February is Black History Month in Canada, and while the department of Citizenship and Immigration encourages the Canadian public to “honour the legacy of black Canadians, past and present,” African-Canadians remain underrepresented in Canada’s Parliament. There are currently three Senators and two Members of Parliament, but the African-Canadian population numbers 900,000. It would take six more MPs to accurately reflect Canada’s black population in the House of Commons.
“If we’re going to have two-elected Chambers the real issue is how to find a way for more African-Canadians to get into political parties and win nominations so that they can run for a seat,” said Conservative Senator Don Oliver, who told The Hill Times that political parties have the power to welcome and support not only blacks, but visible minorities in general. “That kind of outreach has been lacking,” Sen. Oliver said.
Appointed to the Senate by Brian Mulroney in 1990, Sen. Oliver represents Nova Scotia, where his ancestry extends back four generations. Sen. Oliver has devoted his career to promoting diversity in the public and private sectors. He raised more than half a million dollars to fund a Conference Board of Canada study on diversity in 2004, and has contributed to a number of scholarships for black university students. In 2008, Sen. Oliver’s motion to have the Senate officially recognize Black History Month passed unanimously.
“It has to start with the leadership of political parties. Some parties already have the power for the leader to designate a candidate in a particular riding, and that person could be black or a visible minority,” said Sen. Oliver. “If that were used more, it would make a huge difference on the makeup of Parliament.”
But while Sen. Oliver said he believes that political parties have a leading role to play in making Parliament more representative of Canada’s diversity, he also emphasized the need for greater education and support for black youth within their communities. Through scholarship fundraising and mentorship, Sen. Oliver has worked to encourage young African Canadians to assume public leadership roles.
Ontario Conservative Senator Don Meredith, 47, who immigrated to Canada from Jamaica in 1976 and spent his formative years in Toronto’s Jane and Finch neighbourhood, agreed that there’s a need for a grassroots push to encourage young blacks to serve their community and work towards public office.
“We need to engage people, we need to say that you can become a councillor, a mayor, an MPP, an MP. You can become the Prime Minister of this country,” said Sen. Meredith.
Prior to being appointed to the Senate by Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) in 2010, Sen. Meredith spearheaded community efforts to reduce street violence in Toronto, and as an ordained minister he continues to deliver sermons to his York area Pentecostal church today. Sen. Meredith, who ran unsuccessfully in the 2008 federal byelection in Toronto Centre, is still involved in the GTA Faith Alliance which focuses on issues of youth violence, gangs and guns.
“One of the strategies that I’ve taken is to bring young people [to Parliament] so that they can see themselves sitting in a Senate seat, or in the House of Commons, so that light goes on in their heads,” said Sen. Meredith, recalling when he hosted students from his childhood neighbourhood on Parliament Hill. “They said, ‘Wow, you lived at Jane and Finch and you’re here?’ It’s about inspiring them, but I think political leaders also need to look at placing credible candidates in constituencies where there’s a large, diverse community and they have an opportunity.”
But Sen. Meredith said his faith is what has led him to where he is today.
“One of the foundational things that kept me going was my belief in God and my faith and the examples of role modes who kept me going as a young man,” Sen. Meredith said. “You may be born into poverty, as I was, but you don’t have to let that shape you, you can define yourself. I tell young people, ‘Don’t let anyone define you, you define yourself.’”
There are few examples of African-Canadian politicians for youth to aspire to, but the selection is no less inspiring. Lincoln Alexander became the first black Canadian MP when he won the Hamilton West, Ont., riding for the Progressive Conservatives in 1968. Mr. Alexander was appointed Ontario’s lieutenant governor in 1985, becoming the first black person to assume the role in Canadian history.
Jean Augustine became the first black female MP when she was elected to serve Etobicoke-Lakeshore, Ont. in 1993 under the Liberals. It was Ms. Augustine who introduced the motion to officially recognize February as Black History Month in 1995, a motion unanimously carried by the House of Commons.
Independent Ontario Senator Anne Cools, who became the first female African-Canadian Senator when Pierre Trudeau appointed her in 1984, acknowledged that African Canadians can exercise real power through grassroots political engagement, but added that the more nuanced social relationship of Canada’s black communities is a challenge to getting more African Canadians into federal political office.
“The black community of Canada is not a particularly large community. It is also a now extremely varied community. In the last 30 or 40 years, it has totally changed,” Sen. Cools noted. “I’m not too sure that the term ‘the black community’ is as useful a term as it used to be. We’re not like black America.”
Sen. Cools described the African-American community as much more homogeneous and politically focused than Canada’s diverse black communities.
“You have to separate how we cast black people in Canada from how black people are cast in the United States of America because black people in Canada are not thrown into the ghetto-type situations like in America,” said Sen. Cools. “Whenever I speak in the U.S. people are always amazed that I did not come from a ‘black’ constituency.”
“What is of interest and what should concern us is do black people in Canada in general have a role in what I would call the political role of citizenry. That is the important question,” said Sen. Cools.
NDP MP and Heritage critic Tyrone Benskin (Jeanne-Le Ber, Que.), who was first elected in last May’s federal election along with fellow black NDP MP Sadia Groguhé (St-Lambert, Que.), said that although representing his constituents is his top priority, he is hopeful that Black History Month will lead to a better understanding of the experience of blacks in Canada.
“It’s one thing to just say, ‘Celebrate, celebrate, celebrate,’ but it was important for me in that declaration [for Black History Month] to talk about the historical presence of people of African descent in this country,” Mr. Benskin told The Hill Times.
That presence of black people in Canada dates back more than four hundred years when the first black person arrived in Canada alongside explorer Samuel de Champlain in 1604. Mathieu Da Costa was a free African who sailed to Canada to act as an interpreter for the European explorers.
Black slaves fought for the British Empire in the American Revolution. The British promised slaves freedom in exchange for loyalty to the empire and more than 30,000 black men defected to the British Army. Many eventually relocated to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick as part of the northward exodus of United Empire Loyalists following the revolution.
Today the diverse African-Canadian population has come to include immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean, as well as native-born Canadians and African Americans.
Mr. Benskin said that all these communities can come together to achieve a greater level of visibility and political influence in Canada.
“There’s no doubt the [black] community itself has to be more active,” Mr. Benskin observed. “A phrase which I stole from somebody is ‘If you can see it, you can be it.’ I think it’s up to those of us who are here to go out to schools and let young people see that this is attainable.”
Original Article
Source: hill times
Author: VICTOR RYAN, CHRIS PLECASH
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