items, e.g. automobiles; getting into and graduating from college or university; running for public office. All of these examples of advancements, rights; not privileges are now under threat. To be affected by the aforementioned and then stare helplessly in disbelief makes us all as guilty as the people perpetrating the further underdevelopment of African Canadians.
In the preamble to The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the following appears:
Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law….
African Canadians have always been peaceful and patriotic. Nothing to date suggests any change in these attitudes. However, they in mirroring the postwar push by earlier black leaders need not allow their citizenship and rights as Canadians to be further eroded. No politician, federal, provincial or municipal will come to the aid of Blacks in Canada. It is too great a risk for even the few who would wish to be on the right side of justice. African Canadians are reminded by their history that: “It's the heart, afraid of breaking/ That never learns to dance/ It's the dream, afraid of waking/ That never takes the chance/ It's the one who won't be taken/ Who cannot seem to give/ And the soul, afraid of dying/ That never learns to live.”[4]
©Sheldon Taylor October 31, 2011
[1] Alexander, a lawyer by training served as the first member of African descent in Canada’s Parliament (1968-1980). Another first for him was being appointed Lieutenant Governor, Province of Ontario, 1985-1991
[2] Braithwaite served as the first person of African descent to be elected as a member of the province of Ontario’s Provincial Parliament (1963-1975). He is a lawyer; pioneering scholar of African descent who attended Harvard where he earned an MBA. His actions as a politician led to the eradication of legislation that remained on Ontario’s legislative record that legalized segregated schools for students of African descent.
[3] He now goes by the name Odimumba Kwamdela
[4] Exerted from the song, The Rose. Lyrics and music by Amanda McBroom; recorded by Bette Midler, 1979
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