Remembering a Significant Milestone in Challenging Canada’s Immigration Policies

 By Neil Armstrong

Donald Moore is featured in the book Welcome to Black: An Iconic Toronto Neighbourhood published by A Different Publisher in 2022

 

Sixty-nine years ago today, a delegation of 35 Black activists from the Negro Citizenship Association (NCA)—led by Barbados-born Donald Willard Moore, also known as Don Moore or “Uncle Don,” and Canada-born Stanley Grizzle—met in Ottawa with federal Cabinet members to challenge Canada’s anti-Black immigration policies.

 

On April 27, 1954, the delegation presented a brief to Walter E. Harris, minister of immigration and member of parliament for High Park. In the book, Towards Freedom: The African-Canadian Experience, Ken Alexander and Avis Glaze write: “The group’s presentation, thoroughly researched, articulate, and defiant, changed the course of Canadian history. Many of the delegates had been active for years. By helping thousands of blacks settle, find jobs, unionize workers, meet contacts, and avoid deportation, people like Moore, Grizzle, Harry Gairey, Lenore Richardson, and many others, were building the community from the ground up.”

 

In the memoir, A Black Man’s Toronto, 1914-1980: The Reminiscences of Harry Gairey, edited and with an introduction by Donna Hill—mother of author Lawrence Hill and singer-songwriter Dan Hill—Gairey recollects that the NCA was founded in February 1951 in Moore’s house on Dundas Street in Toronto with the chief aim to “try and break up this immigration problem, because I knew that it was discriminatory.” As a sleeping car porter working around Union Station, Gairey said he saw all of the immigrants coming in, “but no Blacks, not a trickle. I saw a number of immigrants from the countries that we’d been fighting, Italy, Germany, all over, the Europeans were coming in, no Black.

 

“The climax came when I went down to Jamaica after the war. I saw codfish from Newfoundland, from Halifax, canned goods like sardines and salmon from New Brunswick, Nova Scotia. The people in the West Indies had to buy all these Canadian goods. And still, they were not allowed to come into the country, to get some of that money so they could turn it back to their people.”

 

Gairey said he was responsible for getting a sleeping car for the 35 members of the delegation. Regarding the meeting with Minister Harris, he recollects that: “It was a small office, so he started apologizing you know, because there were so many of us. I said, “I wouldn’t worry about that because we just want to present this brief to you, and the injustices, and introduce the president.” Donna Hill wrote that brief to the Minister of Immigration and Norman Grizzle read the brief.”

 

Alexander and Glaze note that Stanley Grizzle summarized Canada’s immigration policy vis-à-vis blacks as a “Jim Crow Iron Curtain.” Quoting Moore from Donald Moore: An Autobiography, 1985, the authors wrote that he stated at the Ottawa meeting: “You kept them out because they are black. If I were a Communist, there is opportunity for me to change and become a decent, respectable Canadian citizen. But I am born black; God has made me that way. You are asking me to undo what God has done.”

 

Bromley: Tireless Champion for Just Causes. Memoirs of Bromley L. Armstrong written with Sheldon Taylor notes that the 35-member NCA delegation included various Black community organizations, labour, and mainstream religious denominations who were involved in further deliberations and strategy sessions while travelling by train to Ottawa. 

 

“Reading from the final draft of the NCA’s brief Moore requested that the St. Laurent government amend its understanding of “British subject” to include all British subjects and citizens of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth,” writes Armstrong.

 

It would take meetings with government officials from Barbados and Jamaica, and more than a year of lobbying before any opening up of Canada’s immigration occurred. A memo from Laval Fortier to the director of immigration, dated June 10, 1955, noted that the Cabinet had decided “to admit a certain number of domestics from the British West Indies on an experimental basis. 75 of these domestics to be to be selected from Jamaica and 25 from Barbados.” The memo also noted that, “these domestics are to be admitted as immigrants upon arrival.”

 

Armstrong noted that: “As members of the NCA we did not get all that we had wished for. Yet with the West Indian Domestic Scheme, a formalized arrangement between Ottawa and certain Caribbean nations, the doors were being inched open. In the process, Ottawa politicians and bureaucrats were sensitized in some small measure about the dangers of their racist immigration policies. The many tens of thousands of immigrants from the Caribbean now living in Canada are a testament to our efforts.”

 

Describing the delegation to Ottawa as “the first time in history that African Canadians had undertaken such a mission—to challenge the policies of the federal government,” Stanley Grizzle in his memoir, My Name’s Not George: The Story of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in Canada, written with John Cooper, noted that he told Minister Harris that they were prepared to continue fighting “unremittingly for the right of all people of this planet to enter Canada and become its citizens without penalty or reward because of their race, colour, religion, national origin or ancestry.” Grizzle said NCA assured the minister that they had taken that stance based on the findings that Canada’s immigration laws against blacks were premeditated and discriminatory. “I presented statistics showing that immigration from “white” countries such as England far outstripped immigration from the West Indies, Japan and China. I pointed out that between 1871 and 1951 there was a constant increase in the population of the white European group and a decrease in the population of non-whites in Canada, a situation deemed “dangerous, strange and unfortunate”.”

 

In a speech titled “Reimagining Generational Wealth Beyond Biological Imperatives,” at an event organized by Kean Real Estate Group in Brampton, Ontario, in February this year, Dr. Karen Flynn, associate professor in the Department of Gender and Women's Studies, Center for African Studies, at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, who was the keynote speaker referenced the work of Moore, the community icon and trailblazer.

 

She said historically and in this contemporary moment, Black people have harnessed their social and cultural capital to ensure their survival. Social capital is defined as internal connections between people within the same group. Cultural capital refers to the symbols, ideas, tastes, and preferences that can be strategically used as resources to advance social action. Social and cultural capital is visible in the organizations Black Canadians and Caribbean people established to fill in the gap, noted Dr. Flynn. She cited the Coloured Women Club of Montreal (CWCM) and the Negro Citizenship Association as examples of such capital.

 

The CWCM was founded in 1902 to assist with the 1918 flu epidemic, kept a bed at Grace Dart Hospital, and cared for the homes and children of hospitalized parents. The club members volunteered as visiting nurses and nurses’ aides. Dr. Flynn, who is the author of the book Moving Beyond Borders: A History of Black Canadian and Caribbean Women in the Diaspora, noted that the CWCM also maintained a plot of land at the Mount Royal Cemetery for the interment of community members for those unable to afford the cost of burials.

 

She said the Negro Citizenship Association that Moore established in 1951 was a social and humanitarian organization. “The NCA fought relentlessly to challenge Canada’s racist immigration policies which the organization pointed out denied equal immigration status to non-white British subjects. Moore and the NCA along with delegates went to Ottawa to present a brief. To be clear, Moore was also advocating for citizens from India and Pakistan.”

 

Dr. Flynn said as a result of Moore and the NCA, Canada began to relax its immigration policies, which led to the West Indian Domestic scheme—an agreement between the government of Canada and various Caribbean islands. “These 100 domestic workers who came to Canada beginning in1955 from Barbados and Jamaica made it possible for our parents to be here. If you are interested in learning more about the West Indian Domestic scheme, check out the podcast, “Strong and Free,” or just do a search for Karen Flynn and Garvia Bailey.” 

Dr. Karen Flynn, associate professor in the Department of Gender and Women's Studies, Center for African Studies, at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, was the keynote speaker at an event organized by Mean Real Estate Group in Brampton, Ontario

 

In 1956, Moore and two other members of the Negro Citizenship Association purchased a 12-room house on Cecil Street in Toronto and converted it into a recreation centre for the West Indian community called Donavalon Centre.

 

Dr. Flynn pointed out that this was her first example of reimagining generational wealth beyond biological family members. “What if instead of a plaque, the Caribbean community still owned that center some 67 years later? We can imagine the possibilities.”

 

According to Armstrong, even in his sixties Moore professed a commitment to the radical politics of Marcus Garvey and the UNIA. In fact, the Toronto branch of that organization was founded in 1919 in Moore’s tailor shop when it was located on Spadina Avenue, he said.

 

In the book Welcome to Blackhurst: An Iconic Toronto Neighbourhood, there is a poem “Tell me more…” written by Itah Sadu about Moore in which she describes him as a community leader, a gentle giant, a man who after leaving Barbados lived in New York and then Montreal before moving to Toronto, his community advocacy and activism, and “a man who lived to the age of 102 with incredible vision and elevation for all Canadians….”

Study About Prostate Cancer Among Caribbean and West African Immigrants Helps Men’s Group

 By Neil Armstrong

Photo contributed      Dr. Aisha K. Lofters, Chair in Implementation Science at the Peter Gilgan Centre for Women's Cancers, Women's College Hospital

 

A new study about the high incidence of prostate cancer among immigrants from Caribbean and West African countries in Ontario is helping a Black men’s health advocacy group to raise awareness about the cancer.

 

The population-based research led by Jamaican Dr. Aisha K Lofters, Dr. Jacqueline L. Bender and a team, including Anthony Henry, vice president, and Kenneth Noel, president of The Walnut Foundation, found that in Ontario the age-standardized incidence rate of prostate cancer from 2008 to 2016 was consistently and significantly higher among immigrants from those countries than among other immigrants and long-term residents of the province. 

 

“This data tells us what’s happening but it can’t tell us what the cause is; there have been several theories that people have put forth. One is that it’s something genetic. Ultimately, many men who come from the Caribbean — their ancestors came from West Africa — the same other region that we found, so is there something genetic that has to do with men who are West African that gives them a higher likelihood of developing prostate cancer?”

 

Dr. Lofters says people have theorised that it could be diet-related so caused by elements of the Caribbean and West African diet, or it could be environmental exposures. But she said the latter would be harder to explain when there are men living here who are coming from two very different parts of the world.

 

“Although we don’t know the reason I would suspect that there is some genetic or biological component that’s explaining it for men from these two particular areas. 

 

The physician, scientist, and associate professor at the University of Toronto says there are researchers who are trying to figure out if there are specific genes that can be targeted to help them identify this, but more work is needed to be able to hone in and determine who is at higher risk when talking about men coming from these regions. 

 

She also noted that family history is a risk factor for prostate cancer so it is very important for men to know their family history. 

 

Dr. Lofters, who is the Chair in Implementation Science at the Peter Gilgan Centre for Women's Cancers, Women's College Hospital, says when men are having symptoms such as a change in their stream, blood in their urine or unexplained weight loss they should not ignore these as they could be a red flag. She recommends going to see a doctor where blood tests or a rectal exam can be done to determine if something is happening with the prostate. 

 

The study has been published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, presented at conferences and covered by the media to help raise awareness among men in the community, and for family doctors and primary care nurses to have their antennae raised when dealing with men from the Caribbean and West African countries with such symptoms to recognize that they might be a higher risk of prostate cancer.

 

The World Health Organization statistics of global prostate cancer mortality in 2020 indicate that Zimbabwe had the highest rate of prostate cancer mortality, followed by Barbados, and other Caribbean and African countries. Jamaica is ranked fifth on the list.

 

“What we find here in Ontario aligns with what the global statistics tell us about prostate cancer,” says Lofters, who alongside Dr. Bender, is working with The Walnut Foundation to understand the experiences of men diagnosed with prostate cancer in the healthcare system.

 

The organization, a men’s health interest and prostate support group, works with the Black community in identifying the needs of Black men in health and related issues. 

 

“We have heard stories of men being dismissed or not being provided the highest standards of care when it comes to prostate cancer so we really want to understand, are there systemic barriers in Canada’s healthcare system that could be improved upon for these men as they journey through the prostate cancer system? That’s one body of research that’s actively happening.”

 

The researchers also want to examine the Ontario data to see if there are differences in terms of stage of diagnosis.

 

While the study examined the incidence of men just developing prostate cancer, the researchers also want to know if there were particular men who were diagnosed later than others because early diagnosis is better. They also want to understand other differences, in terms of survival. This is upcoming research that they are working jointly on with The Walnut Foundation. 

Photo contributed     Anthony Henry, Vice President, The Walnut Foundation

 

Henry says the study helps to inform the Foundation, which is dealing with Black men who are impacted, and he underscored the importance of men doing their prostate-specific antigen (PSA) tests and digital exams earlier — at age 40, instead of 50.

 

“My father died from this thing at 68 so my brother and I started monitoring at 40. Luckily for us, we had medical practitioners who understood the issue and were in agreement to say, hey, you guys should start testing from then,” says Henry whose cancer was caught at age 54 and his brother’s at 57, just from monitoring.

 

 

He says if men are monitored early enough and prostate cancer is detected, they have a fighting chance. However, if they pretend that there is no issue or wait around until 50, they might be in for a rude awakening.

 

The membership of the Foundation is predominantly Caribbean so it will outreach to men from West African countries and also native-born Black men. 

 

The vice president says this study is only the first step and the Foundation can now approach policymakers and the medical establishment to act on its findings.  It is also an opportunity to start dialogues with community health centres that are dealing with Black patients. 

 

Henry expressed concern that the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) does not cover the PSA test, which means most men will have to pay $40 for it. Some doctors may check off a box to indicate that a man has to get the PSA done and that it is covered because they are from a high-risk group. 

 

The Princess Margaret Hospital and The Walnut Foundation are collaborating on a genetics study, in partnership with some community health centres, that will examine samples from Black men who died to ascertain where there is any gene commonality. 

 

TAIBU Community Health Centre and the Foundation are also collaborating on a video project to educate the community. 

 

On June 3, the Foundation will have its ninth annual walkathon led by honorary Chair, Ivan Dawns, political director of the International Union of Painters, to tap into the Union Movement to spread awareness. A couple events will take place in March in partnership with the Jamaican Canadian Association to educate the community. 

 

Henry says Black men have asked the Foundation if there were any urologists from the Black community to whom they could be referred, but he could only think of one in the Greater Toronto Area — Dr. Emmanuel Abara who is based in Richmond Hill, Ontario. 

 

To address this, the organization has set aside $26,000 from last year’s walkathon to set up an endowment for medical students at the University of Toronto with the hope that some will choose urology and improve health outcomes for the Black community. 

 

“We need this type of research, I think, that does not look at the entire population as being homogenous but recognizes that there might be different ethnic and racial groups that are at higher or lower risk of particular conditions,” says Dr. Lofters, a scientist at Women’s College Research Institute.

 

She says that will allow them to provide personalized medicine and the highest quality of care.