Disillusioned Ontario Electorate: A Flock of Sheep?

By Sheldon Taylor

On October 06, 2011, voters in 107 political ridings in Ontario are to decide the outcomes in the provincial election. However, to the poor and downtrodden; the miseducated; the persecuted; and to many elementary and high school students; and ones struggling to pay mounting postsecondary education fees; and to those seniors unable to make ends meet, it won’t really matter who wins. For everyone: rich and poor, neglected and disillusioned, the out of work and members of the shrinking middleclass, life will go on as usual.

After October 06, the rich will get richer; the politicians will become embarrassingly quiet and the day after, October 07, if an unusually heavy snowfall blankets the province for an extended period of time the serenity that Ontario is known for will hardly be disturbed.

This is a sad commentary about the times we live in. Whether it’s Toronto, the City of Hamilton, or North Bay for that matter, most of us whose ambition it is to leave our country Canada, Ontario, and our cities better than we found them have decided such a goal may not matter as much anymore. While their backers and financial masters exploit us, the politicians, save a handful of them, lie to our faces as they chase after their own selfish aims. It is for this reason so many people in Ontario, including younger voters no longer care who is elected. Furthermore, there are many more potential voters who’ve not bothered to ensure their eligibility to vote in the upcoming Ontario election.

The disillusionment and voter apathy are based on real life experiences and political neglect many Ontario voters are subjected to. Many of our children are miseducated by teachers who are ill equipped to be in the classroom and, employers gleefully claw back workers’ rights and gains, while doing what is necessary to fatten their companies’ bottom lines. The state of affairs in the province is not good for members of the middleclass who find themselves in debt, working longer hours and are being overtaxed. Yet very little is heard on the issues that really matter in this election from other than mainly special voter interests.

And the fact that polling is taking place hardly accounts for the disinterest manifest in this provincial cycle, especially since so many more people now rely only on their cell phones. Many of the all too conforming citizens in the province are without effective political representation at Queen’s Park, but no one would know this since everyone in playing their own roles are acting as if all is well. All is not well! Just ask any twenty-something who their political representative is at Queen’s Park; the response received usually amounts to a blank stare or a confusing answer.

Members of the political class may be quick to respond that these people are from the other side of town or are not well educated. But this is not true since many very educated young people; ones from economically sound families really don’t care about the election. More recently, I listened to a teenage girl who was born in Canada and attends school in Ontario (never attended school in the US) recite the United States’ Pledge Allegiance to the Flag word for word, then was unable to do the same for her country’s national anthem.

Canadians tend to grumble rather than make waves about what’s pissing them off. Also the nature of our society in Ontario for example means the one who refuses to conform, keep quiet; can easily be picked out, picked on, and made to suffer. Nothing works better to ensure quietude based on conformity, even when there is mounting citizens’ dissatisfaction, than the threat of going homeless and hungry; being unable to meet one’s children’s needs; not being capable of at least having a beer while watching the game on TV; or, lacking the means to be in malls with stores already displaying possible gifts for Christmas. So many of us move around aimlessly, indecisively and act as if we are only sheep bleating anxiously for the next pasture of grass.

Most of us are nothing but a flock of sheep and the politicians knowing this are aware that not one of us is willing to rock the boat. This does not mean the political process is without any dynamism. The presence of political parties suggests voters have options and that our political culture does offer choices. However, this may be misleading, since irrespective of party platforms and persuasions, many voters are aware that in Ontario party lines are fudged by the lack of quality in the candidates and the degree to which rather than the candidates influencing the times and political atmosphere with brave and innovative ideas that challenge us; instead, they are being aided and abetted by special interests who are not responding to the needs of the majority. So they ply their do-nothing campaigns and are comfortable in the knowledge that with this election so close to the ham and turkey season, they can get away with being indignant to us. Yet it seems as if there is nothing the Ontario electorate wishes to do about its political impotence.

“Yes we can,” you say. Well just remember as many Americans have found out, hope is an intangible concept. The ruling class knows, if we get rid of one group of do-nothings, our choice is to elect another group of people incapable of standing up for principles based on sound leadership and a willingness to speak truth to power. No one is brave enough to bell the cat. No one is willing to hold those in power accountable. None of us will take risks in an era when risk taking means being ostracized by employers, friends, the banker, family, the neighbourhood butcher and even one’s dog. Got to eat, has become the rationale for a kowtowing existence. Even a politician who stands on the wrong side of power soon realizes that he or she is in effect sitting on a steeple thereby risking the possibility of having its point becoming a tool of immobility.

The current political environment is akin to being in a living-room where the furniture is well arranged. But while the place is lit up, and the wallpaper is immaculately patterned and in good condition, there are scratching sounds coming from somewhere. Initially, one can’t just make out where from. Then on closer inspection the situation is better understood. For behind the spotless wallpaper lives a population of cockroaches in splendor and selfish comfort. That is the Toronto some people know! It works for them. Turning up their noses, they don’t understand why we just won’t get our own wallpaper from which to hide from daylight; to hide from the truth.

All seems well on the surface. “Clean city” tourists are often heard to say. Nice restaurants and entertainment district we as residents boast about to our friends in far off places. Some crime, but not like New York and Chicago commentators suggest. Live and let live is what our political and religious leaders tell us to do. But for those in the know there is a trail of dirt manifesting an unhealthy set of circumstances under our societal carpet that belies the harmony, serenity and stellar quality of life we talk about.

As the provincial election draws to a close not much commentary will appear in the media about the real ills Toronto and the rest of Ontario suffer from. No one will speak of how First Nations Peoples are treated in their own homeland. Or of how they mortgage their children’s futures in order to seek redress for past wrongs and exploitation. Yes, someone may raise an issue about healthcare. Tongue-in-cheek, another person will utter a line or two about the need to do more about education. But nothing of substance will be discussed other than in a fashion of barely mentioning what the issues really affecting and concerning many of us are all about. Crime in Toronto, the capital of Ontario? Well, you know, eh, Torontonians are polite, so that discussion will be left to the imagination in public, and talked about in private amongst friends and family.

Embedded in many minds is as the “them against us equation” suggests, crime is mainly a black youth problem in areas of Toronto where one really doesn’t venture, anyway. Stoically, such erroneous commentaries will proceed around pristine dinner tables: “If only those black and single mothers who are on welfare will just take the time to rein in their unruly children,” some imbibed person will lament. Poverty among the elderly? Oh! Just give them another decrepit supermarket selling weeks’ old ill-nourished vegetables. Miseducated children you say? “Hell! if they won’t go to school, build bigger prisons where the little buggers can rot away.”

On September 22, 2011, the crawl on the TV screen said: “Day 16 of the Ontario provincial election.” Which meant, as voters, we’ve had 16 days of nonissues being tossed at us, plus many years before of do-nothingness at Queen’s Park where the provincial legislature’s primary and privileged residents sit doing their knitting and stitching of lies, as a majority of Ontarians, too scared to speak out, too confused to stand up, languish, and are unable to represent themselves or their neighbours’ interests.

Ontario voters have never been a brave lot. Over the province’s history, most of its residents have been too busily consumed in day-to-day matters of survival. Yet until recently, there was always a small group of brave and do-something politicians. Leslie Frost comes to mind. He was a politician and party leader who unlike the present coterie of provincial legislators was not afraid to lead by example. He elected to not wait for the winds of change to push him aimlessly towards popular issues of the time. Instead, using his pen, his ears and his sensibilities, Frost introduced a set of conditions that became the foundation for the progressive era under Bill Davis’ premiership and partnership with Ontarians.

Leslie Frost was from of all places, Orillia. Not a bad part of Ontario to be from. But his birthplace was certainly no hotbed of progressive liberal undertakings in twentieth-century Canada. However, that city’s native son in the developing Cold War period, an era of conformity, coloured by deep right wing politics, and everyone must know his or her place, especially, “the Negroes and Jews,” did what was possible at the time to forge pragmatic alliances. He boldly introduced a progressive government agenda that is not commonly known about for nothing about it has been taught in schools, yet it is still unrivalled to date.

Steve Paikin at least mentioned Frost’s political sustainability in a September 20, 2010, Toronto Star article, “‘Old Man Ontario’ Frost Set Bar for Electoral Success.” But even that article fails to mention the former premier’s important social justice agenda that openly addressed issues Canadians to that point liked to think were grounded only in the US; for after all the tired political recant until then was, there was no racism in Canada.

It was no big deal for Frost to make a promise to black leaders he thought would genuinely work with him. And it was no surprise to them to hear the premier shortly thereafter go to bat to ensure his promise was kept. His small town values endeared him to the belief that a promise made is a promise to be kept. When was the last time Ontarians saw this sort of commitment to purpose in action at Queen’s Park?

Many black people in Toronto and ones living in other Ontario cities believe their salvation came about because of Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s forward thinking agendae. No doubt they are right to credit him for his work later on which made him a friend, ally and supporter of theirs when he was Prime Minister. But during the time Frost was causing Hoity-toity and haute white Ontarians to blush in amazement, Trudeau was still an intellectual in Montreal. Frost was too busy to intellectualize. He was also about lessening the political distance for blacks; in turn for the first time in Ontario their citizenship was being validated. He provincially, and John Diefenbaker federally as Prime Minister were sinking their feet in the wet cement of change and action so that for all time to come black Ontarians would know a Prime Minster and premier who both chose not to look the other way.

Frost became Ontario’s premier in 1949 and remained in that portfolio until 1961. His premiership supported and enacted the Fair Employment and Fair Accommodation Practices Acts. His accomplishments too, included establishing the Ontario Human Rights Directorate that evolved into the Ontario Human Rights Commission. And unlike now, back then, and with Frost’s blessings, the budding Directorate under a black man’s direction, Dr. Dan Hill, worked to introduce social changes that are now under attack.

Frost was no lover of restricted covenants which was a tool used mainly by WASPs to keep immigrants and members of certain ethnic groups who could afford to from moving into Lilly white pristine residential neighbourhoods in cities like Toronto. Ahead of his moment and knowing so, Leslie Frost did not always supine to his Bay Street bullying friends, but bravely acted on behalf of the people who mattered: the ones who got up each and everyday and worked to make Ontario the super economic engine the province soon became.

In fact, as leader of the Conservative Party of Ontario, that old boys club of privilege, certainty and favouritism where only the rich need apply, Frost took on the patricians and his friends on Bay Street, and also stubborn ones too on Main Street. That is what Fair Employment Practices Act meant: the hell with your age-old privileges and prejudices. His actions did not change all that was bad, but it allowed for a benchmark that is still used today to assess progress, and, measure the do-nothing politics contemporary policymakers and political leaders cling to with pride.

Frost when necessary took the opportunity to ensure his Minister of Labour, Charles Daly, (no friend of black people), if unwilling to behave as his portfolio suggested, at least did what the provincial cabinet advised and consented to. Daly hated Frost’s ushering in of a more pragmatic political mood in Ontario; felt it was communistic, but ever the leader, the premier dragged Daly along and while he kicked and screamed made him relent as a new era of provincial politics became a best example of what a political leader is supposed to be all about.

Just imagine an Ontario politician willingly opening his doors to black leaders who were eager to suggest to him how change should be defined. They were mainly working class, some were sleeping car porters, but it was their government, their Ontario, their country, and they weren’t going anywhere until they were heard. Frost listened eagerly to them and to progressive whites who wished to see an Ontario that was true to its motto: “Loyal she began; thus she remains.” Not in terms of some supremacy ideology, but in being true to the needs and wishes of all Ontarians. His legal training had him ponder their main arguments and he finessed their ideas into legislative authorities. Those people in power soon got the idea that for Frost there was to be a marked difference in attitudes from the prewar period.

It was not by accident that Toronto hospitals started hiring black women who were qualified nurses, or that gradually institutions like the University of Toronto took an interest not only in welcoming a few more black students, but that one or two of its professors started commenting favourably on the merits of a fairer immigration policy for people from the Caribbean region. Each time a student enters the Frost Library at Toronto’s York University, they are fulfilling a wish Leslie Frost had for all Ontarians: that progress, growth and development are to be experienced by all Canadians regardless of colour and economic circumstances.

Frost’s activities mentioned above and his actions that allowed for political enactments were part of the sea change begun in Ontario that widened to influence a progressive agenda elsewhere in Canada. Unfortunately, this type of leader is absent from the current political morass. As the 2011 Ontario provincial election limps towards a conclusion, there is nothing to feed the imagination. One day after the election, October 7, the powerful will still be oppressing the poor. Many economically distraught black children will continuously be subjected to myopic teachers whose boast is that most of them are graduating; albeit with substandard grades.

No provincial politician or current political candidate have the guts to remind these educators: education is part of the provincial mandate originally enshrined in the British North America Act (1867). As such it is the responsibility of the provincial cabinet to ensure all students in Ontario are equitably educated. You won’t hear this because politicians are spineless in their fear of teachers in the province who are in many ways a special interest group that is attached to a powerful pension fund.

Those teachers who genuinely care about their students will tell you with honesty and regret that many of those black learners with the stamina to maintain a presence in Ontario schools sometimes do so in learning environments that are mainly damaged by incomprehensive curriculum guidelines and inferior learning strategies.

The province’s education policy is to blame. In Frost’s world, conditions would have been ripe to allow black parents to take leave and legally challenge an education system run amuck. Just imagine the Attorney General, or the Solicitor General supporting such an initiative in the current atmosphere of conformity and political chicanery. Instead, what would be done is to find examples from other ethnic groups of students doing well so as to pretend there really is nothing wrong with education in Ontario and in particular, the public school system in Toronto.

More young people, black ones too, are occupying prisons where they may become hardened criminals. Forty-some-things who are down and out of work are being told newer immigrant hires are to be encouraged by bonuses for employers. Take a look around Toronto at all the out of work black young adults in the 18-30 age category; who is providing employer bonuses to allow them to make positive contributions to themselves, their families and the society they were born into?

When you see a senior strolling down the grocery aisle where pet food is shelved, the question may come to mind: Is that bag for his dog bowser or for him? However, such sociological considerations are as far away from the minds of the people who now conjure up political party platforms as Leslie Frost’s leadership by example is from the present day, its-all-about-us political leaders.

This is the Ontario we live in! It is one we are again being asked to vote for on October 06, 2011. It is one filled with the trickery of people who really don’t give a damn. If we the majority are not careful our children will inherit this mess that has become, not as it says on Ontario license plates: “Yours to Discover” but instead: Ours, that we can’t do anything with.

At first blush we may feel safe in blaming the people we elect and send to Queen’s Park. They deserve as much blame as we can put on their shoulders since they have already abused their role as political shepherds. But a closer look however suggests we have also ourselves to blame for being so oblivious to our legacy and current day realities. For those we elect are supposedly a mirror image of the rest of us. And after all, this blog is claiming that most of the Ontario electorate is nothing but a flock of sheep.

©Sheldon Taylor, September 2011, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Bitter Losses: The black-Canadian Legacy in Turmoil

By Sheldon Taylor

The death of Caribana embodies a wider set of losses African and Caribbean peoples now suffer and have experienced over the past five decades in major urban Canadian landscapes like Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax. Gone are the days of Africville in Nova Scotia and a thriving Little Burgundy in Montreal where black people, mainly poor and working class, while raising their children remained hopeful about their tomorrows.

Under such conditions they celebrated their religious faiths and came to grips with how their lives were seriously affected by ruthless city brokers and commercial interests aided by boneheaded politicians who willingly hawked up and spat in their direction. Yet even when facing such deleterious circumstances many African Canadians found ways to rise above and certainly adapt to their situation.

The irreverence coming their way was not understood, but was tolerated, since like other poor and marginalized peoples in Canada, Blacks could do little to turn the disdain from the broader society into respect. While there were no longer spittoons and chamber pots for them to empty, nonetheless, remaining true to the belief of turning the other cheek, many Blacks suffered through untold horrors at the hands of the very people in whose houses they prepared meals, made beds, provided shoulders on which fragile wives shared secrets about miserly and disloyal husbands, and reared the children of these families who went on to achieve successes their own children would never experience.

The psychology of so much hurt and pain has left its mark in African-Canadian households where children see their parents’ struggles firsthand which by now should have ended. As such these children are ever present when the discussions turn to another can’t do. They attend schools where they sit in classrooms filled with peers from seemingly can-do homes. Why not us too thoughts have affected the black youth psyche in Canada. Mental illness is seldom spoken of in any Canadian home, least so in households where challenges and successive generations of age-old tribulations have turned discussions to a relative or a friend’s schizoid or manic depressive behaviour.

There is no need to quote any study or authority here to claim: “Mental illness is likely a factor in some, if not many’ African-Canadian homes. Social workers, educators and other professionals regularly come in contact with the resulting manifestations of this reality. Furthermore, while it is true racism is a causal factor in the number of Blacks who serve time in Canada’s prison systems, the high number of black detainees in the country’s prison population suggests other reasons including behavioural issues play a role in their incarceration. It is likely that there is a strong co-relationship between ability, potential, skills set and unfulfilled ambitions, (especially where failure to realize rising ambitions occur because of racial factors), and diminished identity and economic class.

Not long ago stories made the rounds in some black Toronto circles of sleeping car porters who were as talented as white colleagues with whom they had once been friendly. In their adult life these black men were passed over for opportunities they saw white men in particular gaining access to then using their privilege based on nature’s passport (skin colour) to their advantage. So apparent were the injustices that Blacks would speak of this or that white person getting a job on Bay Street while a black person with superior abilities ended up doing hard time cleaning railway cars or shining shoes on the railroad. “Remember so and so?” the conversation would advance. “Well, he read more books in the Toronto library than most people did, yet was forced to work for The Man for chump change. No one cared to reward him for his intelligence or capabilities. No wonder in the end he went nuts.” If not crazy, some of these individuals surely drowned their sorrows in drink and gambled their lives away.

Currently in Canada, the dead weight carried by black people with lives unfulfilled, accomplishments deferred and dreams that have turned into nightmares serve as a yoke around their necks. No matter how tirelessly they work in pursuit of unending ambitions, recognition for them is unregistered in the land of the Maple Leaf. Loss remains at the door, not just as a result of death and abandonment, but also because of what was worked hard for is then unachievable due to the hush-hush issues of race, class and skin colour. Making it in Canada, for other than those men and women with majority status, some people believe, requires one becoming a “honourary white.

It is a belief that has made its way into black youth discourse some of who equate doing well in school, with acting white. Only the other day after hearing this claim, a black educator who worked hard to earn a PhD stood in amazement, that if she had dentures they would have fallen out of her mouth. Such a circumstance means though existing in subtle forms, and increasingly even with the old stereotypes being challenged, especially by younger Whites and Blacks, a form of apartheid has existed and is still very present in a country thought of internationally as one of the best places in which to live.

England has become further mired in social strive with the summer 2011 disturbances and riots in some of its most culturally diverse cities. Some people on this side of the Atlantic thank God no such occurrences credited to hooliganism are happening here. But greed and you-don’t-matter are attitudes the Canadian ruling elites show as part of their contempt for everyone who is less privileged than the lotus eaters populating their in-group. The same sociological conditions apparent in English cities exist in many Canadian urban areas, such as: exploitation of the poor and working classes; inadequate housing; can’t hear you for seeing your blackness; employment based on whom one knows, and the historic denial that no racism exists in Canada.

Council homes are called social housing in Canada; ghettoes are referred to in Toronto as poorer areas of the city; mismanaged and ineffective schools are known as inner city schools and “them and us” are used to distinguish the poor from the rich. Also black is now a metaphor distinguishing a group of Canadians from their white counterparts. Since the mid-1990s, the crass political atmosphere created by white voter backlash has given some credence to the myth that blacks are welfare cheats.

In other words, sociological labeling caused an acute entrenchment that has helped to divide cities like Toronto where many Blacks are on the wrong side of power and influence. Marginalization has further diminished their status to the extent that many of them rather than fighting back have instead switched off and are refusing to come out of their corner. Having their voices absent from the discourse affecting their lives is disconcerting and dangerous. In the past, what has made a marked difference is a willingness by some Blacks to respond to how they were publically misrepresented. This loss of a public voice has resulted in many black people being afraid to speak out. Seeing themselves as vulnerable has added to the belief that publically expressing opinions would make them targets of their employers, media and colleagues.

Fortunately, other than minor dust ups like the so-called “Yonge Street Riots” (1992), and the Cole Harbour District High School disturbances (1997 and later) in Nova Scotia, riots are believed by the poor to be un-Canadian. Could be as well, as the 2010 G20 disturbances illustrated the swift reaction by law enforcement, the ability of fringe elements to high jack peaceful protests and the knee-jerk willingness of the public to support police tactics, rightly or wrongly, serve as a deterrent to any outpouring of dissent.

The frustration: bottled up anger brought on by social and economic exploitation and the stereotyping that exists may not manifest in dramatically public displays of overt aberrant behaviour; nonetheless, the results are similar. Mental disorders, school dropouts, failure to participate in the political system, limiting one’s self to distinctive neighbourhood boundaries; struggling to survive in communities with less than adequate social services, learned helplessness, and the lack of a strong publicly represented voices for example, are issues that dehumanize and cause immeasurable losses to Blacks in Canada. Not in the least being mortality rates that remain higher than the general Canadian population.

Lest we forget the historic struggles associated with black and or African survival were undertaken on the basis of every person’s right to live in freedom and justice. Later on the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) recognized what black people had been demanding for generations, including, the, “equal inalienable rights of all men [and women] of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.” Black people’s struggles have not been limited to any defined battlefield. In Canada, their metaphoric Plains of Abraham remains soiled with dashed hopes and passions and is wet with their blood, sweat and tears.

The struggles associated with African freedom in North America have often been played out in spaces that with the passage of time are turned into battlefields: workspaces; public spaces; playgrounds and schools in which children of African descent are not recognized and validated by many of their teachers for example. But even when victory is realized, it comes with a cost. Viola Desmond’s battle against racism associated with second class seating for black people in Nova Scotia’s New Glasgow’s Roseland Theatre in 1946 is still being played out; only now under different circumstances.

For people of African descent in Canada are not openly barred from public places, but in being treated as second class citizens their financial circumstances quite often serve as a barrier to equal access under the law. The policy may no longer be openly “WHITES ONLY.” But those in charge make darn sure it becomes more of an effort for African Canadians to be accorded an equal welcome. After all, they have not been afforded the quasi luxury of being, “Honourary Whites.”

The idea of having to fight for what others take for granted, and once securing the victory struggling to keep it causes embitterment and often provokes neurotic behaviour. It is not enough for a black person to achieve a desired outcome since ownership may be questioned by any white person in authority. Before his death a distinguished surgeon owned a home with his wife and family in an upscale part of Toronto. His problem was that as a black man taking a stroll through the community his taxes helped to upkeep summoned the attention of the police.

Time and time again he had to prove his right to walk the streets of his neighbourhood. He would be driven back to his house to prove that he did live in the Lilly White and pristine community. One does not have to be a lawyer to understand how this man’s rights were being violated. Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1982) enshrine as “fundamental” his right to peaceful assembly and freedom of movement. But in being stopped he was reminded it mattered who wished to exercise such a right in the area in which he lived. At any time his presence and movements in Toronto were not based on rights but a privilege that could easily be taken away.

In other words, at the whim of whomever he could suffer a loss of dignity and freedom. It is this vulnerability and sudden loss of status that cause people of African descent to feel both resentment and embitterment. Bitterness and mental anguish come about with this long ending struggle to achieve, and when the victory is realized the outcome takes on the scenario where the victor is likened to runner in the relay who thinks the baton has been properly passed to him only to discover he has been charged with a violation of some kind.  This is why some people of African descent rationalize that abandoning the goal is easier than achieving it since the prize can be so easily nullified.

Nowhere is this damaging situation more apparent than with young people who are implored to stay in school, study diligently and achieve even in the face of devastating odds. But the classroom for many black students is not a welcoming space. Often   educators do not effectively instruct them. Many black students find teachers who are only too willing to show them how inferior African-based cultures are. When visitors are brought into the school the African presence is invalidated with rude and negative references to their black youth identity. The sad part is: with all the black legal minds in cities like Toronto, negligent educators and boards of education have not as yet been seriously legally challenged as violators of the common trust and of poorly protecting black students’ right to receive effective measurable and equitable instructions in the classroom.

Rightwing public policies have further contributed to an undermining of black learner outcomes. For some time and until the mid-1990s, anti-racist education policies had been implemented and strongly supported by the Ontario government. With the advent of a fanatical rightwing political agenda in the province, among the first things to go was antiracist education. This meant many teacher education candidates and practicing teachers lessened or abandoned their commitment to antiracist education policies.

As the teaching ranks swelled with new teachers, many of who were newer immigrants, the void where such policies and instruction was concerned caused a reverting to the old teacher instruction method: implementation of the top down education approach.

Student-centred learning now had more to do with creating a pyramid strategy to curriculum interpretations and outcomes in the classroom. At the bottom were the harder to teach and supposedly difficult to learn students. At the top were students who excelled with a minimum of interaction and involvement from their teachers. This classroom method sorely affected many black students within the Toronto District School Board. The results are publicly known: poorer graduation, higher dropout rates and severe tensions between schools and black parents.

So it becomes easier for some black students to abandon the classroom for elsewhere. Soon, with all its entrapments, elsewhere, leads to a brush with the criminal justice system. The loss for these African-Canadian youth is multidimensional: loss of identity; loss of self-worth; loss of an education; loss of the ability to learn skills; greater likelihood of being part of riskier peer groups; entry into the workforce at a later stage in life, meaning: diminished earning power and loss of income, and once incarcerated the loss of personal freedom. All of which also colours one’s perspective and life experiences. The key word here again is loss.

Several years ago an African-Canadian entrepreneur returned to his old Toronto neighbourhood where he opened a family restaurant. To his surprise very few of his friends supported his new enterprise. One of them was heard to remark how after growing up there, and moving on, he couldn’t find any reason to return to what for him was a much hated location. He disdained his childhood and recollected being reared near rats and of smells he had to put behind him. So it was not possible to be a patron to his friend’s endeavour since going out to eat had to be a wholesome experience, and despite the restaurant’s enticing cuisine, all he could think of was his bad memories of the area.

The old neighbourhood had been a battleground for his family and for him. And after the struggle to leave, there was no urge to go back to that which he had fought so hard to escape from. It had been his prison from which a way out had to be found. Having done so it was easier to develop a sense of amnesia and distance from the neighbourhood in which he spent some of his formative years. This was a loss he could live with. Since for him there really wasn’t any joyful childhood home with sweet memories to go back to. There was no rhyme or reason to attempt to walk again in the same miseries he associated with that part of his youthful experience.

There is also another kind of loss. In this instance it often turns out to be based on a misguided desire to reclaim what Canada has not turned out to be. Some immigrants of African descent speak of permanently going to the land of their birth. If they make this dream a reality they are surprised by what awaits them when they arrive “back home.” It becomes clear that all they imagined had long ago disappeared; or never existed in the first place. This is the type of loss hastens their willingness to return to Canada and live in less than an idyll set of circumstances.

Earlier on the idea of loss was associated with Toronto’s Caribana festival with the new moniker, Scotiabank Caribbean Carnival Toronto. The name change is more than a mouthful for many loyal supporters. Quite a lot of feedback suggests as entertaining and culturally rich as the newly named venture remains, it may be moribund; or is already extinct. Caribana did allow growing numbers of immigrants from 1967 onwards along with African Canadians, some of who shared Caribbean heritage and African Americans to experience carnival Caribbean style in Toronto streets. Caribana was a monument not only to the celebration of culture, but the festival embodied the coming together and the country’s embracement of multiculturalism.

The festival’s success however was soon measured in its ability to draw tourist dollars to the city. While the organizers and the creative impressionists, artists and entertainers gave unselfishly of their talent with little remuneration, as the revelers and onlookers grew in number, the money hoarders were busy finding the means to exploit one of the world’s most successful cultural ventures. Needless to say here that many of the people who looked to the annual event as a respite drifted away as commercial interests gutted Caribana. Now the festival is a shell of what it used to be. Although it is still said to be a Caribbean Carnival event, fact is: it is no longer so. One is justified in asking: Would such a loss be possible if a cultural group other than Blacks had such a strong identity with the festival?

The idea of loss both private and public has historically plagued African-Canadian communities. Africville is part of such a Canadian tragedy. Governmental forces in Nova Scotia, aided by urban planners and commercial interests destroyed that century old black community. This resulted by the early 1970s in Africville although living on in the minds of its former residents, being deliberately and wantonly destroyed. Being forced out and having to make way for urban development is not a new phenomenon for African Canadians. Having lived in spaces considered to be rundown and suited only for the poor and lower classes, then with the shifting sands of commercial opinion, Blacks have repeatedly found themselves on the wrong end of the moving cart, dump truck and builders’ wrecking ball.

Southwestern Ontario provides a case-in-point. It is in this area where many Blacks, most of who were or are descendents of fugitives from slavery took flight via the Underground Railroad and discovered how easily they could be moved or duped off the land their families had fought hard to secure. So perverse was the move to displace them from their communities where they had bought and paid for property that not even were their church congregations safe from the land syndicates whose principals wished to have their geographic locations for their avaricious uses. If while strolling down University Avenue you’re fortunate to be in the company of an old black Toronto resident, as stories are told of sites now filled with other people’s buildings, the extent of this Canada-wide displacement and loss becomes unimaginable.

Time and time again this pattern of settlement and removal, saving and sacrificing for, warding off the sheriff from foreclosure, meeting the city’s urge of the time: supporting city beautiful trends; rezoning; pavement expansion; building codes’ stipulation, etc., whatever they had to do, it was done in the name of investing in property and leaving a footprint. In the end however, the builders, moneyed interests and supposedly city fathers behaved like waves rushing against the sand and wiping the black footprint from Canada’s shores.

Nothing was safe and held sacred as long as it came with the prefix black: black-owned building; black-owned land; black-owned church, black-owned business. They were all up for grabs because part of owning something; “ownership:” is being able to protect it. And not having the law on their side black people when challenged often had to step aside. A black entrepreneur recollected, in the 1930s when he tried to set up a dry cleaning business in Toronto, his vulnerability was furthered by the city’s decision to send in the inspectors to shut him down. When that was not effective enough, a visit was paid to his creditors.

But as well, sometimes, black property owners have not been as astute as they could be in securing what they have worked hard for. The best example of this shortcoming is the one time Universal Improvement Association (UNIA) building located 355 College Street near Spadina Avenue in an area near where many black Toronto residents once lived and in some cases worked.

The building bought in the late 1920s became a landmark associated with the city’s black community. To most of those who went there it was more than an edifice. Many political deliberations were held within its walls and long before jazz musician Miles Davis walked its flight of stairs to jam with local musicians in the 1950s, when one said, “meet me at the hall” it had to be the 355 College Street that was being referred to. It was a community centre, a place where countless young boys and girls learned to play musical instruments and attend dances under adult supervision. The UNIA building was a meeting point in which Black Nationalist Marcus Garvey held his School of African Philosophy in 1937. However, later on the building’s financial status after its mortgage had already been paid off returned to dire financial circumstances resulting in its sale in 1980.

Having been bought for less than $20,000 in the 1920s, the almost $200,000 the building was sold for would seem on the surface to be a savvy business decision. The descendents of women like Mrs. Sobers, Mrs. Williams and Mrs. Kirkwood who kept the UNIA afloat in the 1940s and 1950s, and beyond could, if they were not gracious, say otherwise. Transferring the building to other than black ownership was both a physical and psychological loss for many black Torontonians.

The sale of the UNIA building meant the only other major building landmarks left that were associated with the prewar black Toronto community were the ones housing the British Methodist Church Episcopal Church located on Shaw Street and the African Methodist Church building on Soho Street. The latter was also sold. Although the black identified Home Service Association was established as a social welfare organization in the 1920s control of a building located at 941 Bathurst Street occurred after the Second World War.

The BME Church building was destroyed by fire under what some people say was “questionable circumstances.” As was the case of the UNIA, when the BME was no more the loss was not just of a building that ceased to be black-owned. As important, if not more so was the historical legacy that was destroyed with these losses. These buildings as had been the case with another earlier BME Church edifice on Chestnut Street served as testaments to the faith black people clutched in their bosoms and certified the hope which over many generations had helped to sustain them.

They were institutions built, bought and paid for with black, blood, sweat and tears. Yet in the end these properties slipped from black people’s hands with less than a whimper of sound from members of Toronto’s black community. Contrast this attitude with that of African Nova Scotians who have made sure their government not only remembers the tragedy of Africville, but responds to it by repairing some of the physical and psychological damage done in the name of wider public progress.

So it was a shame that after acquiring another building which in the 1990s housed the Marcus Garvey Centre 1990s, it too was lost. That building had been acquired with the assistance of educator and community worker Lennox Farrell and the City of Toronto’s support. But the centre was unable to be financially sustained by its membership. It was taken away some years later by City Hall. The building housing the old Home Service Association, a social welfare community run organization location at 941 Bathurst Street suffered a similar fate. So much of what embodies the black Canadian experience has been and continues to be lost, stolen or burnt.

While Toronto was no picnic for black people, those who were born here before the outbreak of the Second World War remember their parents’ struggles to stakeout and maintain a presence in a white sea of hostility. In those days the colour contrast was clearer between blacks and whites. The few others evident in “Toronto-the-Good” were seldom seen and usually not heard from. The internment of the Japanese during the Second World War in Canada did not help the situation any. So the silent minorities, some of the black old-timers claim to remember hearing them express under their breath, “thank God for the Negroes.”

Now it is the other way around. Blacks while they look on in amazement are the silent group, paying homage to the groundswell of gravitas some members of these other groups are displaying. This has affected the psyche of people of African descent. Loss of identity, voice and status has left many of them further disadvantaged.

The problem of loss also extends to the steady stream of young Blacks leaving cities like Winnipeg for supposedly greener pastures in Toronto. If as a consequence of outcomes precipitated by the Arab Spring Tunisian boat people after reaching Lampedusa Island off the coast of Italy are smart enough to call home and advise their friends and relatives that daring boat trip isn’t worth it, why are young Blacks not being advised to stay home?

Simply put, it is because staying in places like Winnipeg where the black identity has been marginalized is not an option. The choice for them is like the one taken by the individual mentioned before who loathed returning to his downtown community, let alone patronize his friend’s restaurant. Going elsewhere is akin to the 19^th-century fugitives from American slavery who wished to start over by settling for anywhere but where they felt trapped and persecuted.

The irony is that young black adults who called Winnipeg home were at least psychologically forced to leave to validate themselves. In the case of the doctor who lived in the affluent neighbourhood who was asked to validate his presence, he had to be taking back home within his neighbourhood by the police to show he belonged there. However, it has become harder to find comfort in the space many Blacks call home in Canada. For home is not just a physical space. It is also psychological; social; it exists within boundary lines with signposts and comfort zones. But as these cardinal points are dismantled by powerful forces and interests who in the name of turning the black legacy on its head, there is an abiding impression in the wider community that less value exists in having a viable black presence in cities like Toronto.

The problem therefore for Blacks in Canada is situational and result in loss and confusion. There is no wondering therefore why the black Canadian identity as a consequence of loss is in crisis. The problem is compounded in Canada, a country where its idylls do not match its vision. As federal New Democratic Party leader, Jack Layton wrote before his untimely death in his final letter to Canadians: “Canada is a great country, one of the hopes of the world.” But then he reminds us, we are not there as yet: “We can be a better one,” he wrote. For our nation, Canada, needs to be “– a country of greater equality, justice, and opportunity.” How will we live up to his dream?  How will white Canadians be made to understand that African Canadians are Canadians too? When will the mounting tide of loss for African Canadians end?

© Sheldon Taylor September 2011

African-Canadian Leadership: Needing A New Way Forward

People of African descent are at a crossroads in Canada, and ultimately, in the world. It is important that they redefine and rebrand themselves in a country that is intricately involved in a process that sees Trans National Corporations (TNCs) weakening geopolitical boundaries in favour of their selfish economic interests. As John Madeley puts it in Big Business, Poor Peoples: The Impact of Transnational Corporations on the World’s Poor: “TNCs operate with little regard for individual state interests, and they destroy livelihoods, displace people, render democratic institutions impotent, and feed on life in an insatiable quest for money.”

As a result of population diversity coupled with abundant commodities and financial resources Canada has moved confidently towards its own newer global identity. Therefore, such a paradigm shift calls on all Canadians to be part of a future world in which individual goals are further subordinated by the interests of powerful economic and political elites. They are the ones forming alliances with TNCs, and as such, must maintain their power and influence by following the vision and mission of these mega conglomerates.

Since these oligarchs govern state affairs, they have little or no concern for people other than those who follow their directions and lead. And because Canada’s growth is so dependent on external influences its population is required to cater to the needs of domestic elites connected to global forces. They are best served with block voting and group support for identified party affiliations in elections. When necessary they assist in knowledge transfers from countries of origin and add to bottom lines by selling their labour domestically to TNC affiliates based in the country.

The situation described above places poor Canadians in a bind, for although many of them identify themselves as belonging to specific ethnic groups, they are unorganized and their conditions are mostly affected by socioeconomic determinants. Organizing as a response to their declining circumstances is compounded by variables of poverty, mistrust, lack of political participation, cleavages within their respective ethnic groups, and by how they are further marginalized within the Canadian state.

Blacks or African Canadians as they will also be referred to here are no longer resolute about their goals and objectives in an era of vaulting ethnic competition and deliberate community building. Newer Canadian immigrant communities have found the way of being culturally distinctive, yet their members have fashioned an approach that is nonthreatening to the national climate of conformity in an era of rightwing political attitudes and me-first economics.

We now see efforts by many ethnicities to retain the best of their traditions and origins. Concomitantly, they are moving forward by embracing and contributing to their adopted country’s resurgent economic growth and development. In Canada, where many of their children are being born, these newer Canadians, some of whose ties also run deep in its historical soil, are creating unprecedented success stories in education, business, commerce and the arts. Synergies such as these fit into the new and improved national model as Canadian elites continue the task of redefining the nation’s aims and ambitions. Canada’s economic success has always been propelled by its external, yet subtle frontier.

Canada pretends to not have imperialistic ambitions. However, because of its resources and financial sectors’ powerbase it has been able to put in place a foreign agenda without any scrutiny due for example to the megalithic size and influence of its banking, investment, and mining sectors; all of which have connections to Trans National Corporations. One only has to take a stroll through Canada’s major cities to observe the extent to which the country’s character is now linked to a well developed relationship with domestic and foreign partners.

It is not by accident that Canada’s financial sector openly carries on high stakes activities for all to see in New York, London and within the European Union. Canadians, aided by the wealth and knowledge of its immigrant population, some of who were attracted to work and live here, and in return receive high end salaries and benefits, are making unprecedented strides within newly defined socioeconomic frameworks.

But mostly people of African descent in Canada are absent from such synergies and opportunities. A look at census statistics, analysis and commentary suggest that with a presence dating to the earlier 1600s, people of African descent still languish on the sidelines as the country has learned to effectively use its human resources to enrich its Gross National Product and further its international ambitions.  

Consequently, African Canadians must now play catch up in order to reshape their identities and purposefulness so that they are not placed further afield and left behind as other people advance and contribute to the greater good of the Canadian nation. While racial oppression is still a significant factor in the lives’ of African Canadians, racism is slowly being emptied of its content. Many Canadians ignore its existence or they couldn’t careless about its effects in a period when so many members of the lower white working-class are struggling to make ends meet. Some will say skin colour and how it shapes the Canadian landscape have little or no efficacy amidst the plethora of cultures now existing and doing well in the nation.

Of course it is important to avoid generalizations, because sufferance is present in all Canadian communities. But, as the Conference Board of Canada pointed out in a 2004 report: by the second generation visible minorities earn comparable salaries to other Canadians. The exception is black men, “who remain disadvantaged to the rest of Canada, even past the second generation.” The thorny question remains: Why is it, as others find milk and honey so many black males are not fulfilling their dreams in Canada?

Growing numbers of African Canadians are looking beyond the burdensome issue of racism in Canada. There is no denying it exists. While skin colour remains a feature of racial identity, who gets the jobs, and eats well, convince younger Blacks they must prudently make their mark in a world of people rushing purposefully into the future. In some cases they are the first ones in their families to have acquired skills learned from the rigors of education. And they too are familiar with social media and display capabilities in advanced technologies. Although they understand race still matters, nonetheless, in order to move ahead, they connect with broader economic and sociopolitical networks.

The jobs they seek are not necessarily in the same city they grew up in, nor are future employment opportunities being reserved for them in Canada. Residency, as younger Canadians understand can no longer be considered as a vital part of one’s citizenship and patriotism. For increasingly education, work and survival may require braving pursuits in far off places. This amounts to a brain drain among the black population that is now even more of a popular practice than it was before the 1960s.

The Canada-US border for several hundred years was indeed a porous entity for black Canadians. If they couldn’t earn a living on the northern side of the border, they moved hither towards cities in the northern US in search of work and refuge. In fact, this movement was called: “going beyond the line.” Meaning: setting out for destinations south of the 49^th-parallel.

After World War II, the growth in the Canadian economy and greater opportunities may have made this practice less common. But within the past two decades more and more people of African descent, even ones who entered the country as immigrants, at some point have set their sights on the US. Globalization has added to this dimension, and younger Blacks in moving beyond the barriers of language and culture are putting their universal talents into practice by searching internationally for employment, business opportunities and peace of mind.

The issues described above are dramatically affecting many people in Canada’s black population where there is great debate, uncertainty and the search for a way forward. However, the rethinking and desire for change have not as yet moved beyond parochial discussions and bewilderment. These circumstances are also affected by a damaged image in the public’s mind brought on by what at times appears to be over media reportings of black youth violence, higher school dropout rates, the propensity of police services to racially profile people of African descent, and the unapologetic position of political leaders to happily steer clear of black people in Canada. Black people to their chagrin are treated like pariahs and are compared to other ethnic groups who on the surface are fitting into the mould Canadians like, of: hearing no evil, seeing no evil and doing no evil.

There is in Canada a peculiar cautiousness when it comes to Blacks that allows whites to avoid being cast in the same breath as Americans with its problems of racism. Canadians have successfully employed an approach to Blacks in their midst of, “do nothing to help them; and for God’s sake, do nothing to outwardly hurt them.” Such neglect and injury have meant that black leaders in more recent memory have had to be cautious in how they call attention to problems plaguing the people they claim to represent. Too loud a clarion call results in recrimination from the general public and castigation in the media.

Being affected by the tragedy of the lone wolf metaphor has served to isolate people of African descent at a time when responses to sociological problems must be addressed and societal solutions found. In the wild when the lone wolf is ostracized and separated from the pack, it is just a matter of time before tragic circumstances set in. This is already being observed and spoken about by many Blacks. One person was overheard to say: “I heard of the shooting on TV and just before the shooter’s picture was displayed, I put my hands over my eyes, and hoped it wasn’t someone black.” Unfortunately, in such cases, the general impression is it is Blacks, and mainly black youth perpetrating such crimes. In turn, irrespective of whether this is correct or not, many of them feel a sense of shame and remorse.

Challenges, recriminations, frustrations, underemployment and ineffective leadership are issues affecting some, maybe, even many people of African descent in Canada. The state of affairs is compounded by a lack of solutions and feelings of isolation as the rest of the country seemingly goes about its business. An Internet search where there are many related results support the perception about black crime and youth gangs. These are popular topics for graduate students and professors who can document the associated problems but have yet to provide tangible solutions to what they perceive are the ills black people face in Canada. Sadly, the aforementioned has spawned not only an intellectual curiosity, but is becoming a primary form of employment for people in need of work.

Black mothers too find themselves being subjected to the brunt of the blame. “Why don’t they take better care of their children?” some people ask. Underemployment and poverty are issues some of them are saddled with. But so too was how they were erroneously castigated for being welfare cheats in the 1980s; then tarred and feathered. No one is taking the time to respond to such damaging points of view: No one dares ask: Why is it that in the mid-1990s, the Ontario Provincial Conservative Government of Mike Harris was allowed to introduce dangerous and regressive policies, all in the name of placating the anger of the white male electorate. Some of these policies had a huge impact on poor and black people

The effects of Harris’ politics of spite are still being played out in 2011? Why is it that so many black youth are not responding to school curricula? Why did Harris disband procedures within the Ministry of Education and Training that after significant taxpayer investment dollars were working for disadvantaged school learners? Why are so many black youth unable to find part time jobs to help support themselves? And, why while on the surface, at least numerically, it appears more of them are entering postsecondary institutions, but if they manage to graduate, they cannot find suitable work to begin building a quality of life that will sustain them, improve the life chances of their children, and allow their families to enter the middle-class?

So it is that these are some of the challenges affecting African-Canadians. They are not insurmountable, but are ones requiring the responses of innovators and forward thinkers who have been schooled in the current moment of change and know how. These new leaders must also be wily for the political and economic systems in Canada are testaments to patronage and selfishness and require not just technical abilities to deal with the gate keepers, but the Wisdom of Solomon to move beyond those gates into the inner sanctums of power.

Paradoxically, as African-Canadians become better educated, in some cases more affluent, their organizations and status are even more fragile and regressive. This is likely the result of an historic link between their advancement and activism. In that, activism is out of favour and no longer delivers the results it once did.

According to some in the media who sway public opinion we now live in the age of a post-racial society. This pipe dream provides the rationale for making it all the more necessary to shun activism and strident social welfare community development activities. In other words, the intention is to silent those black leaders who speak out. In the past, Blacks in Canada having challenged the status quo and in being reported on in the media know the cost of being threatened with job loss, or being subjected to police harassment. Ironic, since when it served their interest the politicians and senior bureaucrats just a short time ago were encouraging ethnic and cultural activists’ responses to the age-old problems of race and poverty. Multiculturalism, the underpinning of such endeavours has certainly fallen out of favour in the halls of Canadian power.

Progress means: an old dog must learn new tricks or step aside to allow those with the capabilities and energy to assume greater responsibility. Older leaders should be proud of having done their jobs, but moving forward requires a progressive black agenda. Yet too few people are willing to give of their time and skills in a period when across the board many African Canadians are experiencing diminishing returns.

Their dilemma is the old prejudices that kept them down are still around. Also, their advancements in certain fields like business and the science and technologies are still a work in progress. And, significant numbers of them despite above average educational attainment remain stagnant in below-average jobs and poverty. Suffice it to say here, many African-Canadian youth are frustrated from within and with the broader society that fails to be accepting of them.

Other challenges continue to plague African Canadians. Individual advancement has not as yet translated into collective economic growth. Particular student achievement in post secondary institutions has not spirited the type of positive community outcomes that easily dovetail’s with the “new and improved” Canadian identity. Collaboration among African Canadians has not often created the kinds of results that place any significant emphasis on commercial activities.

Intra and inter-community communications, even with social media, mobile phones, and competition in telephony are weaker now than a generation or so a go when viable national community organizations supporting a common purpose held conferences and consultations and developed focused action plans to forge  strategies of moving forward.

Outcomes may have only been partially achieved back then, but it was sufficient to summon the attention of certain, let us say here for the sake of argument, “more forward thinking politicians.” Upward mobility for some while allowing at times greater acceptance in the broader society has not as yet given those lucky members of the African-Canadian populace other than personal advantages. Greater fragmentation has alienated in particular newer sectors of African Canadian communities whose issues and problems are not readily understood by their colleagues. Then again the problems have multiplied as population size has grown immensely.  

How then should African Canadians proceed to the next critical stage of their development? The current attitudes of governments at all levels of the federal system mean that unlike in the 1960s through the early 1990s there is an unwillingness by most politicians and senior bureaucrats to pay attention to the already much-talked about grievances of why African Canadians are often left at the starting blocks. And the politicians who boast of sharing friendships with senior members of what they still politely call “the black communities” have done nothing to advocate at cabinet tables they sit at for the very people they eat and gingerly frolic with.

It is not by accident that mention is made here of the role of politicians and bureaucrats. There is a long history of partnerships with some who had the decency and the temerity to challenge the wrongheadedness so many others displayed toward black people in Canada.

How can one forget the efforts of CCF politician Joe Noseworthy who at times singlehandedly challenged Canada’s racialized immigration policy long before Tim Hudak, soon to be as many think the next premier of Ontario, was born? Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s encouragement of black community initiatives in the 1960s and the 1970s were part of a progressive federal agenda. For that matter, the pernicious steps taken by Mike Harris that set social welfare and education strategies back many decades should be at the forefront of how poor and underprivileged people are affected when politicians acting in the name of narrow interests willing turn their backs on progress.

Without bone fide political advocates, lacking a feasible business or commercial base, with a leadership in crisis and organizations that continue to proliferate and neutralize each other, African Canadians are having a great deal of difficulty defining their problems, finding workable solutions and honest partnerships in the private and public spheres. These developments are the result of many factors. In the hope of encouraging further discussion some of them will be identified below. The youth related dimension to all of this will be commented on in a separate and later blog.

Concept of community

“Black community” is a term used herein, but while license is being taken in that regard, its time as a tangible label for describing groups of black people may be approaching the past tense. At the heart of the matter is the idea that somehow identified people having different grades of the same pigmentation in Canada are connected to what are commonly referred to as black communities. Such a perception is especially problematic since outside a few areas in Nova Scotia one would be hard pressed to find a geographical space that in the classical sense of the term is a functioning black community.

For many years the concept of community had to do with a shared purpose of struggle, staying power and belonging. Its no secret that before Trudeau’s Multiculturalism Policy (1971) Blacks in Canada, irrespective of their times of arrival as slaves, refugees from American slavery, ostracized Jamaican Maroons, Under Ground Rail Road fugitives, immigrants and in the contemporary period black refugees from various forms of oppression in continental Africa, and importantly, those who with the passage of time were and are Canadian born and bred, used and still use “black community” as a protective cover.

Yet even with their ostracism and ill treatment in Canadian society, black community in the sense as we know it in parts of Harlem, many places in the Southern US, was rather the exception than the norm. But it is a term everyone clings to. Black community, increasingly African-Canadian community, fashions a peculiar psychological identity in a sea of white hostility and marginalization. The paradox is however, as their circumstances improved, if only somewhat, most people with black skin preferred integration to permanent existence in identifiably black residential spaces.

In other words, they wished to find acceptance rather than a distinctiveness that would place them in their own recognizable physical spaces. This was aided by the subtleties of Canadian racism which opted for the less egregious lines of demarcations based on race, and more so on economic and social class. So it was that in the Montreal district of Little Burgundy, white people and black people existed together, as they did some time ago in the immigrant receiving Ward and District area in downtown Toronto.

In time more whites moved out of those areas, but others moved in. When African Canadians could afford to, they too moved into neighbourhoods where they lived side by side with whites, commuted to their own churches in the old neighbourhoods and up until several generations ago continued to work mainly in segregated occupations. It is true that even when sharing the same neighbourhoods with white people, Blacks were limited by the social distance used to associate them with “the other.” No wonder then that the sense of community remained as important as it did to them.

The conundrum of race in Canada has affected the growth and development of African Canadians. In a period when attitudes thawed, but were not eliminated altogether, sizeable groups of ethnic minorities with economic and white alliances have precipitated the kind of competition that at first cut has rendered African Canadians unable to keep pace with the growth and development taking place around them. Many of these groups seemingly live in distinctive communities within physical residential spaces. They work, shop and worship quite often in or in adjacent areas to their identifiable neighbourhoods. The advantages they bring to the process in some instances are ethnic homogeneity, economic and religious solidarity. All of which form part of a list of shortcomings that have been the nucleus of a collectivity of weaknesses supposedly displayed by many African Canadians.

It is being suggested here that the energy African Canadians displayed in the immediate postwar period up to the early 1980s targeted civil and human rights issues. Be they matters associated with Canada’s racialized immigration policy or the need for equitable education outcomes for many black students they along with their allies fought for fairer social policies, others too, now rightly enjoyed. But outcomes did not allow for the creation of viable and definable community entities with economic and business girders, or religious or a sense of fellow felling based on more than skin colour to support the kind of respectable identity that is now in fashion in Canada. That African Canadians are finding themselves again moving in the direction of the back of the bus has also to do with the brand of leadership many of them continue to find attractive.

Leadership

When it is necessary to cry out for changes to discriminatory policies the cause is served if the leaders have amplified voices to summon the attention of regressive and finicky politicians and decision makers. But if the issue of concern is business loans, tone of voice to gain the attention of bankers has to be sedate and a different strategy of engagement is required. In the past techniques and strategies employed by many members of the African-Canadian leadership were more fitting as a response to social issues.

The Canadian mood as indicated at the outset has changed. Black leaders need to adeptly keep pace both stylistically and/or substantively with the times, adjust faster and develop appropriate strategies for the pressing needs of African Canadians. Exceptions abound in places like Nova Scotia where a dynamic African-Canadian leadership sought out accommodations that created some changes for the better in education delivery for black students.

Leadership failures have come about as a result of many challenges African Canadians face because of how they live, survive and are organized in Canada. Over the years, attempts were made to establish self-sustaining and permanently based organizations to meet identified needs; be they, social, economic or otherwise.  These organizations like the Home Service Association and the Universal Negro Improvement Association addressing particular agenda items were manifestations that took shape in the prewar era to develop long-term supports by, of and for African Canadians. Along with various religious denominations, the aforementioned worked well for a period of time.

Organizing and Organizations

With the advent of large scale Caribbean immigration in the 1960s a proliferation of organizations representing a spectrum of needs and points of view were established across Canada. While this is not true in all cases, associations emerged that catered to Blacks based on their status and idiosyncrasies. These types of splits encouraged cleavages, made unity less achievable and created divisions determined by whether or not members were Canadian or foreign born. Recognition of this problem summoned a number of forward thinking people to eagerly search for plausible solutions.

When the National Black Coalition of Canada (NBCC) was founded in the 1960s its existence provided the opportunity many people hoped would lead to the collective resolution of issues plaguing Blacks in Canada, irrespective of their country of origin, or their members’ political persuasion. The NBCC did not last, and organizations became even more fragmented along parochial lines: The National Council of Jamaican and Supportive Organizations in Canada, and similar ones for Trinidad and Barbados defined issues of concern for their members on the basis of immigrant experiences for example.

What is known, but has not been achieved is that community development goes hand-in-hand with leadership and organizations’ viability and stability. However, rather than fewer organizations, many more of them were formed and as they mushroomed their cross purpose missions were made more unachievable. The possibility of fresh ideas being infused into existing visions was made less likely as youth and young adults were shutout or sidelined from the process. These entities were and still are egocentric and the non-ending bickering among members have often turned them into dog and pony shows.

Disorganization has affected the desire by many African Canadians to become a persuasive group of voters politicians would have to reckon with. An example of this is how black people responded to the May 2011 federal election which from anecdotal responses suggests they were less organized and more so as part of religious groups. However, the actual size of the African-Canadian church population, how its denominations are divided and which political parties they support are yet to be determined.

Political impotence has had a debilitating effect when issues like youth violence are addressed. A few years ago, so grim were the circumstances where black youth and guns and violence were concerned that it was necessary at costs beyond the economic capacity of local organizations to bring to Toronto an African-American leader as a consultant so he could suggest effective ways of addressing the matter. Soon after a number of studies on the subject of youth violence were supported and undertaken at the province of Ontario the city of Toronto levels including, Roy McMurtry and Alvin Curling’s Roots of Youth Violence Report. After completion this report like many others before were shelved. The problems such reports were supposed to address have only worsened.

Weak leadership along with undermanaged and poorly financed organizations have allowed others to subvert the African Canadian agenda, all in the name of taking on attractive issues that enhance out-of community vested interests, bottom lines and credibility. Additionally, such a vacuum has had the effect of precipitating ineffective responses to local issues in cities like Montreal and Toronto where youth problems should urgently be addressed.

The situation is made worse because mismanaged organizations and ineffective leaders play into the hands of the status quo which had hoped for such a development. Now, it is all too common for other people to decide who they will work with, or stretching the mark somewhat, they determine who the credible African-Canadian leaders are to be appointed or the ones to be invited to sit at the table during consultations and deliberations.

African Canadian Agendae Development

An historic fear of many African Canadians is to be not in control of issues they deem as important to their community. This has been extended to an unwillingness to readily speak publicly about problems associated with their communities. As a consequence, anyone publicly discussing troubling matters is criticized for not being sensitive and cautious. “Airing the community’s linen in public” provokes swift and strong reactions.

Possibly this has to do with suspicions of the old style of leadership whereby it suited the handful of picked leaders to be the ones articulating the problems to the ruling elites. This meant they had to be in control of the local agenda. But in a period when African Canadians are among the most studied and written about groups in Canada, many people existing outside black “communities” are already more knowledgeable about the societal and sociological issues affecting them; any pretensions therefore of the need for an existing information firewall is mere folly.

Disguising the issues discourages serious consideration about which strategies should be employed and encourages a lack of critical thinking and transparency in an era when full disclosure serves everyone’s interest. A lack of open and democratic discussions have allowed others to define and redefine the black agendae and have resulted in greater polarization and lack of trust which causes an aversion for tolerating differing points of view. This “them and us” divide is encouraging the disunity African Canadians so willingly wish to avoid.

Them and Us Divide

Since the 1980s many more continental Africans and people of African descent from elsewhere in the world moved to Canada. Some of their issues may be different than those ones affecting earlier arrivals or black people born in Canada. An outcome of this is an existence of more than a modicum of distrust between these divergent groups. Misunderstandings have developed that are alienating all parties. On issues like education such divergence of opinion has meant pursuing differing strategies even when a common approach would be more effective. Furthermore, the newer arrivals have not always been able to benefit from the experiences of those who came earlier or were born in Canada.

While this schism benefits some people wishing to foment disunity among African Canadians, it does little to encourage any understanding, cultural sharing, supporting each other’s concerns and creating an effective front to meet the challenges internally and ones from the broader community.

An important next step

The above are but a few examples. The commentary is meant to stimulate further discussion by all interested parties in the hope of avoiding the hand wringing and fear from taking the necessary next steps. Other issues like the divide between the older and younger African-Canadian populations; effective strategies around child and family services; the routes by which government dollars and patronage reach African-Canadian communities; economic strategies; educational concerns, etc, are among the ones to be added to the agenda.

That is why the lack of effective consultations at the local, regional and national levels remains troubling and could have long term tragic results. As important is how political elites have sidestepped African Canadians. Many of the issues discussed in this document are complicated and are ones fraught with difficulty. Yet, if the African Canadian legacy is to be strengthened, they all need urgent attention.

Solutions maybe found in discussions I’ve heard younger African Canadians engaging in. Older ones meet at funerals or community happenings and are irked by how their communities’ efforts have recently been sidelined. However, the downward swing was in progress in places like Winnipeg, Toronto and Montreal even before it was obvious to observers of African-Canadian community developments.

The younger generation of potential African Canadian leaders should step up and fill roles as is occurring in organizations like the Black Business and Professional Association and in its administration of the Harry Jerome Awards function. This does not mean older leaders must retire altogether from community service. They still have meaningful roles to play in advisory capacities and in providing information on institutional memory.

Such a transition is best since the leadership requirement is now more taxing. Persons in positions of authority should fully understand organizational development principles, income generating and fundraising strategies and the dos and don’ts of attracting volunteers with a variety of membership recruitment, social media, computer and other technological skills. The effective administering of an organization has moved way beyond calling a meeting and ensuring minutes are recorded and kept; or holding another dance to raise funds.

Organizations must be proactive and need members with the capabilities of building alliances to ensure survival and viability. Within the past generation and at the expense of other social and human considerations the world has become overtly and apologetically business oriented. While the latter remains important to the overall health of communities and society in general, an organization is about business, as is the people and/or community it serves. By failing to consider what appears above courts further failure.

Personal Note

The writer is mindful of how difficult the path forward for Blacks in Canada is. As has already been stated, they are at their crossroads. So too was the case in 1976 when I undertook to pen an anecdotal study entitled: A further investigation into the problems facing black youth in Toronto. It had been encouraged by my mentors at the time, but not everyone liked it.

Claims were made that the matters discussed and the recommendations made in it could not happen, and were too far fetched. A city politician thought it best to let me know if developments such I predicted ever occurred, such precipitous events would amount to a serious indictment against Toronto’s black community.

Except for Dr. Wilson Head who had been with the Social Planning Council Metropolitan Toronto, and part of the team that founded the School of Social Work, Atkinson College, York University, and a handful of other people, what I said was mainly ignored.

Where are the facts? How could he say this about our community? On and on went the remonstrations in an era before I had any academic credentials. This is not to intimate that I am any more qualified now than back then to bring attention to the above problems and concerns. But after four decades of service in the name of moving the black agenda forward, I am still unafraid to say what needs to be said.

In closing here is an excerpt from what I said so long ago in the halcyon days when the future still appeared bright:

For too long, we have acted only when it was in our best interest, then it was always the question: How much money will be granted to enable us to solve these problems. Now the grants are nearly all gone or are much harder to obtain. But still so many of our problems remain unsolved; and at the top of our problem list are the many diversified and cancerous problems that face Black Youth.

Seems to me like those events in 1976 sound so much like what is happening in 2011! And the constant is the jury is still out on whether or not lessons have been learned.

©Sheldon Taylor

July 2011