By
Neil Armstrong
 |
| Bev Salmon with her son, Warren, and grandson, Shakarri at a New Year's Day event organized by former Member of Parliament, Jean Augustine, on Jan. 1, 2018. |
Two well-known Black Canadians have been appointed to
the Order of Canada.
Former Toronto city councillor, Beverley “Bev” Salmon,
and executive television producer and Olympian, Sylvia Sweeney, are among the
125 new appointments to the Order of Canada announced by Julie Payette,
Governor General of Canada, on December 29.
The new member list includes 4 Companions (C.C.), 35
Officers (O.C.) and 86 Members
(C.M.). Recipients will be invited to accept their insignia at a
ceremony to be held at a later date.
Sylvia Sweeney, C.M. Toronto, Ontario was appointed “for her long-standing commitment to and creative leadership at the nexus of art and sport through her documentaries and world-stage productions.”
Salmon served for twelve years as an elected politician in Toronto, first for North York Centre South, and then as a metro councillor. She was known for her hard work, fearless advocacy and high principles.
Salmon was Toronto’s first black female councillor and the Ontario Human Rights Commission’s first black female commissioner.
“It’s really such a big honour and it’s like an accumulation of the things I’ve done over the decades. I guess people in my local community thought that was a big piece of why I got it. It wasn’t really much emphasis on that,” says Salmon about her appointment to the Order of Canada.
She says her passion, whether while in politics or outside of it, was to improve the education system to make sure there was more inclusivity in all aspects of the curriculum.
Salmon’s says there is still a need for the contributions of Black Canadians to be an integral part of Canada’s history, not set aside to a month of recognition.
Born Beverley Bell, the daughter of a Jamaican father, Herbert McLean Bell, who had come to Canada to join up for the First World War, she trained at Wellesley Hospital and the University of Toronto’s Nursing School where she graduated with the award for the “most outstanding nurse.” Her mother was a fifth generation Canadian of Scottish/Irish descent.
Beverley later married Dr.
John Douglas Salmon, Toronto-born of Jamaican parents, who became the first
black surgeon in Canada.
“I want to see things
improve for the next generation and it’s a sadness when I go to meetings with
the young people and they’re saying some of the same issues that we’ve been
concerned about since the 60s and the 70s – the way the police treat black
people, it’s the unfairness,” she said about what inspires her advocacy.
Having lived in Detroit
around 1960, she said it was a big eye-opener as she got to hear the civil
rights leaders and saw what was happening in the community with policing and
the education system.
It was through raising her
own children that she realized that things needed to be improved.
She was a founding member of
the Urban Alliance on Race Relations and a member of the National Action
Committee on the Status of Women.
She also served as a member
of the Metro Toronto Region Conservation Authority, president of the Glenorchy
Residents Association, a founder of the Black Heritage Program, a fundraiser
for the North York Symphony Orchestra, and an organizer and chair of Canada’s
first conference on the triple jeopardy faced by women of colour.
Salmon was also the chair of
the Metro Anti-Racism, Access and Equity Committee and co-chair of the Black
Educators Group.
Her colleagues describe her
as someone who has a genuine concern for the most vulnerable and is committed
to the disadvantaged.
Salmon was invested into the
Order of Ontario on June 28, 2017 for her work as an anti-racism
and community activist.
She has received several
awards including an honorary doctorate from Ryerson University, Harry Jerome
Award, African-Canadian Achievement Award, Bicentennial Award from the province
of Ontario, and outstanding achievement from the Association of Black Women.
Salmon says she sees really
wonderful leadership emerging in the young people who are much more savvy than
she would have been at their young ages.
“There’s really good
leadership coming up. I feel good about that,” she says noting that if her
being the recipient of the Order of Ontario and Order of Canada is an
inspiration to them then she feels that’s the best benefit of getting such an
honour.
Four years ago, Salmon and
her siblings visited their father’s birthplace, Highgate in St. Mary, Jamaica
and planted a tree.
Prior to that they would each
visit on their own but this was their first visit together and since then
Salmon has lost two of her brothers.
Her father was attending
school in Boston and came on his own to join the Canadian army in 1918 and he
never returned to live in Jamaica.
Sweeney is the daughter of
music teacher, Daisy Sweeney, and railway cook, James Sweeney, and the niece of
jazz musician, Oscar Peterson.
She was a key member of the Canadian women’s basketball team
at the 1976 and 1984 Olympic Summer Games, and went on to have a successful
career as a television journalist and documentary producer.
She produced and directed In the Key of Oscar
(1992), a Gemini Award-winning National Film Board documentary about her famous
uncle, and has been inducted into the Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame and the
Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame.
“It is truly an honour to be recognized in this way. With
the passing of my mother recently so much of what she did lives on through what
we do. As she would say this honour is not so much a sign of what I've done but
a reminder of what I have left to do,” says Sweeney about the appointment.
Created in 1967, the Order of Canada, one of our
country’s highest civilian honours, recognizes outstanding achievement,
dedication to the community and service to the nation.
Appointments are made by the governor general on the
recommendation of the Advisory Council for the Order of Canada.
[This story has been published in the North American Weekly Gleaner, Jan. 11-17, 2018 issue.]
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