Emancipation Day 2024 - Let Us Measure What Matters and Continue to Improve

So grateful for the opportunity to provide the keynote address for the Richmond Hill Emancipation Day event. During my speech, I started with gratitude, shared the relevant historical context, mentioned the modern-day remanence of slavery and related discrimination, and finally shared a vision for a sustainable future.

Starting with Gratitude

I thank Member of Parliament (MP) Majid Jowhari for introducing M-36 Emancipation Day, 43rd Parliament, 1st Session in 2020. The M-36 Emancipation Day motion was passed by the House of Commons of Canada on March 24, 2021, unanimously designating August 1 as Emancipation Day in Canada. I thank the Mayor of Richmond Hill, David West , for supporting the first proclamation for Emancipation Day in Richmond Hill in 2021. I also appreciate the opportunity to raise the Pan-African flag and conduct the Akan libation at the Richmond Hill City Hall on Emancipation Day.

I appreciate you and your respective teams' work in this area leading to today's event.

It was incredible sharing the podium with guest speakers Marsha Simone C. , Lawyer, MSC Intellectual Property & Technology Law, who shared a gender perspective and Kasim Jules, Blue Door , who shared a youth perspective. Members of the YRAACC team also contributed to the program, with Imani Monetta James singing both the Canadian National Anthem and the Black National Anthem (Life Every Voice and Sing), and Madge Logan reciting the Ancestral Acknowledgement. Nadine Williams ignited the audience with two powerful poems and shared a quilt made for the International Decade for People of African Descent. Canada will extend the period for another four (4) years until 2028 . The quilt is part of the “Fabric of Our Being” project. This extension would provide more time to focus on Development, Justice and Recognition for People of African Descent.

It was gratifying to have the presence of Member of Parliament (MP) Leah Taylor Roy , Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP), Daisy Wai , Councilor Michael Shiu, and Councilor Scott Thompson. Our Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau , shared a video message, and so did Rosemary Sadlier .

Thank you, Joshua Dyer , Director of the Richmond Hill Public Library , for hosting us again for the second year.

Finally, I am grateful to the members of the YRAACC team who supported the event, including Lee Miller , Winston Miller, Sophie McKenzie, and Rose Douglas, Marcia Anderson.

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Sharing the Relevant Historical Context

Slavery is a heinous act. For our context today, we will focus on the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, which resulted in the murder of many people of African descent on the African continent, the Atlantic Ocean, and the colonies. It destroyed at least 13 generations of families. Many people speak of People of African Descent using the 'Race Card' to defend themselves today.

The first document written about slavery was from the 1400 . To me, this was the first 'Race Card .' It was a document written in Portugal with the expressed purpose of dehumanizing Africans and justifying slavery and human trafficking from their homes in Africa and across the Atlantic to Western countries as property.

The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade saw the human trafficking of 12 million people of African descent by many European countries to the Western world. Sadly, 2 million ended up at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. I encourage you to watch Enslaved on CBC to learn more about those forgotten souls. Samuel L Jackson does a beautiful job narrating their stories.

Interestingly, Britain paid the enslavers to free the People of African descent from slavery. It provided a sum of ￡20 million (equivalent to about ￡20 billion today ). The victims or enslaved people did not get paid for their suffering.? Where were the reparations for the enslaved?

So, before Emancipation Day, slavery or the human trafficking of Africans was legal. The British Empire officially ended slavery on August 1, 1834 . As of Emancipation Day, August 1, 1834, the human trafficking of Africans became illegal. This change was an improvement. However, there was still more work to do as the People of African descent experienced discrimination.

In Canada, they could only work specific jobs, such as being domestics and train porters . Over 100 years after emancipation, this discriminatory behaviour led to Viola Desmond being jailed for sitting downstairs in a movie theatre even though she bought her ticket with her hard-earned money. I keep her 10-dollar bill in my pocket to remind myself of the work that still needs to be done.

Then came the change in the Immigration Act of 1967 . This change levelled the playing field a bit, and Black people like me could take a test to justify getting the Permanent Resident (PR) card and being allowed into Canada. Unfortunately, there is still more work to do.

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Modern-Day Remnants of Slavery and Discrimination

I came to Canada permanently in December 1999. It was a happy time for me as I arrived 3 (three) days before our second child and daughter was born on Christmas day that year. By April 2000, I obtained my first job in Canada, comparable to my previous one in Jamaica. I thought everything would be good. However, I will soon experience a wakeup call. My daughter alerted me of a remarkable fact when she was just 4 (four) years old as I drove her to daycare in 2004. She knew adults at the daycare did not treat her as well as the white kids. Her words shocked me to my core.

I could not tell if her treatment resulted from conscious or unconscious bias . How do we measure this bias? What I do know is that the result was the same. It made me realize how much I needed to step up as a father and be more present in my kids' lives. Fortunately, based on the hours I worked and the type of job I had, I could volunteer for many activities, such as being a scout leader, soccer coach, and soccer team manager. Only some families that look like mine have this capability.

Some families have single parents or do not have the resources we have. Many of these situations are the remnant of slavery and the destruction of the Black family unit over centuries. Many of these families did not have the opportunity of generational wealth. The people of African Descent instead experience the ill effects of structural and systemic racism, which create generational trauma . If you ask them about their family trees, they would be lucky to be able to go back 3 (three) generations. When I analyzed my DNA through Ancestry recently, I gained a sense of the fragmentation of my family as I learned of previously unknown cousins in various areas of the world.?

We need to find better ways to support Black families. For this reason and other related considerations, I completed my doctoral journey to understand these challenges better and associated measurements of progress and write my thesis (Investigating the Relationship between Racial Diversity and Canadian Company Performance ). My journey also led me to work in the community as a board member and current chair of the York Region Alliance of African Canadian Communities (YRAACC).

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Vision for a Sustainable Future Improvement?

What should we do going forward? We should measure the experience of People of African Descent using the appropriate Objective and Key Results ? (or OKRs). I keep hearing about the OKRs being used to measure what matters. We matter. Let me share some context. During my doctoral studies, I researched diversity on corporate boards in Canada. In response to the Employment Equity Act of 1995, I noted that companies must report to the Ontario Security Commission (OSC) on gender representation on their boards and within their executive ranks.

Interestingly, this report kept being shared during the COVID-19 years. It did not stop. Since the report started 9 (nine) years ago, there has been a doubling of gender representation from 11% to 22%. More work is still required on gender equity, as women comprise more than 50% of the Canadian population . In 2022, I asked when the data will be disaggregated to measure the representations of the other groups, namely Aboriginal Peoples, Persons with Disabilities, and Visible Minorities. I am still to get a response to that question. When will we start measuring the representation of these different groups in Canada so they, too, can progress? I hope that enforcing Bill C-25 for companies will support the people of African descent in Canada (Creating Transparency with Bill C-25 ). I also want us to continue progressing in Canada with the United Nations Sustainability Development Goals (UNSDG) .

Let me share some additional context. In May 2020, we all watched the horrific murder of George Floyd in the US. That video was a measurement of the injustice that still exists globally. Many people denied it for centuries. However, it was measured by 17-year-old Darnella Frazier. There were global Black Lives Matter protests in over 60 countries because people received validation of the injustices we all suspected.

Then there was the experience of COVID-19. Several countries globally measure the impact of COVID-19 based on parameters like ethnicity and race . Canada resisted. In my LinkedIn article, The Importance of Collecting Race-based Data to Ensure More Equitable Health Outcomes , I shared my observations. Through these measurements, those countries saw the disparities in health outcomes and could take the appropriate corrective steps. When will we consistently measure the health outcomes of underrepresented groups in Canada?

As we acknowledge and recognize Emancipation Day 2024, know that we have come far from 1834. However, we still have a long way to go.? Let us measure what matters as we progress, at least in alignment with the United Nations Sustainability Goals (UNSG) and continue to improve the results seen on the dashboard.

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Walk Good.?

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#BillC25 #EmancipationDay #Blackexcellence #Diversity #Equity #Inclusion #Belonging #AntiBlackRacism #RichmondHill #UNSDG #YRAACC #RHPL #TDReadyCommitment

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