By Neil Armstrong
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| Aina-Nia Ayo'dele Grant speaking at the Emancipation Month Sankofa Ceremony at City Hall on August 29, 2019 |
The City of Toronto’s Confronting Anti-Black Racism Unit
will be sponsoring 100 Black youth to attend the BFUTR Tech Summit,
the largest ever gathering of Black tech professionals in Canada.
Aina-Nia Ayo’dele Grant, manager of the CABR Unit, made the
announcement at the Emancipation Month Sankofa Ceremony held at City Hall on
August 29.
Mayor John Tory said he recently had a roundtable
specifically provided for the Anti-Black Racism Plan on black businesses to
explore “what is it that is holding people back, what can we do to provide that
little support and lift to make sure those entrepreneurs can be successful in
the city.”
The next roundtable will take place at the tech conference
later this year and will focus on black professionals in the tech sector.
“There is absolutely no reason why we can’t see leadership
there, success there, startups there, investments taking place there that are
from and of the Black community in the tech sector which is booming so much in
our city right now. It’s a matter of will, it’s a matter of recognizing the
people that exist and allowing them to achieve their full potential,” he said.
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| Mayor John Tory speaking at the Emancipation Month Sankofa Ceremony |
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| Deputy Mayor Michael Thompson speaking at the Emancipation Month Sankofa Ceremony |
Also speaking at the ceremony was Deputy Mayor Michael Thompson
who is also the Chair of the Economic and Development Committee of the City of
Toronto. He said the BFUTR Tech Summit will be held on October 25.
“This conference will be the largest gathering of Black tech
professionals in Canada. It will present a dynamic networking opportunity,
innovation, innovative ideas and career development sessions led by industry
experts. I encourage all of you who have an interest in tech, and even if you
don’t, because tech is here and innovation is here , I think you may as well
experience the opportunity,” said Thompson about the summit which will be held
at the Westin Harbour Castle hotel.
Tory said Emancipation Day is about “recognizing the
incredible journey, the often tragic journey but the journey with so many twists
and turns that has led us to the place where we are still speaking about
equality and justice, and it is a journey that is ongoing, it’s far from
reached.”
Thompson said that as the only member of council that is
Black there isn’t a day that his shoulder isn’t “weighted down with some degree
of issues related to the community, specifically amongst all the other things I
have to do.”
“We need more of us
on council,” he said.
The deputy mayor commended the team of CABR Unit on the work
that is has been doing describing it as “truly excellent work to bring about
change.”
“We have to be the change that we need, we have to bring
those who are interested in making change with us because when you involve us
we make this place a better place. Without involving us it’s not a better
place.”
Meanwhile, Dr. Wesley Crichlow of the Partnership and
Accountability Circle (PAC) said through direct and ongoing engagement with the
CABR Unit, PAC provides advice to the City of Toronto.
It does so by providing guidance and advice to the CABR Unit
staff in planning, implementation and evaluation with regard to the Toronto
Action Plan to Confront Anti-Black Racism.
Dr. Crichlow said it is fitting that the CABR Unit can be
embracing August as Emancipation Month in the spirit of the International
Decade for People of African Descent proclaimed by the UN General Assembly
which began in 2015 and will be observed until 2024. The theme for the Decade
is “Recognition. Justice. Development.”
“But Emancipation Month is not freedom. Emancipation Day
celebrations remain an ongoing and profound critique of the state and we cannot have emancipation without reparation.
African Americans upon their freedom were promised 40 acres and a mule. When
Black Loyalists arrived in Nova Scotia they were promised 10 acres, a cow and
two sheep. Although Canada and the US belonged to Indigenous People these lands
were still promised to folks.”
He noted that in what is being represented a major victory
in the fight to make Europe pay reparation for the brutal Transatlantic Slave
Trade, “the umbrella University of the West informs us that the University of
Glasgow in the United Kingdom has agreed to begin making reparations in the
value of Sterling $200 million for its part in the English slave trade to the
Caribbean.”
Crichlow said Emancipation Month should be a reminder of the
unfinished business of the Canadian apology for slavery, property ownership and
reparation. Emancipation Month should be seen as the linchpin for the
furthering of that conversation.
Also participating in the ceremony were Surranna Sandy, a
member of PAC; and
Mohamed Shuriye and Anthony Morgan of the CABR Unit who
presented on the first year of the Unit’s work and Emancipation Month.
Ginelle Skerritt and
sipho kwaku conducted the opening ritual and the closing procession “Journeying
Together Towards Emancipation” to the Diversity Garden behind City Hall.
Quammie Rudi Williams and company shared a musical presentation
and Sonia Godding-Togobo presented a premiere of her short film about the CABR
Unit entitled “A Long Time Coming.”
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| Dr. Wesley Chrichlow speaking at the Emancipation Day Sankofa Ceremony |
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| Elders Ginelle Skerritt and sipho kwaku performing the opening ritual |
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| Musical presentation by Quammie Rudi Williams & Company |
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