Scholar-Activist Walter Rodney Remembered in Toronto

By Neil Armstrong

Photo contributed    Alissa Trotz, Associate Professor, Women and Gender Studies, and Caribbean Studies at New College, University of Toronto

Fifty years after attending the Congress of Black Writers in Montreal and being banned from returning to Jamaica afterwards, the late scholar-activist Walter Rodney was celebrated in Toronto.

On October 16 – on the 50^th anniversary of the protests against the Jamaican government’s decision to declare Rodney persona non grata -- A Different Booklist Cultural Centre held a panel discussion entitled “A Tribute to Walter Rodney: 50 Years Later” on October 16 as a part of its Black and Caribbean Book Affair.

The panelists were Alissa Trotz, associate professor of Women and Gender Studies, and Caribbean Studies at New College, University of Toronto; Wazir Mohamed, associate professor of sociology at Indiana University East in Richmond, Indiana; and Norman Otis Richmond, veteran journalist and founder of the Biko Rodney Malcolm Coalition.

Trotz said she had several conversations with Guyanese social activist, Andaiye, on what to say and she told her,  “It is not about asking ourselves what would Walter Rodney think or say? That is not the question. Rather we might ask what use we can make of his example and method today?”

“Andaiye noted that two things struck her about Walter, that he was both stubborn and open, and what he was stubborn on was the importance of class struggle, and what he was open to was the history that people were making, to the self-directed activity of the working people.”

She said being open to the history that people were making necessarily meant that one’s view of the working people was necessarily complex and difference was not something swept under a carpet or postponed only to be engaged later. 

“There is then a commitment to fighting oppression, beginning with those who have least countries and also against oppression of countries by other countries (anti-imperialist).”

Trotz, who is Guyanese, said this commitment was consistent across the spheres of Rodney’s life and one might say, “it organized his research, his speeches, his political activism.”

She said he moved fluently across several different kinds of communities, different kinds of audiences.

“It meant he wrote and spoke in different kinds of ways but always with the principles laid out above as his guide. He grounded with the Rastafari in Kingston. He gave bottom house classes at his home in Georgetown to the community, he gave classes to bauxite workers in the mining community of Linden.”

Professor Trotz noted that Rodney had written two children’s books, “Kofi Baadu out of Africa” and “Lakshmi out of India” (with plans to do at least three others on the indigenous peoples, Portuguese and Chinese) – which demonstrates that Rodney was thinking of the next generation.

He authored books such as “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa,” “A History of the Guyanese Working People 1881-1905,” and “A History of the Upper Guinea Coast.”

“He was an orator, as evidenced by his political speeches in the anti-dictatorial struggle in Guyana. Many of these – like “People’s Power, No Dictator”; and “In Defence of Arnold Rampersaud” – were later published by the Working People’s Alliance (WPA).”

Trotz said in his last speech, one week before he was assassinated on June 13,1980, Rodney summed up his view of history, his confidence in the people’s movement: “We feel more confident because of the demonstrated ability and capacity of the people as a whole.” “The revolution is made by ordinary people, not by angels, by people from all walks of life, but particularly by the working class who are in the majority.” 

Her charge at the end of her presentation was, “Today, as we remember his life’s work and the example he left, we should ask ourselves, how and where in the world we live in today, does one find the things that are to be done? And what parts will we play?”

Photo contributed   Wazir Mohamed, Associate Professor of Sociology at Indiana University East in Richmond, Indiana

Mohamed said Rodney’s expulsion from Jamaica has to be contextualized, noting that hi expulsion was connected with his vision.

“Walter was intimately concerned with the destiny of the poor. His activity off the campus at the University of the West Indies demonstrated the depth of his concern with the deprivation of the oppressed classes inside any given country, and also with the oppression of the subject peoples of the earth by oppressing nations. The lectures contained in and recognized as “Groundings with my Brothers” is testimony to his vision.”

He noted that Rodney was firm in his belief that only the people can free themselves from deprivation and oppression.

“This is why Eusi Kwayana calls him “a Prophet of Self-Emancipation.” As such with regards to the fate of the oppressed classes and working peoples in a given country, Walter was of the view and firmly believed that they must discover themselves by becoming class conscious, in order to understand their historic mission to free or emancipate themselves (in the words of Bob Marley) from their own oppression.”

Mohamed noted that this is why Rodney chose to ground with the oppressed in Jamaica, in Africa, in the USA, in Guyana, and other places.

He said Rodney’s expulsion from Jamaica triggered the denial of a teaching job at the University of Guyana.

“In the wake of his expulsion from Jamaica, in October 1968 the board of governors at the University of Guyana rejected his application for a teaching appointment at UG. It must be recalled this his application was again denied in 1974 – he was thus twice denied a job at UG.”

Regarding why the ruling regime in Guyana was determined to prevent Rodney from working and hence living in Guyana, Mohamed said it was the “clarity of his stance against oppression, and his vision of Peoples Power through Self-Emancipation.”

“Rodney had already made the natural, or necessary, leap through black power to the science of the revolutionary working people, Marxism. He was a Marxist – he believed firmly in the unity of all working peoples regardless of race and ethnic origin.

“On the issue of oppression and response to oppression he was laser focused. He was a like a thunderbolt,” he said.

Mohamed said Guyana was not a blank slate and it was important “to be able to contextualize Rodney’s entry into Guyana in the mid-1970s, as an additive that emboldened the work already being done to build class and multi-racial consciousness.”

In the early 1970s IPRA (Indiana Political Revolutionary Associates-headed by Moses Bhagwan) and ASCRIA (African Society for Cultural Relations with Independent Africa – headed by Eusi Kwayana) – were active – they had established a race commission, and were building multi-racial discussion across ethnic divides and ethnic communities.

Groups outside the two established ethnic based political parties – People’s Progressive Party (PPP) and People’s National Congress (PNC) -- such as Ratoon at the University of Guyana, MAO (Movement Against Oppression), WPVP (Working People’s Vanguard Party), and PDM (Peoples Democratic Movement) were active on political and social issues.

Mohamed said the space for active people’s mobilization was already present – hence the open public mobilization and struggle in defense of Rodney’s right to teach.

“The first public meeting in Georgetown on the denial of Rodney’s right to teach was described by some observers as "like 1953". It was "like 1953" in size and multiracial composition.

“Even before he had shifted residence back to Guyana, before he had spoken a single word in his home country, Guyana - Walter Rodney was a political issue and a threat in the eyes of the regime.”

Mohamed said when Rodney entered the Guyanese scene the society was in racial and political ferment.

He noted that an indo-Guyanese activist, Arnold Rampersaud of the PPP, was accused of trumped up charges of murdering a policeman at a toll station on the Corentyne – “Rodney chose to defend an Indian falsely accused.”

Mohamed also noted that the government “had just rigged the 1973 elections and were preparing to promulgate a constitution around which power could be consolidated.”

Workers and farmers were in active revolt for decent living wages and better working conditions, and for land to the tiller.

As a PPP activist, Mohamed said he was exposed for the first time to open discussion on race a multi-racial way out of the human crisis.

He was involved in the campaign to free Arnold Rampersaud, and witnessed first-hand the impact of multi-racial mobilization.

“Walter Rodney’s appeal affected people like myself directly, and propelled us into direct action. More than that though his vision impacted the way we saw each other – remember as a young Indo Guyanese I was socialized to view the Afro Guyanese as my enemy – exposure to Walter Rodney caused me to change my perception, ways of thinking, and helped me to become a more complete human being.”

In 1979, Mohamed became a member of the WPA, and by March 1980 became a full-time activist of the party.

Photo credit: Kathy Grant  Left to right: Norman 'Otis' Richmond, Lazo and Yvette Taylor

Richmond said he first met Rodney at the office of the groundbreaking Contrast newspaper in Toronto, which was founded by Al Hamilton in 1969 and was considered the voice of the Black community in Canada.

He noted that Rodney was a strong believer in African identity.

[A shorter version of this story has been published in the North American Weekly Gleaner, Nov. 8-14, 2018]

York University Lauded for New Programs and Research in Black Studies

By Neil Armstrong

Photo credit: York University   Senator Wanda Elaine Thomas Bernard speaking at the launch of new programs and research in Black Studies at York University

Senator Wanda Elaine Thomas Bernard, one of the two black independent members in the Senate of Canada, says the fact that York University now has a program of Black Studies, which is pan-university in its approach, signals the significance and importance of this work.

The senator, who was the first Black Canadian to have an academic tenure position and become a full professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, said in the 40-plus years that she was a student in university it is something that she “hoped for, worked and prayed for to have Black Studies research, scholarship and teaching in Black Studies seriously taken up by universities.”

She was speaking at the launch of -- the Black Canadian Studies Certificate Program, Black Studies and Theories of Race and Racism Graduate Stream, Black Child and Youth Studies Network, Network for the Advancement of Black Communities, and the Jean Augustine, Inez Elliston, and Beverley Salmon library fonds – at the university on October 18.

“To have our place in this country clearly identified by what you’re doing here it’s a signal, it’s a signal to the rest of the country,” Senator Bernard said, noting that she hopes that it also opens up opportunities for faculty.

“We have far too many educated professionals in our community, in the African Canadian community, who don’t have full time faculty positions. PhD-credential people who don’t have full time positions – that shouldn’t be, that shouldn’t be the case in this country. Programs like this create more opportunities for faculty members who want to teach in this area.”

Rhonda Lenton, president and vice-chancellor, said she was impressed by the uniqueness in many ways of what was being accomplished in the programs, “in terms of elevating Black Studies to a pan-university approach, not isolating Black Studies just in one particular department but really bringing together faculties from across the whole university.”

“I was impressed by the responsiveness to the student advocacy for having programs that reflected their lived experience, and so how within that context and within Canada how can we reflect on historical, social, cultural evidence and data within that context of Canada.”

 Lenton said she was also impressed by the way in which the programs are so embedded in the community.

“The program to bring together multiple universities across Ontario in creating a hub for research but there is such a strong commitment there to working with the communities that we serve, to working with black scholars, being responsive to our students, listening to those different groups and bringing them together in these programs and really creating and… reestablishing your work as a leader in the area of Black Studies,” she said.

Andrea Davis, a Jamaican and chair of the Department of Humanities, thanked Leslie Sanders who has mentored, supervised and guided most of them in the humanities, and who has worked in Black Studies, not only at York but across Canada.

The Black Canadian Studies Certificate launched in September and Davis said it is a seminal achievement but well overdue.

“It emerges from conversations and advocacy going back many years to the creation of a Centre for the Study of Black Cultures in Canada, co-founded by Leslie Sanders and Rinaldo Walcott in 2002.”

She said more recently student advocacy for a more diverse curriculum “provided the context for us to re-energize this vision.”

Photo credit: York University    Andrea Davis, Chair of the Department of Humanities, York University, left, and Christina Sharpe, Professor of African Diaspora Studies, Humanities, York University

The Black Canadian Studies Certificate provides an integrated examination of the historical, cultural and various expressive productions of people of African descent in the Americas through the lens of Black Canada and four specific humanities and fine arts approaches: cultural studies, history, literature and music.

Davis said the certificate is currently limited to students enrolled in degree programs at York and she has been getting many emails from other people who are interested in enrolling.

“So we are already working to expand it to include both a direct entry option and a major and minor.”

The Black Studies and Theories of Race and Racism Graduate Stream, also launched in September, is meant to prepare students to develop innovative scholarships that explores and analyzes the contributions of black intellectual, political and cultural productions nationally and internationally.

The Black Child and Youth Studies Network, led by the Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community and Diaspora, brings together faculty and post-doctoral fellows from five Ontario universities: York, McMaster, University of Toronto, University of Ottawa and University of Windsor.

It is supported by the Ministry of Universities, Colleges and Training and the Ministry of Education.

The Network for the Advancement of Black Communities, also housed in the Jean Augustine Chair, serves as a coordinating entity for initiatives and programs providing services for children, youth and families. 

Funded by the Ministry of Child and Youth Services, the network coordinates and aligns programs and initiatives that address disparities in graduation rates, postsecondary education participation and youth employment.

In 2007, Jean Augustine donated her personal records to the Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections at York University chronicling her four decades of public service and advocacy in women’s rights, urban education and with black youth.

The library recently extended its special collections to include the Inez Elliston and Beverley Salmon fonds.

“Together these five programs and initiatives signal York’s importance as a leader in Black Canadian Studies, both in research concentration and in the education of a new generation of scholars and graduates who can respond thoughtfully and purposefully to the rapidly changing world in which we live and ask critical questions to find bold solutions for the social and political problems of our time.”

The keynote lecture entitled “Still Here” was presented by Christina Sharpe, professor of African Diaspora Studies, Humanities at York University.

[Correction: An earlier version of this story noted that Senator Bernard is now the only black senator in the Senate of Canada. Senator Marie-Francoise Megie of Quebec, who was born in Haiti, was appointed an independent member by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Nov. 2, 2016. I regret the error.
This story was published in the North American Weekly Gleaner, Nov. 1-7, 2018.]

Leading Black Studies Scholar Says New Program Will Imagine Futures

By Neil Armstrong

Photo credit: York University   Professor Christina Sharpe, who teaches African Diaspora Studies at York University, presents the keynote lecture "Still Here" at the launch of new programs and research in Black Studies at the university on October 18, 2018.

Christina Sharpe, a leading scholar in Black Diaspora Thought and Cultures, says there are several people who have been doing work that inspires hers. Some are still here, others are not, but “their works continue to be read and felt and continue on in us.”

She thanked professors Andrea Davis and Leslie Sanders who worked hard to make Black Canadian Studies a reality, and also thanked the students who made it possible.

Sharpe, professor of African Diaspora Studies, Humanities at York University delivered the keynote lecture entitled “Still Here” at the launch of new programs and research in Black Studies at the university on October 18.

The Black Canadian Studies Certificate provides an integrated examination of the historical, cultural and various expressive productions of people of African descent in the America through the lens of Black Canada and four specific humanities and fine arts approaches: cultural studies, history literature, and music.

Sharpe started with three epigraphs from -- Saidiya Hartman “The Terrible Beauty of the Slum,” Tavia Nyong'o’s “Black Survivor in the Unchromatic Dark” and Dionne Brand’s “Ossuaries” -- hoping that they would help “orient us both to the logic of the title ‘Still Here’ and to the ongoing and necessary work of the imagination.”

This semester she is teaching an undergraduate and a graduate seminar “Imagining Slavery and Freedom” with the intent to make it clear that African chattel slavery, the abduction of Africans, Middle Passage and more involved the work of imagination – “involved the work, in fact, of many imaginations in the service of brutality.”

She noted that, “our freedom, but more precisely, our liberation needs all of our beautiful imagination to usher it into being.”

Sharpe quoted from or referred to the works of Dionne Brand, Rinaldo Walcott, Toni Morrison, Sylvia Hamilton, Camille Turner and other writers and artists noting that their work underscore the imaginings of Black people living in the diaspora.

“It is difficult work writing blackness, difficult work to bring together strands and histories and lives without collapsing them into each other. But that is part of the work that we do and that the new Certificate in Black Canadian Studies will do – the work of seeing these strands and holding these histories and presents. This is the work of thinking from Black, the work of imagining futures, the work of making Black life live on and off the page.

“These writers live and work in Canada and their work articulates our lives but not in the interest of nation building. I think blackness cuts nation, particularly in the Americas. The one thing that has remained consistent is the state’s response to the appearance of blackness. The state responds to Black people with a violent managing of blackness. Our job is to really look at and describe and apprehend the multiple ways that Black people make life.  How to describe that living in the face of the state’s malevolence, our work is to imagine and inhabit otherwises that are already being lived, otherwises that allow for and sustain black life,” she said.

In part three of her lecture -- the coda -- she thanked the following people: Sylvia Hamilton, M. NourbeSe Philip, Juliane Okot Bitek, Dionne Brand, Beverly Bain, David Chariandy, Ama Ata Aidoo, George Elliott Clarke, Wayde Compton, Toni Morrison, Warren Crichlow, Carl James, Afua Cooper, Rinaldo Walcott, Mariam Kaba, Ruth Gilmore, Makeda Silvera, Canisia Lubrin, Clifton Joseph, Lillian Allen, Claire Harris, Camille Turner, Angela Davis, Grace Channer, Carie Mae Weems, Abdi Osman, OmiSoore Dryden, Andrea Fatona, Sandra Brewster, Sandy Hudson, August Wilson, Katherine McKittrick, Akua Benjamin, Maryse Condé, Kamala Kempadoo, Marlene Green, Sherona Hall, Angela Robertson, Idil Abdillahi, adri zhina, Peggy Bristow, and Andrea Davis.

She noted that her thank you is provisional, incomplete and continuing.

“I want to give special thanks to Andrea Davis for her beautiful imagination and her beautiful vision for this evening. That vision and her commitment and her imagining and good company have made possible the Black Canadian certificate program at York University as well as my own presence here.”

Photo credit: York University   Andrea Davis, Chair, Department of Humanities at York University

Professor Sharpe’s work in African American and Black diaspora literatures, Black feminist theories, queer diasporas, Black visual cultures and North American multiethnic literatures positions her within the most exciting and cutting-edge research in Black Diaspora studies and establishes her as one of the most impactful scholars shaping the field from the perspective of interdisciplinary humanities, notes a brief biography of the scholar who joined Department of Humanities in June.

Sharpe is the author of Monstrous Intimacies: Making Post-Slavery Subjects (Duke UP 2010) and In the Wake: On Blackness and Being (Duke 2016).

She came to York from Tufts University where she taught in the Departments of English and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies and was the former director of American Studies.

The lecture was presented by the Department of Humanities, Department of Music and the Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community and Diaspora.

Photo credit: York University   York University Gospel Choir, directed by Karen M. Burke, Department of Music performs in the Tribute Communities Recital Hall Accolade East, York University

It opened a two-day event recognizing these new programs and research in Black Studies at York:

-       Black Canadian Studies Certificate Program

-       Black Studies and Theories of Race and Racism Graduate Stream

-       Black Child and Youth Studies Network

-       Network for the Advancement of Black Communities

-       Jean Augustine, Inez Elliston, and Beverly Salmon library fonds

The lecture was followed by “Struggles and Possibilities of Black Studies in Canada: A Workshop” on October 19 in Founders College at the university.

Black Community in Brampton Wants to be Fully Included in the City

By Neil Armstrong

Photo contributed   Patrick Brown is running for mayor of Brampton in the Oct. 22, 2018 municipal election.

Several Black, African and Caribbean residents in the city of Brampton want to see visible representation in the mayor’s office, on interview panels and in the selection of job applicants, among other things.

They shared their concerns at the second Black, African and Caribbean Community Town Hall with mayoral candidate, Patrick Brown, held at his campaign office in Brampton on October 9.

Apart from not feeling representing by the present municipal government, some of the other issues they raised included property taxes, homelessness and poverty alleviation, gridlock on the roads and economic development to match the burgeoning residential projects.

Black African and Caribbean residents in Brampton represent the second largest group of visible minorities in the city, with South Asians being the largest and Filipinos in third place.

“Visible representation matters. I am committing to ensuring that the Mayor’s Office will engage and reflect the diverse mosaic of communities in Brampton,” said Brown who is a candidate in the October 22 municipal election.

On September 17, he held his first meeting with the community to develop a 10-point commitment to Brampton’s Black, African and Caribbean-Canadian community.

 The commitments include ensuring the mayor’s office staff reflects the cultural mosaic of the city and to create the first-ever Black/African/Caribbean-Canadian Mayor’s Advisory Council.

On the matter of equality of opportunity, Brown wants to ensure hiring practices give all candidates a fair chance to be hired. 

“The panels interviewing/selecting applicants must also reflect the cultural make-up of our city. And jobs at City Hall will be shared with the community through the advisory council,” notes the commitment.

The mayoral candidate plans to have a dedicated staff position in the mayor’s office that will focus on outreach and engagement, and ensuring that the office is accessible to community members.

Tenders for city projects will be shared with Black-owned businesses through the advisory council to encourage fair and equal opportunity.

Brown has also committed to ensure there is support for the summer festival, Jambana, “and their continued, successful presence in Brampton.”

He wants the Congress of Black Women, Brampton and the United Achievers’ Club annual Black History Month to have city space provided free of charge, and to  provide them with office space to operate out of as they continue to develop their programs fostering youth success in Brampton.

There is also the plan to “create the Brampton City Council Making Black History Awards for Black History Month to encourage and celebrate greatness in our city.”

“At the recommendation of the Black Community Action Network of Peel, we will review and, where needed, develop education programs and other tools to address issues of anti-Black racism, inclusion, and equity in the City of Brampton workspaces,” says the ninth commitment.

Brown notes that: “We will work alongside small and large community organizations to ensure they have space and support to continue to serve the community, with a special focus on Black/African/Caribbean-Canadian youth employment opportunities, seniors issues, mental health resources, and business supports.”

Photo contributed   Garnett Manning, former councillor, City of Brampton

Jamaican, Garnett Manning, a former city councillor of Brampton and a member of Brown’s campaign team, said the former provincial leader of the Official Opposition at Queen’s Park was the first Ontario Progressive Conservative Party leader to host a Black History Month event.

Referencing the names of black candidates running in the October 22 municipal election in Brampton such as Everton Campbell, Princess Boucher, Michael Farquharson, Michelle Shaw and others, he said in his estimation “this is the best stack of candidates from our community.”

Manning said there are two constants in Brampton regarding elections: a 30 per cent and less election turnout and the city elects mayors in big numbers.

He believes that the Black vote “could be the x factor to send a message that we will not be taken for granted” and that the community should vote strategically. Manning is proposing that the community should vote as a block.

Brown has served two terms municipally as a city councillor in the city of Barrie and three terms in the federal parliament representing Barrie. He is a former Member of Provincial Parliament for the riding of Simcoe North.

He was planning to lead the Ontario PC Party in the June provincial election but was forced to resign after allegations of sexual misconduct, dating back to when he was a member of parliament. He has strongly denied the allegations and is suing Bell Media and CTV News which first reported the accusations.

Brown currently practices real estate law in the GTA and sits as managing partner at Callian Capital Group, as well as vice president at Tortel Communications.  He and his wife, Genevieve Gualtieri, live in downtown Brampton.  

The other mayoral candidates are:  incumbent Linda Jeffrey, Mansoor Ameersulthan, Baljit Gosal, Wesley Jackson, Vinod Kumar Mahesan and John Sprovieri.

Responding to the question of how in her four years as mayor she has engaged the Black, African and Caribbean-Canadian community in hiring practices, tenders for city projects, among other things to ensure inclusion and community engagement in the City of Brampton, Jeffrey said “it’s very arrogant of Mr. Brown to try to address an issue that he himself has not been here long enough to understand and appreciate.”

“Since the beginning of my term, every group - no matter their race or faith - has been welcome to City Hall. Under my leadership we've opened up City Hall to make everyone feel more welcome. We've done more events, more flag raisings for groups than any previous council has done. We've initiated the Inclusion and Equity Committee and currently City Staff are working on implementing their recommendations,” she said.

Jeffrey says she was part of a board that initiated an equity audit for Peel Regional Police.

“I listened to residents and took a firm stance against carding practices and moved a motion at Peel Regional Council, along with Mayor Bonnie Crombie to stop carding.

“I was part of a team on the Police Services Board that hired two deputies from the Black Community to serve on Peel Regional Police.”

She said she has been outspoken in her criticism of hiring practices at City Hall and
will continue to advocate for more equity.

“We are a City that needs to pull together and celebrate our diversity. The policies I push forward, whether on crime, seniors, taxes or transit, will continue to address the wide variety of issues affecting Bramptonians.

“If you don't have political will, nothing can happen. I am here and ready to listen to Bramptonians and work hard to address their concerns. I always have and I always will,” said Jeffrey who is seeking a second term as mayor.

[Due to space constraints because of two features in the current issue of the North American Weekly Gleaner (Oct. 18-24, 2018), this story was not published.]

Black Canadians Want to Benefit from Legalization of Marijuana

By Neil Armstrong

Photo contributed    Tyler James, director of Ontario Cannabis Consumer & Retail Alliance (OCCRA) and community outreach coordinator for Campaign for Cannabis Amnesty.

With just six days to go until the use of cannabis is legalized in Canada on October 17, some African Canadians have varied opinions about what it means for the Black community.

On October 4, the New Democratic Party of Canada (NDP) justice critic, Murray Rankin, tabled a groundbreaking bill that would immediately expunge simple possession records for all Canadians.

The party says too many people with criminal records for simple possession still face real hardships that affect their job opportunities, their ability to travel, and as a result, their livelihood. 

“Too many good people face unnecessary barriers and hardships for simple possession of cannabis, from difficulty finding a job, renting an apartment, to not being allowed to volunteer on a child’s soccer team,” said NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh.

“These barriers are felt even more by marginalized communities, including Black Canadians and Indigenous Peoples, who are 3 to 9 times more likely to be arrested for pot possession. All this while many other members of society are less likely to even get charged, and are far more likely to be able to make those charges go away,” he said.

Tyler James, director of Ontario Cannabis Consumer & Retail Alliance (OCCRA), says he has heard a “mixed bag of sentiments and emotions” from Black Canadians.

“Some individuals are very elated by it because they’re looking at opportunities that they can participate, both on the retail side and then also the cultivation side. They’re very adamant about their participation and how they want to be involved and included.”

James says others are more concerned around “the piece of how or if we will even be included in the first place, so the piece around amnesty and those that they know or if they've personally been affected has really been kind of a driving force around what they want to address prior to legalization.”

Many felt that before legalization they could have had decriminalization, says James, “cause as it stands there is still currently people being charged with possession offences.”

He said people of colour and Indigenous Peoples are disproportionately affected by the criminalization of the use of cannabis.

People were concerned if there would be the allowance for participation in retail or cultivation as background checks are required.

They wonder if their previous encounter with police or conviction would preclude someone from participation either on the cultivation side through a “licensed producer (LP) or if they were to start up their own LP or if they wanted to start up their own micro, in addition to that on the retail side if it would also preclude them as well.”

In the lead up to the vote on the Cannabis Act in the senate, independent Senator Wanda Bernard –  one of two black senators then -- held a public discussion on legalization at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia in March to hear from the Black community which she described as being silent on the issue.

Commenting on the perceived silence of the community, James attributed this to “the stigmatization that comes with cannabis itself, and unfortunately with the war on drugs and with [Stephen] Harper’s tough on crime bill it increased the cost for pardons and it increased the penalty for possession offences.”

He said although there isn’t any more disproportionate use, “unfortunately in the news in the media it’s disproportionately shown that black individuals consume cannabis or it’s shown as if we disproportionately consume cannabis more than any others.”

He attributes the silence to “that trepidation from individuals in our community to step out because we’ve been stigmatized for consumption of it for so long.”

James also said the public consumption or public support of cannabis is frowned upon especially “within our own communities.”

As of October 17, the Ontario Cannabis Store website will be the only legal option for purchasing recreational cannabis in the province. It will follow strict rules set by the federal government.

The Ontario government has also introduced legislation that, if passed, would help the province move forward with a tightly regulated private retail model for cannabis that would launch by April 1, 2019.

The legislation would establish the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) as the provincial regulator authorized to grant store licences. The Ontario Cannabis Store would be the exclusive wholesaler to these stores. Private stores would be introduced with strict controls to safeguard children and youth and combat the illegal market.

James says this is what OCCRA has been advocating for because it is creating an allowance for individuals who have been advocates to transition into a legal market.

He also welcomes the inclusion of lounges into the cannabis framework as well.

James says amnesty and the inclusive nature of the Ontario government’s approach allows for fair market competition and the market itself will become more fragmented before it won’t be just large “companies and LPs being able to just buy up a whole segment of the market. It will allow for more diversity in retailers.”

He said this would also allow for in the future more diversity of cannabis lounges as well so “the tourist piece is going to be a next big step along with the ability to retail and have micro icensing.”

Micro licensing will allow for individuals who want to become edible manufacturers and processors or individuals who want to have their own kind of craft cannabis brand to be included in the market. 

He said those with cannabis convictions are not necessarily excluded and can participate.

Akhaji Zakiya, a community advocate, feels that the Black community has borne the burden of this burgeoning industry “without any indication that we’ll get to enjoy the rewards.”

She says the community is overrepresented in the criminalization and completely underrepresented in benefiting from any investments or returns from this industry.
Zakiya is aware of a few retailers who have shut down in anticipation of the change in legislation.

There are three things that she would like to see regarding the community: for people to not be incarcerated, being able to participate in the enterprise, and the third is a quality issue “whether it’s fentanyl or other substances, I’m really concerned that people can enjoy the benefits of this product,…I’m concerned about the quality of these products that are increasingly being mass produced -- just so people can be healthy in their consumption.”

Photo contributed     Michael St. George, reggae and spoken word artist

Meanwhile, Michael St. George, a reggae and spoken word artist, says he has mixed feelings about the legalization of recreational use of marijuana.

“I think the abuse of anything is not good and I tend to see some of that. I think part of it is education and culture. It’s a different culture from how we drew up using marijuana, and particularly because on one level I’m concerned about the younger generation not really knowing real marijuana and the overuse of anything synthetic.”

From an Afrocentric cultural perspective and from a Rastafari perspective, he says: “Knowing that we have been at the forefront of leading this charge for a long time and being victimized by its use by a system of governance around the world, it is sad to see that this is happening and people are still suffering from incarceration and being victimized by its use.”

He said farmers who have seen this as a produce for a long time have not benefitted from it, noting that it is very expensive to get a license in Jamaica.

“I think that there should be concessions made for Rastas to have an integral part in this to profit and to be involved from profiting from this.”

St. George said if there is a culture that will hold this product in high regard it is Rasta.

The federal NDP says so far, the Liberals have put forward no plan to help Canadians convicted of something which will no longer be a crime after October 17. 

“No one should continue to suffer the negative impacts of outdated legislation. Under current rules, Canadians must wait 5 to 10 years and must pay over $600 just to apply for a pardon which does not make their record disappear. Convictions for trafficking and other drug-related crimes that remain illegal will not be affected by Rankin’s Bill.”

“Simply put, Canadians shouldn’t be punished for what will soon be a completely legal activity,” said Rankin. “I hope to see the Liberals support this common-sense legislation.”

[This story was published in the North American Weekly Gleaner, Oct. 11-17, 2018.]