Renewed calls for apology for slavery in Canada

BY PAUL JUNOR

The celebration of August 1^st as Emancipation Day has drawn attention to the history of slavery in Canada. It celebrates the abolition of the Slavery Act, which came into effect on August 1^st, 1834. (https:// www.heritagetrust.on.ca).

In the fall of 2017, the United Nations Human Rights Council released a report that focused on the periods 1500s to 1834, in which it recommended that Canada apologize and possibly pay reparations for the injustices meted to People of African Descent. Subsequently, in 2018 a Senate committee called for an apology and reparations. According to the June 2^nd, 2020 edition of the Globe and Mail titled, “Trudeau won’t say whether Canada will apologize for history of slavery or pay reparations” despite being asked twice about apologizing, he avoided the question and deflected,

“We will continue to work with the community on the things we need to do.”

In response to the Trudeau’s avoidance Professor Afua Cooper states, “The Prime Minister has to do better. It’s scandalous and I’m outraged by it. It says to me that the federal government doesn’t take black people’s issues seriously.”

Furthermore, Professor Michelle Williams states that Canada would continue, “Hiding behind the myth of racial equality. The delay tells me that we continue to be the subjects of purposeful neglects of governments.”

Professor Barrington Walker goes further and stated according to The Globe and Mail that that “He was disappointed by Mr. Trudeau’s non-response and that an apology would help to educate Canadians on the connections between slavery and the discrimination unfolding today and show black people they are viewed as equal citizens.”

Natasha Henry, president of the Ontario Black History Society (OBHS) wrote in an article titled, “If black lives truly matter in Canada, an apology for slavery is only the first step,” on June 9^th, 2020 for Spacing Toronto (spacing.ca) “Given how the government of Canada has issued apologies to other communities that were harmed in the past, the hesitation and refusal by Ottawa to make the recommended and demanded apology further illustrates how black Canadians are not valued.” She notes further “Canada has yet to reckon with its slave past and its enduring legacies. Trudeau’s inability to give a firm response is a metaphor of how Canadians fail to confront their own histories of racial oppression.”

In another article titled “Apology, Truth and Reparations: The overdue reckoning with Canada’s slave past,” on July 23^rd, 2020 for Spacing Toronto Natasha writes, “While an apology is long overdue, it is not sufficient on its own. An apology should be a starting point of a process that seeks to right the historic wrongs of anti-black racism born out of the direct effects of enslavement as a means of addressing the on-going racial and economic trauma of intergenerational racism.”

She notes that on three occasions Ellis Harding-Davis of the Amherstburg Freedom Museum wrote to the Prime Minister: the last time in 2018. He initiated a letter writing campaign requesting that Justin Trudeau make a collective request for an apology for slavery. There was no response to the first two attempts, but the third one was acknowledged. No response has been resulted so far.

In a march on August 1^st, 2020 in Toronto, Yvette Blackburn, spokesperson for Global Jamaica Diaspora Council states, “There’s never been an apology issued. I think it’s time. Emancipation should be everywhere.”

Now, is the time to put pressure on the Canadian government to do the right thing!