As Canadians mark the abolition of slavery in most British colonies this Monday, scholars are calling on the federal government to apologize for Canada’s role in enslaving black and indigenous people.
August 1st marks Emancipation Day in Canada, the day in 1834 when the Slavery Abolition Act went into effect in the British Empire, leading to the eventual freeing of more than 800,000 enslaved Africans and their descendants.
“It symbolizes a day of reflection, a day of remembrance,” Afua Cooper, principal investigator of the three-year African-Canadian heritage research project, Canada’s Black History, told CTV News Channel on Monday.
“We reflect on these 188 years since this act … went into effect on August 1, 1834, and we reflect on the journey of black people from then to now and the struggles we’ve been through, and also not just struggles, but resilience of that particular community.”
The House of Commons last year officially designated August 1 as Emancipation Day.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in a statement released Monday, said he invites all Canadians to learn more about Canada’s history of slavery and segregation and its lasting effects.
“We must acknowledge the truths of the past and day after day recommit ourselves to the fight against anti-Black hatred and systemic racism to build a better, more inclusive Canada for all,” he said.
But an apology from the federal government for its involvement in slavery, Cooper said, is “absolutely” necessary.
“This is something that I have been asking for a while because the enslavement of Africans happened in this space that we now call Canada. “Black people have given their labor, their intellectual capital to this place for over 200 years,” she said.
Even after enslaved people were freed, Cooper said the “ripple effect” of slavery continued in the form of racial segregation, such as in schools, which “significantly reduced the life opportunities of black Canadians.”
Cooper noted that the last segregated school in Canada, located in Lincolnville, North Carolina, did not close until 1983.
“What was rewritten in the post-slavery era came from what happened in the slavery era in terms of the racial hierarchy that was built during that time,” Cooper said.
With files from The Canadian Press
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