# data[].attributes.body
We had our Google Meet from 6:30pm-8:00pm on Monday, November 21st, 2022. Joe, Victoria, Michelle, and Shelly present.

# data[].attributes.body
-African and Caribbean women could and did fight back.
-Domestic workers tried to report abuses to immigration officials even though this came with risk of deportation
-"Julie" Antiguan woman refused deportation but was eventually deports
-Black women started organizing  with the Jamaican Canadian Association of Domestic Workers and they helped with legal challenges
-"7 Jamaican Mothers" most famous case - faced deportation because they said they had dependents when they applied to work
-Advocacy group "INTERCEDE" got involved and allowed them to have success - it helped people see the policies and the deportations were overturned through the Human Rights Commission
-This led to other movements and resistance by groups of Caribbean and African immigrants
Michelle Terra-Allen

# data[].attributes.body
Journey To Justice -McTair, R.

1800’s and 1900's: thousands of blacks arrived in Canada from the USA and West Indies. They “dreamed of a life of equality and opportunity,” however, encountered “a life of segregation, servitude and discrimination.” Blacks in Canada had to fight to obtain basic rights. The most damaging hurtful form of discrimination was economic. Black women worked as domestic workers while black men had a very difficult time finding work. The only place black men were accepted to work in Canada was the Railway

1920’s:  Canada was white and British. Race was the grounds for admission or exclusion from the country. Blacks were denied housing, land grants, hotels, apartments, restaurants, beaches, parks, hospitals etc. “discrimination/racism permissible and acceptable." Only place black men were accepted in Canada was the Railway as porters. They were called “George’s Boys.” While working as Porters Black men were treated as equipment and not treated as human beings. The Porters on the railway were considered the bottom of the barrel. Porters made beds, cleaned toilets, cleaned spittoons, and shined shoes, however, this was all they could get.

1932 Summer Olympics (Los Angeles) Ray Lewis a black track star won medals(bronze medal in the 4x400m relay) Ray Lewis was born in 1910 in Hamilton Ontario. He was a 3rd generation black Canadian. While being an athlete, he was treated equally. However, even though he was an Olympic medalist and he was forced to work as a porter.

1936: Fred Christie a black man, was told he couldn’t buy a beer in Montreal. He fought it in court and the supreme court upheld the discriminatory laws supporting the reality that businesses in Canada can choose customers according to race.

1939: Canada went to war with England. Black men tried to enlist in this war but were told: “sorry we don’t want you.”

1940-1941: Black men were finally allowed to join the army. After fighting in the war they were still not allowed to stay in hotels, and get good jobs. Black men returning from the army encountered treatment such as “I’d  hire you but I don’t know how my customers will feel.” This treatment was a "disregard of black people being seen part of the human family/race. This treatment also disregarded the contributions they made."

Africville: Outside Nova Scotia was a place called Africville. This area was neglected for decades and was a dumping ground for municipal garbage. Sewers were running by Black people’s homes.

1946: Viola Desmond went to jail for refusing to sit upstairs in the black section of the movie theater. When she fought this injustice in court, she lost, was found guilty and fined a 1 cent amusement tax. This showed black people, “When we try to exert our rights, we are the ones who get punished instead of the bad person doing the violation.” Black people thought, “If we don’t have these rights, if the law really doesn’t support us, then we need to change the law.” The Viola Desmond case gave many people the courage to “fight for freedom, liberty and equal rights.”

1962: Racism has been “the cornerstone of Canadian immigration." Ottawa changed their racist immigration policies with the criteria for admission focusing on education, training and skills.

Reflection: How might I centre the history of Black resistance within Black communities in my role as an educator?

Be committed to learning and facilitating factual information about the history of black resistance within black communities

Work in partnership with community members who are educated about the black Canadian experience

Provide meaningful and purposeful opportunities for students and family members to explore, research, discuss, challenge, ask questions about black history year round not only during Black History Month

Use texts by black authors  in all subjects

Never teach about the challenges/adversity faced without teaching the acts of resistance and rebellion by black people and how this resistance and rebellion has granted rights for black people

Do not candy coat or ignore the hard truths that accompany the black Canadian experience, this contributes to “erasure of painful truths.”

Teach students about important Canadian black figures with an emphasis on local ones

Incorporate the 7 principles of Kwanzaa (Unity, Self-Determination, Collective Work and Responsibility, Cooperative Economics, Purpose, Creativity, Faith) in lessons

Victoria Bazely- McTair (2000)

# data[].attributes.headline
How might I centre the history of Black resistance within Black communities in my role as an educator? 

# data[].attributes.subject
How might I centre the history of Black resistance within Black communities in my role as an educator? 

# data[].attributes.body
1) Include the Charter of Rights in current teaching practice for ALL STUDENTS;
2) Have students learn about the past history of heroic Black citizens (e.g., Mary Ann Shadd's journey, etc.);
3) Talk about writing as a columnist in the newspaper (or news forum) as those thoughts become part of history;
4) Newspapers provide a context for thought processes at that time (e.g., for current and future generations);
5) Have students think about biases in that time (1853-1860) to promote self-reliance. Mary Ann Shadd believed that self-reliance was the true road to freedom:
-M A Shadd went by this name and many letters that came to her, were addressed to Mr. Shadd.  She could not start out as a woman columnist as she feared her community's response (SEXISM);
-Once she was discovered, comments came forth, "Shadd adds nothing to her credit as a lady"...comment from "letter to the editor" in Bib's paper that she wrote in (SEXISM);
6) Look at laws at the time:  Teach students to question laws and how to create change in a positive manner, to be resilient;
-Toronto passed a law in 1851 that it was illegal for slavery;
-At the time in the US, many Black citizens escaped to Canada to become free...but how much more free were they?;
-At that time, people who escaped slavery in the US could be recaptured and brought back to their previous owners, as slaves;
7) Teach students how Mary Ann Shadd brought forth change, despite the Black resistance, given that she did not have financial capacity;
-Mary Ann Shadd worked with Henry Bib (born into slavery) and Mary Bib to set up schools in Canada (they moved from the US);
-Mary Ann Shadd pushed for "common schools" where ALL students could attend, yet there were no Black teachers hired there;
-Mary Ann Shadd used her positionality with the American Missionary Association to help fund her "common schools" in Ontario;
-She wrote monthly notes to the American Missionary Association to explain how their funds were helping Black students.  This gave her a chance to get funding renewals.  Those letters were kept as precious historical documents;
-The Bib Family supported separatist schools where Black students could be (you had to have 5 Black families to request this type of private school);
-Mary Ann Shadd worked to recruit Black soldiers;
8) Teach ALL students critical literacy.  What is the sources of news and what are biases expressed (e.g., information and stories are presented, do they look at pros and cons, etc.)? Shouldn't news be objective?

Mary Ann Shadd improved the lives of Black citizens, women, and Black children.  Her idea of a common school in Canada, despite the idea of segregation schools, was one that promoted unity and peace.   I would also argue that her efforts benefited other children besides, Black children, as children could begin to experience friendships with ALL children in their neighbourhoods.  Her efforts stand out as a "historical crusader" for Black People!

Reflections by: Shelly Brandon-Yungblut
Podcast: "Strong and Free: Mary Ann Shadd: Jorunalism, Activism, and Power of Words".

# data[].attributes.headline
True North and only free for some! Joe Lamoueux

# data[].attributes.subject
True North and only free for some! Joe Lamoueux

# data[].attributes.body
-https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/timeline/black-history
-1619, slaves brought ot British colonies (Jamestown)
- 1628, First Black slave  in New France
- 1685, Louis XIV's Code Noir permitted slavery for economic purposes.
- 1689, Louis XIV answers colonists in New France and allows more slavery to adderes the shortage of "servants and workers."
-1709. Louis XIV Slavery Expanded in New France
-1734, Marie-Joseph Angélique allegedly set fire to her master's Montréal house and destroyed nearly 50 homes. She was tortured and hanged as an object lesson for all Blacks.
-1760-When the British conquered New France in 1760, the Articles of Capitulation stated that Blacks and Pawnee Indians would remain slaves
-1784-After the Revolutionary War, the "Black Pioneers" were among the first settlers in Shelburne, Nova Scotia, and they helped build the new settlement. On its fringes they established their own community, "Birchtown." When hundreds of White, disbanded soldiers were forced to accept work at rates competitive with their Black neighbours the ensuing hostility caused a riot.
-1792-The difficulty of supporting themselves in the face of widespread discrimination convinced many Black Loyalists that they would never find true freedom and equality in Nova Scotia. When offered the opportunity to leave the colony in the 1790s, almost 1,200 Blacks left Halifax to relocate to Sierra Leone.
-1793-Upper Canadians were shocked when Chloe Cooley, an enslaved woman from Queenstown, was beaten and bound by her owner and transported across the Niagara River to be sold in the US. Brought before Upper Canada's Executive Council 21 March 1793, English law made prosecution impossible. The incident convinced Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe that the abolition of slavery was necessary. On 19 June 1793, Attorney General White introduced Simcoe's anti-slavery measure and it passed, although it was not a total ban on slavery but a gradual prohibition.
-1794-based on their military service in the war between Great Britain and America, 19 free Blacks in the Niagara area petitioned Governor Simcoe for a grant of land to establish an all-Black settlement. The petition was rejected. In 1819 the government established Oro Settlement near Barrie.
-1796-A group of 600 freedom-fighters landed at Halifax. These immigrants, called Maroons, came from a Jamaican community of escaped slaves who had guarded their freedom for more than a century and fought off countless attempts to re-enslave them.
-1799- Joseph Papineau (father of Louis-Joseph Papineau) presented a citizens' petition asking the government to abolish slavery, prompting a series of anti-slavery measures. While these bills were defeated, a movement towards the abolition of slavery was clearly under way in Lower Canada.
-1812 WAR OF- Thousands of Black volunteers fought for the British during the War of 1812. Fearing American conquest (and the return to slavery), many Blacks in Upper Canada served heroically in coloured and regular regiments. The British promise of freedom and land united many escaped slaves under the British flag.
-1815- Canada's reputation as a safe haven for Blacks grew substantially during and after the War of 1812. Between 1815 and 1865, tens of thousands of African-Americans sought refuge in Upper and Lower Canada via the legendary Underground Railroad.
-1821-While slavery remained legal in all British North American colonies until 1834, the combination of legislative and judicial action had severely tested the institution by the early 1820s. The last known private advertisement for slaves appeared in Halifax in 1820 and in Québec in 1821.
-1851- On 26 February 1851, the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada was formed, "to aid in the extinction of Slavery all over the world."
-1857-William Neilson Hall Receives Victoria Cross
-1892- first black doctor- Anderson Abbott
-1911-In February 1911, a few newspapers in Winnipeg even predicted that the Dominion government would move to exclude "Negro immigrants
-1913 Harriet Tubman dies was of the underground railway.
-Between 1914 and 1918, Black Canadians at home became actively involved in the war effort.
-1919-Order of Sleeping Car Porters (OSCP), the first Black railway union in North America, was finally recognized.
-Blacks Accepted into Canadian Services in WWII
-1944- Ontario was the first province to respond to social change when it passed the Racial Discrimination Act of 1944. This landmark legislation effectively prohibited the publication and display of any symbol, sign, or notice that expressed ethnic, racial, or religious discrimination. It was followed by other sweeping legislation.
-1946 incident in which Desmond was arrested for sitting in a “Whites Only” section of a theatre in New Glasgow, NS, she fought her conviction of defrauding the government of the difference in tax — one cent —
-1954- two Black patrons visited rural Dresden, ON. and were refused service in two restaurants. The Toronto Telegram sent Black "testers" to investigate, who were also refused. When the Telegram ran the story, it confirmed what many Black Canadians suspected, that Canada's laws and regulations were ineffective.
-1958-Hockey player Willie O'Ree has his NHL debut with the Boston Bruins in a game against the Montreal Canadiens, thus becoming the first Black person to enter the league.
-1962-Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Ellen Fairclough oversaw improvements to the Canadian Immigration Service, but her most significant accomplishment was the radical reform of the government's "White Canada" immigration policy.
-1963-Leonard Braithwaite became the first African-Canadian in a provincial legislature.
-1964-Encouraged by media attention to Africville's "American-style ghetto," the Halifax City Planning Commission expropriated the land. Residents resisted, citing the community's proud traditions, although Africville lacked basic services such as water, sewage, and good roads.
-1965-Thanks to the activism of Black parents, racially segregated schools in Ontario were gradually phased out. The last racially segregated school in Ontario, School Section No. 11 in Colchester, closed in 1965.
-1965-, racial tension ran high in Amherstburg, ON. A cross-burning set the tone; the Black Baptist Church was defaced and the town sign was spray-painted "Amherstburg Home of the KKK."
-1967-Caribana Founded in Toronto
-1967- Immigration points system introduced.
-1971- immigration reform leads to over 64000 west indian immigrants come to Canada.
-1991-Race Riot at NS High School Prompts Education Reform
-1995- Donovan Bailey becomes wor;d's fastest human
-2005- First black Governor General- Michaelle Jean.
-2018 Viola Desmond on $10 Bill.

# data[].attributes.headline
 How might I centre the history of Black resistance within Black communities in my role as an educator?

# data[].attributes.subject
 How might I centre the history of Black resistance within Black communities in my role as an educator?

# data[].attributes.body
EDUCATION:  We need to ensure that 'we' have a full understanding of the true history of the Canadian exepreince for Black people in this country and province.  Unfortunately, the fortunes of the Black experience have often been dictated by the economic situation of the times.  We need to break that cycle to support a society that respects and cherish Black citizens. I hope to demonstrate to my students the struggles that Black people have had and the "White-washing of our collective expereince to ignore the harsh realties that or history has for us.  As an educator I must teach and support critical thinging skills, the bedrock of relying on facts and demonstrate the importance of caring and respect to help us all deal with the sins of the past in order to have a future free of those sins. The resiliancy and strength of the Black community has to be shown beyond the leaders, but the everyday Black person as well.

# data[].attributes.headline
View:   McTair, R. (2000). Journey to Justice (47 mins) Warning, this film included heavy language including racial epithets.

# data[].attributes.subject
View:   McTair, R. (2000). Journey to Justice (47 mins) Warning, this film included heavy language including racial epithets.

# data[].attributes.headline
Read:  Maynard, R. (2019). The Black Side of the Mosaic: Slavery, racial capitalism and the making of contemporary Black poverty. In Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from slavery to the present. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing, p. 50-82. 

# data[].attributes.subject
Read:  Maynard, R. (2019). The Black Side of the Mosaic: Slavery, racial capitalism and the making of contemporary Black poverty. In Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from slavery to the present. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing, p. 50-82. 

# data[].attributes.headline
Listen                                                                                Episode 4 | Strong and Free | Mary Ann Shadd: Journalism, Activism, and the Power of Words (33 mins)   

# data[].attributes.subject
Listen                                                                                Episode 4 | Strong and Free | Mary Ann Shadd: Journalism, Activism, and the Power of Words (33 mins)   

# data[].attributes.headline
Respond                                                                                                                                                                    McTair, R. (2000). Journey to Justice (47 mins) Warning, this film included heavy language including racial epithets.  

# data[].attributes.subject
Respond                                                                                                                                                                    McTair, R. (2000). Journey to Justice (47 mins) Warning, this film included heavy language including racial epithets.  

# data[].attributes.headline
Canadian Anti-Black Policies (Book: Policing Black Lives)

# data[].attributes.subject
Canadian Anti-Black Policies (Book: Policing Black Lives)

# data[].attributes.body
-Debt relief provided if African countries accept policies by IMF and the World Bank which continue to socio-economic hardships
-Brutality inflicted by Canadian peacekeepers during Somalian crisis (1990s)
-Black settlers were not granted the same privileges as white settlers
-Domestic workers- structure relied on the idea of Black women as "slaves" or "servants"
-Domestic workers have very little protection and when they fought back for rights to not be deported (decision was up to the household who hired)
-Less Black women were hired due to not being "docile" enough (some making as little as 2.25 per hour)
-Men in temporary work programs
-No rights, no health care, pay taxes but do not benefit from social services and paid very low wages with subpar work conditions
Michelle Terra-Allen

# data[].attributes.headline
How might I centre the history of Black resistance within Black communities in my role as an educator?  (Book: Policing Black Lives)

# data[].attributes.subject
How might I centre the history of Black resistance within Black communities in my role as an educator?  (Book: Policing Black Lives)

# data[].attributes.body
There are many examples of Black Canadians being taken advantage of and abused by those in power.  Domestic workers and temporary labourers were a large part of the reading.  The highlights I would make in the class are the examples in the reading of those who resisted. It is important to share the difficult stories but to recognize that these various groups were not standing by without resisting. Many of these Black immigrants to Canada fought back and resisted the policies put into place.   Those who fought back and went to the courts to help themselves demonstrate resilience and strength and these are the stories that need to be shared.  My students need to hear these amazing stories of Black Immigrants who had grit and took on the system. These are shining examples of Black leaders.
Michelle Terra-Allen