Photo contributed Somali-Canadian journalist Hodan Nalayeh in whose honour a school in Vaughan, Ontario was renamed Hodan Nalayeh Secondary School
Students at Hodan Nalayeh Secondary School in Thornhill, Ontario, are brimming with ideas about how to celebrate the former Somali-Canadian journalist in whose honour their school was officially renamed on May 19.
Some have suggested including daily quotes from her during the school’s morning announcements, at annual assemblies, and on social media. Others believe that she was a model of inspiration, social activism and education and they want her story told at the school so that all students know it.
Nalayeh, who once resided in Vaughan, and her husband, Farid Jama Suleiman, were among 26 people who were killed in an attack on the Asasey hotel in Kismayo, Somalia, on July 12, 2019.
The renaming ceremony follows a meeting of the York Region District School Board (YRDSB) in early March at which a motion to change the name of Vaughan Secondary School was voted on with 10 of the 12 trustees in favour of it. This change resulted from a major push by the Black community to have it done.
The school’s previous name honoured Benjamin Vaughan, a Jamaica-born British diplomat who stood up in the British Parliament in 1792 and argued that freeing enslaved Africans in Jamaica would bring about the end of civilization.
Cynthia Cordova, chair of the YRDSB, recognized the many members of “our Black community who brought the issue of the naming of this school and the effect that it has had on our students to the attention of trustees and staff.”
“We are grateful for your work to initiate the renaming process and for your advocacy on behalf of the Black students in York Region. It is our hope that the new name will better reflect the identity, the accomplishment, and the aspiration of students at Hodan Nalayeh Secondary School.”
Cordova said many students were involved in the renaming process of the school.
“We heard from many students through their letters, their emails, their posts on social media and the opinions that were shared during the town hall. We are very proud of the way our students shared their voices and we’d like to thank everyone who participated in this process.”
She said all students and staff should feel safe and supported in learning and working environments that are inclusive and identity affirming, and honour and celebrate their identity.
“That is what I think of when I think of Hodan Nalayeh, someone who worked to create safe and identity affirming environments. Hodan was an accomplished young woman, a mother, a resident of Vaughan and she worked to empower and give voice to women, youth and members of the Somali community. It is only fitting then that the first school in York Region District School Board to be named after a Black Muslim woman should be named after Hodan Nalayeh.It is our hopes that when students arrive each day to school and see Hodan’s name that they are reminded of who Hodan was and what she stood for, and they know that they themselves are valued for who they are at Hodan Nalayeh Secondary School.”
Born in Las Anod, Somalia, in 1976, Nalayeh, who had four brothers and seven sisters, and her parents, migrated to Canada in 1984, first settling in Edmonton, Alberta before eventually moving to Toronto in 1992.
She attended West Humber Collegiate Institute and then pursued post-secondary education at the University of Windsor where she received a Bachelor of Arts in communications. Nalayeh also earned a postgraduate certificate in broadcast journalism from Seneca College.
Louise Sirisko, director of education, said they heard very clearly that the school needed to be renamed.
“We heard that the previous name caused hurt and harm to students, staff and members of the broader community, especially the Black community. “
Sirisko said there were many community members who came forward to tell the board that the name did not make them feel safe, valued and included.
In providing a context for the unnaming and renaming of the school, Cecil Roach, coordinating superintendent of Indigenous education and equity, said the
work to develop the Anti-Black Racism Strategy coincided with the effort to rename Vaughan Secondary School .
“Benjamin Vaughan was an owner of enslaved Africans. Not only did he own enslaved Africans, he passionately argued against ending the inhumane system of slavery because according to him it would mean the end of civilization in Jamaica as he knew it. This actually mean that he saw people of African heritage as fundamentally uncivilized and whose very humanity he questioned.”
Roach said that the renaming effort was largely championed by York Region’s Black community and its allies and that the campaign was led by the former Vaughan African Canadian Association, now called ANCHOR, and its tireless leader, Shernett Martin.
After discovering that the school was named after a slaveholder, Martin embarked on a campaign to have it addressed.
“We owe a debt of gratitude to Shernett and we thank her for her efforts that played such a major role in getting us to where we are today – renaming the school after a Black Muslim Somali woman, a Black Somali woman who represents many of the things that the Dismantling Anti-Black Racism Strategy is hoping to achieve. Hodan was a social activist more than a media personality. She, actually, was the kind of woman who believed in raising the voices of Somali Canadians and changing the narrative, the negative narrative, in many cases of Somalis.
Roach said he once heard Nalayeh deliver a keynote speech at an event where women who were survivors of domestic violence were celebrated. Her message was one of telling women to rely on their inner strength and know that the world is at their fingertips, that they can achieve whatever they want to achieve once they work at it.
“One of the priorities of the Dismantling Anti-Black Racism Strategy is a commitment to bold leadership and Hodan Nalayeh certainly embodied this notion, he said.
Roach said the aim of the Anti-Black Racism Strategy is to ensure that Black students have educational journeys that celebrate and affirm their identity, just like Hodan wanted Canadians, the public and the world to understand that Somali Canadians, Somali people, generally, are people who should be celebrated.
He congratulated the Black community and the school trustees for taking the bold decision to name the school after a Somali Black Muslim woman.
Sahra Nalayeh said her sister was someone who loved to have fun, loved music and writing.
“Hodan was a passionate person, she was a person who thought about other people, the experiences they were having, what was happening in their lives, and most of all, how she could support them and tell their story. She loved to tell stories about the human condition. Specifically, when she returned to Canada one of the things she really noticed was there was a lack of stories in the media about the Somali community, the Black community and she wanted to make sure that she had a chance to correct the stories that she was hearing,” Sahra said describing her sister as a humanitarian. She was a mother of two young sons.
“As a journalist, she saw a way that she can contribute to the world, to society to make a difference and she followed her passion and that led her to starting her own media company, her own YouTube channel.”
Shernett Martin said the renaming is a celebration of what it means when “a couple of people believe in something, fight for somrthing, and collectively lean on each other and lean into each other and believe in what they’re doing and then see the fruits of that labour.”
“It was an exercise in fighting for your humanity and your civil rights. It felt like we were in a moment in the past where we were fighting to do something really important.
“And so as a Black woman for me to see another Black woman’s name on a school is extremely fulfilling. The fact that that legacy now is on that building and inside that school it means a great deal – I think it’s going to be the first of many. I think for young Black girls and young Black boys to enter that building and for any equity seeking group to know that this just wasn’t something that was easily done, there was a real push from community behind this. I think it empowers young people to say whether its climate change or fighting against issues that they believe in that you can change the system, you can move the needle.”
Martin said it gives that feeling that they can do it, “they can come together over an issue and fight until they win because that’s exactly what we did.”
Sahra and her father, Ahmed Said, unveiled a portrait of Hodan that will be displayed at the school.
Photo contributed Knia Singh, Co-chair of the Know Your Rights Committee
A Toronto lawyer says the Toronto Police Service has reached a point where the most senior officers have acknowledged the existence of racial profiling and systemic racism -- instead of denying them as was prevalent in the past -- and are working with the community.
Knia Singh is appealing to those grassroots organizers who have been fighting for generations for reform in policing to take this opportunity to push for change in a very fruitful and methodical way.
“I’m just saying now is the time to seek the change you want because there’s an appetite for change, and positive change.”
Singh is the co-chair of the Know Your Rights committee that recently launched a campaign of the Toronto Police Service (TPS) and the Police and Community Engagement Review (PACER) Committee.
A video was released on January 29 in the first phase of the Know Your Rights campaign which aims to inform the public about their legal rights and a police officer’s responsibilities during various types of engagements.
As someone who had encounters with the police in the past, Singhsays this initiative would have given him the actual knowledge that he needed to ensure that he was safe during those interactions.
“Luckily, at a very young age, I paid attention to rights and interactions with police and I always knew that there were limitations on what information could be gathered.”
He remembers many times being stopped by the police before carding was forefront in the media and before the regulation when officers would ask him where he was going or coming from.
“I would respond, that’s my private, personal information, I’m not going to disclose that. I knew I could do that. Other people, generally, would think they have to answer every question by an officer and then disclose certain things that may end up getting them in trouble,” says Singh. A few years ago, he filed a freedom of information request for any records police might keep on him and received several pages documenting encounters – none of which was for anything criminal.
Singh, the principal lawyer at Ma’at Legal Services, says if this campaign had been around when he was younger, it would have also given him confidence that the police were aware of what their responsibilities were with the public and that the public would know them.
“If the police are going to violate your rights, they rely on your ignorance to violate them. This campaign takes away that ignorance for anyone who takes the time to observe it. It’s a much more powerful, fruitful and fair, equitable interaction when both sides understand what the rules are they’re playing under.”
Due to the disproportionate stops of Black, racialized and Indigenous people in Toronto and elsewhere in Ontario the provincial government created Regulation 58/16 – the “street check” regulation. It prohibits the arbitrary collection of identifying information by police, referred to as carding. Arbitrary means based on random choice or personal whim, rather than any legally permissible reason.
The video shows interim police chief, James Ramer, acknowledging systemic racism and racial profiling, and the early message from the Know Your Rights Committee and PACER is telling viewers positive interactions are possible.
“It’s basically being cordial in your interactions will ensure or at least gets you closer to a positive outcome.
Singh notes that carding had always been illegal, but the declaration by the province that it was banned happened in January 2017.
Back in 2016, the police and the PACER Committee were in the process of planning the campaign and even had a script ready, however, the release of the final product was delayed.
When Ramerbecame the interim chief, after the resignation of Chief Mark Saunders, he struck up the PACER 2.0 Committee “to get back on these issues to ensure certain things that were planned before are done now,” says Singh.
He says the revival of the campaign is Ramer’s desire to see PACER continue to contribute to police-community relations.
In 2012, under Chief of Police William (Bill) Blair, the Chief’s Internal Organizational Review examined all aspects of community engagement, leading to the creation of the Police and Community Engagement Review committee. Former deputy chief, Peter Sloly, now the chief of police in Ottawa, was the executive sponsor of PACER.
After internal and external consultations, the PACER committee submitted a report with 31 recommendations intended to address bias-free delivery of policing services.
One recommendation called for the creation of an advisory committee, comprised equally of TPS members from all areas of the organization and community members and partner agencies invested in improving relations between police and the city’s Black communities. The PACER committee dedicated hours to ensuring the appropriate and thorough implementation of all 31 recommendations and continues to advise the TPS on matters of fair and equitable delivery of policing.
In 2020, the Toronto Police Services Board approved 81 recommendations for police reform in a report entitled “Police Reform in Toronto: Systemic Racism, Alternative Community Safety and Crisis Response Models and Building New Confidence in Public Safety.”
“These recommendations established a roadmap for comprehensive policing reform in Toronto, and include building new community safety response models, various initiatives to address systemic racism and concrete steps to improve trust with our communities,” notes the TPS website.
As a result of these 81 recommendations, Chief Ramer reconvened the Police and Community Engagement Review (PACER) as PACER 2.0.
One of the recommendations directed the chief of police to develop and execute a multi-faceted "know your rights" campaign and a Know Your Rights sub-committee of PACER 2.0 was created with the mandate to “inform the community what their legal rights are in their interactions with police.”
“Know Your Rights gives communities the tools to demystify dialogue with our police officers, and clarifies the misperceptions that all parties may bring to all types of engagement,” says Ramer.
He says the TPS is grateful to “our PACER community partners for their guidance in helping us to meet communities where they are, and we look forward to more work together.”
Meanwhile, Singh says the campaign is trying to reach everybody but the target market, in his opinion, would be young people and police officers.
“It seems that a lot of negative interactions or carding or collection of information take place amongst marginalized communities, specifically African descendant and Indigenous communities, and more narrowly younger people.”
He notes that if they were to go with a hierarchy of needs they would want those targeted people affected by the practice the most to be exposed to this and the police because the police are reminded of their responsibilities and obligations through this campaign as well.
There will be billboards, online messages, social media messages, public service announcements, radio spots as part of the campaign and they are entering phase three in which they are engaging community groups and young people who were involved in feedback from the first round of surveys.
“We are going to be doing another set of videos that speak to different scenarios, not just Regulation 58/16 and carding, but it’s going to be body-worn camera, search of your vehicles and other aspects of everyday life that the public wants clarity on,” says Singh, noting that a lot of outreach is being done. At the end of May, they would have completed phase two and be moving into phase three towards the beginning of June.
The lawyer believes that when someone is armed with knowledge there is the ability to have a more fruitful conversation and outcome.
He says community members are not exposed to the legal information or rights that they have and even when they exercise those rights there is a high instance of violating those rights.
“We know so many times stories of police abuse on the community so this campaign is going to change that in the sense that the community now has something to point to, as before when they would not be clear.”
Unfortunately, marginalized communities don’t have the financial resources to always retain lawyers who are going to fight cases on their behalf so they’re left with fighting it on their own, which can be intimidating and could have a non-successful outcome, says Singh.
He says by virtue of the campaign that part is cut out because at the end of the video it tells people how to make a complaint if they have been violated. They can contact the Office of the Independent Police Review Director, the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, or the Toronto Police Service.
“A lot of the rights contained in the Know Your Rights campaign can avoid a large amount of discrepancies, charges and violations. So we really believe that as a Black community experiencing this for centuries and decades, now there’s finally something to point to that can make someone feel secure.
“It’s going to be reliant on understanding your rights, articulating them and then when they’re violated making a complaint, because, unfortunately, violations may and will still happen. That’s just the reality. What’s more important is that those violations be noted, identified and held accountable because if we know that violations are taking place and we don’t complain they will never be remedied, we’re only partially fixing the problem, we’re not fixing it fully.”
Singh says once things get to the stage where people are held accountable for violations and there are sufficient sanctions then the Black community and Indigenous community, in particular, will be able to feel more confident in moving forward.
Photo contributed Yvette Blackburn of the PACER 2.0 and its Know Your Rights sub-committee
Acknowledging the problems Black, Indigenous and raciaiized communities have had with policing in Toronto in the past, Singh says, “we should be aware that the Toronto Police has a large and a good section of officers whowant to do right and make things right,” and he thinks, “we have to utilize those positives to hold those officers who do not uphold the law and who violate people accountable.”
Amadou Mukuna, aka Silas, 24, says this is a very important move and he would feel safer because of the knowledge shared in the campaign.
“I just feel, like, a lot of times when you’re just around police, you just feel, like, you’re in trouble. And I think just like knowing that you’re allowed to leave or knowing that you’re allowed to ask certain questions, even if they are the bully in the situation, sometimes people not knowing their rights, that hinders them in that situation,” says the owner of a street wear clothing line.
He says knowledge what civilians can ask and do in those interactions with police would prevent people from incriminating themselves.
Yvette Blackburn, Canadian representative of the Global Jamaica Diaspora Council, GJDC, is also a member of the PACER 2.0 Committee, co-chaired by Superintendent Stacy Clarke and Audrey Campbell, a former president of the Jamaican Canadian Association.
She says citizens need to start holding the police to account and let them have a clear understanding that there are consequences for violating their rights.
Blackburn says the police service “is doing the work and officers have made an about-turn, they’re being held to account, they’re holding each other to account.”
“You see the procedures are changing, you’re seeing the different protocols that are being put in place, you see the accountability that’s been put in by Toronto Police Service, and some of the people that are being put in positions of supervision that are going to hold their own colleagues to account. So, a lot is happening and it’s going to happen and you have really good people – the citizens and the officers that sit on PACER,” she says.
Under the leadership of co-chairs Inspector Kelly Skinner and Singh, the sub-committee of PACER 2.0 responsible to deliver this campaign also includes Jennifer Chambers, executive director of the Empowerment Council, Stephen Linton, Stephen McCammon, legal counsel at the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario,and Blackburn.
The Know Your Rights campaign video is available on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Tik Tok.
Photo contributed Bishop Ransford C. Jones of the Canadian Black Clergies & Allies
The killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolisin May 2020 was a “watershed moment” for Bishop Ransford C. Jones resulting in the founding of the Canadian Black Clergies & Allies to challenge systemic racism in Canada.
“I think it brought a new awareness, in terms of our contemporary setting. We know the struggle and the other Black struggles even from Martin Luther King, Jr. days coming right up and the different events that happened. But I think this one hit a nerve to many people that it just opened up a new awareness to where we are at as a society and how anti-Black racism still prevails in society and even in Canadian society,” says Jones who is the Chair of the organization and senior pastor of the Destiny Gospel Centre in Markham, Ontario.
Bishop Jones says Floyd’s death galvanized faith leaders to see how they could dialogue and actively intervene in these times.
On April 17, he will receive the leadership award at the 39th annual Black Business and Professional Association Harry Jerome Awards virtual presentation. This comes a day before the CBCA holds a virtual memorial servicefor people who have been affected by COVID-19, especially families that have lost loved ones.
Although Bishop Jones has been in the streets protesting since last year and having discussions with various people, he says the CBCA believes that for systemic racism and the infrastructure underpinning it to change there must be policy changes at the highest level: federal, provincial and municipal governments.
“We will be having some dialogue with them and we’re hoping that this awareness and this dialogue will be able to change some of those things.”
The CBCA is a collective multi-denominational and independent Black pastors and allies, that works collaboratively with a vision to create an environment of hope, justice, equality, and prosperity for Black Canadians.
Its focus is on dismantling the infrastructure of discrimination, prejudice, and anti-Black racism in the Canadian society.
Among its action items are family dynamics, systemic anti-Black racism (justice, law), economic development, educational initiatives, engage solutionists (churches, communities), and government and politics.
Bishop Jones says the CBCA wants to see reformation in the system and transformation, “even in our own Black community because we have our own endemic problems too and we want to be a part of that solution so working with our allies and our strategic partners and then we want to have a reconciliation among different groups.”
He says they want to see reconciliation in the broader community where there is diversity, inclusivity and everybody getting their rightful place and position to operate and to work.
Bishop Jones says CBCA welcomes every Black person and wants “all Black people to prosper and to fulfil their purpose wherever they are from.”
He is hoping that the programs the organization will be launching will be beneficial to Black Canadians and intends to measure their effectiveness in terms of how many people are reached and lives changed for the better.
Its allies include community-based organizations such as the Jamaican Canadian Association, Black Business and Professional Association, Tipping the Scales of Justice, and others, and it is open to white and Indigenous clergies.
Since its launch in late February, the CBCA has held discussions with the Office of the Mayor of Toronto and Erin O’Toole, the Leader of the Official Opposition of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party of Canada.
On May 25,the anniversary of the death of George Floyd, there are plans to hold a virtual service as a commemoration.
Jones, who is from St. Mary, has been living in Canada for almost 30 years.
Photo credit: DJ Blackcat Michelle Ross at photo shoot at her home in February 2021
The legendary Jamaican Canadian drag queen, Michelle Ross, created space for the Black community in Toronto’s queer community with her first performance at The Manatee, a Toronto club, in 1974.
Ross, who passed away last weekend and believed to be in her sixties, is being remembered as a Canadian drag icon, a diva, a trailblazer, a philanthropist, a community advocate, a source of upliftment, and a world-renowned entertainer.
Since the news broke on the morning of March 28 that the incomparable female impersonator had died suddenly – the cause of death is unknown -- the outpouring of tributes has been unabated. In the eyes of the Black LGBTQ+ community, Michelle Ross was a gem to be celebrated over and over again.
Douglas Stewart, a gay rights activist and community worker, first encountered Michelle Ross at The Manatee, an all-ages gay male space which notoriously had a no-women-allowed policy, in 1978. Every Halloween, his girlfriends would dress in male drags and would join him to check out the place.
In the 1970s, Black people went to all kinds of places but some of us were also looking for where Black folks and Black community were, says Stewart. He found that in Michelle Ross’s presence and performances.
“Many of us came out who were looking for Black community in queer community and lamented that there wasn’t, for example, a Black place to go, a Black gay bar or community spaces where you go and see lots of Black people.
“What Michellebegan to do, along with other people is she began to create those spaces. She became what I call the magnet so the buzz would happen where is Michelle performing, Michelle is going to be at whichever club so you know that when you go that club you see a significantly larger number of Black people than you would normally see in those spaces,” says Stewart who was the founding executive director of the Black Coalition for AIDS Prevention and a founding member of Zami, the first Black queer group in Toronto.
For 47 years, Michelle Ross had reigned as the fabulous veteran drag queen whose performances so many encountered and gained inspiration.
Many Black queer people saw themselves on a stage which was also “a metaphor for the larger world stage for our lives so to suddenly stand and see this glitter and light shine on this person who is fantastic, who also resonates with us because they are performing music that our parents were in our homes that we grew up with,” says Stewart who came to Canada from Jamaica in the 1970s.
“But there’s a way to that where Michelle just came on and shone and you saw that, and connected us and made us feel more confident, more thoughtful about your whole location in this community and your belonging in this space and the way she commanded a presence. And then you realize you could also take up space.”
DJ Blackcat, a friend of Ross for more than 30 years, honoured her at a Pride Toronto event, Rise Up!, to celebrate Black History Month in February of this year, which was recorded at her home. As a program curator at Pride Toronto, it was his idea to celebrate her.
Before meeting the celebrated drag queen years ago, Blackcat would hear people talk about the artist but had never seen her or even a photograph. All he knew was that she was a performer.
Being new to the gay scene in the early 90s, he didn’t know what drag was but his first memory of Michelle Ross was at a house party where she said hello on a vista speakerphone to the partiers. He recalls that, suddenly, all the lights were turned on and the music shut off so that she could greet them. They all responded in unison.
Blackcat’s first time seeing her was at the iconic Toronto Latin nightclub, El Convento Rico, where other performers opened for Michelle Ross. He was enthralled by her performance which commanded attention.
“It was one of the best drag shows I have ever seen, to date. I’ve never seen so much money …the whole stage was just covered with money; she wasn’t holding the money anymore,” he says, noting that patrons were calling her Diana Ross and he was confused and wondered if it was actually the veteran African American singer performing that night.
Later, he realized that it wasn’t, but Blackcat says it was the first time that he saw a drag show of that calibre with outfit changes to boot.
He says Ross was a very private person and would only allow people “to know so much about her.”
“When Michelle likes you she will let you in, in certain ways, and like she will let you come over to her house, she will cook you food. We stayed up a couple nights just running jokes about men that she encountered in her trips and in Toronto. The stories were hilarious and she was a very good storyteller and I appreciated those stories.”
In her public persona, Michelle Ross was featured in Anton Wagner’s and Edimburgo Cabrera’s 2002 documentary, Divas: Love Me Forever, which is described as a comic-serious documentary about female impersonation, desire, fantasy, self-acceptance and the search for love.
Edimburgo Cabrera, the Cuban-Canadian director and videographer (Latin Queens), follows six black female impersonators through Toronto's vibrant gay club scene as they search for home, family, and love. The life stories of these six divas become a prism illuminating gay life in the Caribbean and North America from the 1970s to the present.
A diva is a female impersonator who stands out amongst her peers because of her superior performance talents, devoted public following, and public advocacy on behalf of her gay community. The divas in the documentary are Michelle Ross, Chris Edwards (who passed away in 2016), Jackae Baker, Stephanie Stevens, Matti Dinah and Duchess (who passed away in 2001).
“It’s a mask that I’m wearing,” Ross says in the documentary while expressing her foibles and her joys in this window into her personal life.
“I’ve done well, I can do better and I thank him everyday,” she says looking upwards and acknowledging that her performances, which started in 1974, had taken her around the world to places such as Switzerland, Japan, Puerto Rico, Paris and London.
Asked where did she see herself ten years from then, Ross said, “Back in Jamaica, retired,” and living on a big property with many tenants and “lots of things to do.”
Michelle Ross also appears performing at The Manatee in Outrageous! – a 1977 Canadian comedy film directed and written by Richard Benner and starring Craig Russell as Robin Turner, a female impersonator, and Hollis McLaren as Liza Conners, Turner’s schizophrenic roommate. Shot in Toronto, it was one of the first gay-themed films ever to receive widespread theatrical release in North America.
Photo credit: Junior Harrison Michelle Ross performing at Blockorama in 2013
Dr. OmiSoore Dryden,James R. Johnston Chair in Black Canadian Studies and an associate professor in the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, says the passing of Michelle Ross is a huge loss and she can't imagine what this type of loss means for all who loved her and knew her intimately.
“I don’t remember when I first saw Michelle Ross, I feel like she was always a beautiful presence in Black queer space, on Church Street and at Pride, especially Blocko. But the moment that really affected me was when we were living in Sudbury. For many reasons living there was just a horrible experience. And I felt stuck, trying to figure out how I would leave that place. It was really harmful to my mental, emotional and physical health and well-being.”
In the summer of 2014, Dryden was in Toronto, having arrived early for Pride and her partner, Gwen, would join her later.
Dryden remembers being in the Loblaws at Church and Carlton and Michelle Ross was doing a Pride event. “Ayende and I chatted and I just watched Miss Ross in awe. She saw me, and came over to say hi. It was her recognition of me that was so impactful.”
“At Blocko that same year, Michelle Ross performed early in the line-up and she performed King Jesus. I didn’t know that song. But she absolutely took us to Black Queer church. Everyone was singing, everyone was clapping, everyone was swaying, Miss Ross held each of us, lifted us up and honestly, I felt so healed in that moment. That song stays with me to this day and each and every time I play it, it is Miss Ross' performance at Blocko that I am replaying, revisiting. And I'm healed again. That was such a very difficult time for me, but that performance, that intervention by Michelle Ross helped me in ways I cannot fully put into words.
In an essay entitled “Fragments of Toronto’s Black Queer Community: From a Life Still Being Lived (2005)”inOur Caribbean: A Gathering of Lesbian and Gay Writing from the Antilles, Rinaldo Walcott opens with a meditation on three Black drag queens: Michelle Ross, Jackae Baker and Miss Burundi.
The director of Women and Gender Studies Institute and an associate professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, underscores his belief that “black drag queens hold an important political and emotional place in the queer community that is often not acknowledged.”
“Rarely are these brave black men – who are out for all to see as both gay men and imitators of black and sometimes white women – given any consideration in discussions of black or, generally speaking, queer communities. These days, when folks write about queers, especially black queers, drag queens hardly get a mention.”
Walcott notes that Ross has enduring ties to Jamaica and concludes his essay with a description of her performance.
“Miss Ross’s performance almost always ends with a gospel set – more often than not, her particular rendition of “King Jesus.” When she performs this song, she also does a strut around the bar, “anointing” the participants as any evangelical Pentecostal preacher might do.”
He posits that these “underacknowledged community makers provided – and continue to provide – examples of how to live a life still in progress and how to imagine a future that might be different from the present.”
Filmmaker and director Phillip Pike -- who organized Bigger Than We, a celebration of the Black LGBTQ+ community in 2017 where Ross was honoured, and the producer of the documentary Our Dance of Revolution, about Toronto’s Black queer community over four decades – says many of the people he interviewed for the documentary emphasized how important it was to include Michelle Ross.
“In fact, I would go so far as to say that it was brought home to me that no history of Toronto’s Black queer community could be told without including Michelle.“
Initially, he wanted to interview her for the documentary but she declined. Pike was feeling somewhat frustrated as, on the one hand everyone was saying Ross had to be included but, on the other hand, she did not want to be interviewed.
“Then, while I was interviewing Rinaldo Walcott something he said gave me the idea of including her not by way of an interview but by way of having others pay tribute to her. Knowing that she would be present at Bigger Than We, I sneakily arranged with Mykel Hall to coral her and pay tribute to her, which we of course captured on film. I was very happy that I was able to include her in the film in that way which, in the end, made more sense than simply interviewing her.”
Meanwhile, Dr. Jill Andrew, MPP for Toronto-St. Paul’s and Ontario NDP Culture and Women’s Issues Critic, says Ross was an icon, a visionary, and “a force in our community and changed lives across the globe.”
“Her leaving our world is such a loss. I never met someone with more confidence who literally lit up the room and made each person in her presence feel ALIVE and FREE! Blackness Supreme beauty and queerness...”
Andrew has seen her perform many times and cannot name the first time from memory – could have been at Crews & Tangos or at The 519 – “but God did I ever love her performance of The Boss (Diana Ross),” says Andrew who is a huge disco fan.
“She made us all know that we had every right to live our lives and to live them FULLY and IN COLOUR never shrinking ourselves for anyone anywhere. We love you Michelle Ross. REST. IN. POWER.,” wrote Andrew on Twitter.
Twysted Miyake-Mugler, co-founder of the Toronto Kiki Ballroom Alliance and host of a new podcast, The Plot Twyst, “that covers just about everything but from my lens. Black. Gay. Canadian,” reminisces on seeing a performance of Michelle Ross for the first time.
“The first time I ever saw Michelle Ross, I don’t even think I could remember the exact date, but it was my first time experiencing Church Street beyond the Black gay clubs. We were going from bar to bar, on a Friday night and were looking for the spot where familiar faces were.
“As we approached Crews, I remember there being a flood of people, with an open window with a drag queen performing. This was the first time I had ever seen a Black drag queen, in person, and I remember having a multitude of emotions, ranging from confused to mesmerized. As she lip-synched the song, with an “air of regality” - the money just started flowing in from everyone in that club and I knew that she was THE one!”
Photo credit: Junior Harrison Michelle Ross at Blockorama in 2013
Verlia Stephens is a part-time professor at George Brown College, the program coordinator and mentoring coordinator at Supporting our Youth, Sherbourne Health Centre, and a longtime friend of Ross.
“Whenever we had any parties that I had with Nik Red, Michelle would always be there to support us,” says Verlia Stephens, noting that, “She was there for me all the time and I’m really struggling with feeling like I couldn’t be there for her, especially during COVID times.”
“Michelle really knew how to take care of our community, like our Black community, especially those who may have been undocumented, don’t have status. Always making sure that folks were okay, but she did this on the down low. A lot of people didn’t know that and I think that’s what made her safe,” Stephens says.
She noted that Ross “really honoured where people were at and kept it like that. People trusted her with their stories, with what was happening, with their secrets and you know that if you spoke to her, she’s going to keep that and support you and that’s how I saw her, she was a safe haven for us, especially Black Caribbean folks.”
“And I’m hurting and I’m sad that I wasn’t there for her, that’s how I feel. Every time Michelle and I saw each other it was like I was seeing someone who was my chosen family.”
When Michelle Ross entered the world of performance as a drag queen, the only person she might have seen as a Black queer artist in Toronto was Jackie Shane, a pioneer transgender performer.
Born on May 15, 1940, Shane was an American soul and rhythm and blues singer, who was most prominent in the local music scene of Toronto in the 1960s. She was a contributor to the Toronto Sound and is best known for the single, Any Other Way, which was a regional Top 10 hit in Toronto in 1962 and a modest national chart hit across Canada in 1967. Shane died in Nashville, Tennessee February 21, 2019.
Photo credit: Ricardo Goldson A memorial to Michelle Ross on the steps of Crews & Tangos
HONOURING MICHELLE ROSS
Since her death, Stewart says there has been talk about connecting with city politicians to see if there can be some acknowledgement or commemoration, whether it is a significant civic recognition from the city. Community members are also looking at, COVID or no COVID pending restrictions, at some point in the warmer weather to be able to lock off Church Street and have some kind of celebration.
Stewart thinks at any point when the next Blockorama or whatever happens, it does not have to be one thing but that multiple things can happen because of the different kinds of relations Michelle Ross had with people.
He is hoping that Black queer scholars and thinkers will facilitate “some kind of academic conference which talks about Black drag and its significance, call it the Michelle Ross Symposium, I think multiple things because there are so many things.”
Many years ago, he discussed with colleagues that there should be an event called “Artifierce.”
“We recognize sometimes the complexity of drag because it also plays with ideas of femininity and womanhood and so on that can be seen as problematic. But at the same time, we know that it also interrupts and challenges these constructs of gender in ways that are also playful and entertaining on another level.
“For Michelle herself, it’s about where and how that looks. I think it can look all kinds of way, all kinds of different things can happen but I think we as a community…if it wasn’t for COVID when we all got the news we’d probably gather on Church Street and would have found ourselves at some place to be hanging out together.”
Stewart had always been pushing the idea that Michelle Ross should have been getting recognition and invited to academic conferences to speak.
“Artifierce” to look at how the fierceness of culture that drag represents, in terms of how it contributes to what we see as the idea of high art, the definition of high art. Look at what these men do consistently. RuPaul’s Drag Race has shone that attention, he says.
“I think much could be done to more talk about what that represents in the ways that Walcott is saying and I think that’s why I say so many things could be happening.
Not just generally drag, but Black drag queens and I think it’s no accident that the Ru Pauls of the world is the ones who are at the leadership, as problematic as RuPaul’s Drag Race can be, but is at the helm of that, who got the idea, who put that out there is a Black queer man.”
Stewart underscores that before people came to the place where they were comfortable or even to find space, there was Michelle Ross and other drag queens holding court and finding a space that they could be “a magnet as space creators because when you saw them it’s like the Pied Piper we’re pulled back to there’s one of us, our home, we’ve got to go hang with them.”
He remembers that The Manatee, Voodoo, Katrina’s which became Colby’s were clubs on St. Joseph St. and even if you couldn’t get in them, the nights that you know that Michelle Ross or any of those Black drag queens were performing “when you went outside the club at 2am, 3am, St. Joseph St. was full of people, and what was always striking it was predominantly Black people because Michelle and those girls were somewhere around performing or something.”
After their performance, they might have something at one of their apartments and partiers would go back there or they would have specific parties.
As one of the organizers of Bigger Than We, Stewart emphasized to Pike that the notion of activism be expanded.
“Michelle lived her life with the value of more than herself, it’s like literally bigger than, I think if anybody epitomizes that it’s bigger than we, she did. However she was climbing she was bringing people with her. I think the other queens can tell you that, and even beyond the Black community because I think the Filipino queens, the white, all of them would say the same thing that she made sure there was more space for more people. And along with, she also saw you go into a space and Black people feel that, even when you go into the mostly white dominant space,” says Stewart.
Michelle Ross would acknowledge other Black people wherever she came across them even when she worked at Le Château as a tailor in the 70s. When a Black person walked in, she would connect with them right away.
Beyond being someone who sets a stage and a presence within her performing space, she collaborated with the parties that happened in St. James Town and it was at least a space where you would find Black community and queer within Black community.
Ross was the face but a lot of other people were putting on these events and making sure there were these spaces, people who weren’t out and maybe closeted but were all creating an underground community that we could all connect to, says Stewart.
“Many of us were saying that Michelle should get her flowers because beyond what she did for community. She’s a supreme performer, she’s been so present in the community, she has given us so much joy and all of that and who doesn’t know her. She’s world-renowned, including going to the Caribbean and into the belly of the beast of Babylon in Jamaica to perform and be who she is in all kinds of spaces -- that she should get her flowers.
“Michelle made sure that people had roofs over their heads, they had food in their stomach, they got kicked out of home an encouraging word connecting them to folks, she was that person.”
Over the years, Stewart reminded Ross that she should not downplay the fact that she was creating space – an activist thing – and was doing something that was going against the grain.
Photo credit: DJ Blackcat Michelle Ross in a photo shoot at her home in February 2021
Meanwhile, in 2019, Blackcat told friends that he wanted to do something big for Ross and honour her. They were planning to put together a committee to do so but then the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020 and it never happened.
Having taken on a new job with Pride Toronto, he shared the idea with them and they decided to include it in their Black History Month programming.
“We decided that we were going to surprise her with flowers and have a little speech and say something to her. I asked her to perform -- she did not know that we were going to do that,” says Blackcat who assured her that he would come to her house and set up the lighting, get the music together, and make her look fabulous.
At the end of the performance, he surprised her with flowers, on behalf of Pride Toronto and the community.
“You personify excellence and sometimes you feel that the community does not appreciate you,” he told her, to which she responded yes and was teary-eyed as he articulated her accolades.
Blackcat spoke to Ross about doing some things for Pride, which, unfortunately, will now not happen.
“It was really important to me to give her, her flowers, that’s what we’re all saying now, that’s the term we’re using -- to give her, her flowers, while she was still here,” he says, noting that this is how the photo shoot that he posted on his Facebook page a few days ago came together.
Ross agreed to the photo shoot and parts were videotaped as something Blackcat would keep for himself. He posted it online ten days before she passed.
“It took me a while to get the pictures together…I sent them to her for her to okay. She loved them and then I put them up,’ says Blackcat, quite happy that he decided to take the pictures and videotape her performance.
He plans to eventually put the videos up in a way that will honour her, he says, still grappling with the loss of her.
Blackcat says 20 years ago, another Black drag queen, Duchess, passed away and at that time she was the closest person to Ross.
“Duchess was Michelle’s daughter and I was left with the task of letting people know that Duchess had died,” he says, noting that the first person he called was Ross who was in disbelief.
They commiserated together but now that Ross has passed away he is by himself saying goodbye to her.
In the meantime, the tributes continue to pour in from organizations within the Church-Wellesley Village and LGBTQ+ community.
“We bid adieu to a legend, a queen, an icon: Michelle Ross. A proud Jamaican-born Canadian, Michelle, reigned the local drag scene. Known to exude kindness and warmth, she wowed folks at our Green Space Festival helping raise funds for our communities, Rest in power, Ms. Ross!” The 519 tweeted on Monday.
Pride Toronto said Michelle Ross performed such female entertainers as Dionne Warwick, Gloria Gaynor, and the Diva Diana Ross.
“She continued to make a name for herself in a six-year stint at La Cage Aux Follers in Toronto, La Cage tours in Japan, Canada and Paris, a residency at Caesar’s palace in Las Vegas and high profile events in London, England, Chicago, Texas, Florida, New York City and her native land of Jamaica. Classy. Elegant. Glamorous. Miss Ross,” tweeted Pride Toronto.
On Sunday, Blockorama & Blackness YES posted on its Facebook page, “Our thoughts are with family, friends and the entire community that was touched by Michelle Ross’s work and presence. Today we remember a legend.”
The Black Gay Men's Network says, "The queer community in Canada lost a true icon this weekend. Michelle Ross was the sort of drag performer that pierced your soul with just a look. She made you feel special, like it was just you and her in the room. There aren't enough words, Michelle. Thank you."
“Beyond the mourning and observation is also the celebration of a life
lived. There will probably be a coalition of people who come together and do something big, along some smaller things. It’s like a BLM protest,” saysStewart.
Some Sources for More Information
Legacies in Motion: Black Queer Toronto Archival Project - See We Yah!, curated by Courtnay McFarlane. http://www.myseumoftoronto.com/programming/legacies-in-motion-black-queer-toronto-archival-project/
Our Dance of Revolution: The History of Toronto’s Black Queer Community, a documentary by Phillip Pike. https://www.ourdanceofrevolution.com
Rinaldo Walcott’s essay “Fragments of Toronto’s Black Queer Community: From a Life Still Being Lived (2005)”inOur Caribbean: A Gathering of Lesbian and Gay Writing from the Antilles, edited and with an introduction by Thomas Glave, published by Duke University Press, 2008. https://www.dukeupress.edu/our-caribbean
Video of Michelle Ross performing at Blockorama at Pride Toronto 2002. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Li06v7sLbIk
Michelle Ross was honoured at the Bigger Than We community celebration on June 18, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zV1Ufk73_I
Douglas Stewart - provided me with links to archival information on The Manatee, the film, Outrageous!, and documentary, Divas: Love Me Forever, and the Bigger Than We video.
Thanks to: DJ Blackcat for photos from the photo shoot with Michelle Ross in February 2021 at her home, Junior Harrison for the photos and video of Michelle Ross performing at Blockorama in 2013, and Ricardo Goldson for the photo of the memorial outside Crews & Tangos in the Church-Wellesley Village.
Thanks Douglas Stewart, DJ Blackcat, Dr. OmiSoore Dryden, Verlia Stephens, Dr. Jill Andrew, Phillip Pike, Twysted Miyake-Mugler and Rinaldo Walcott.
