{"id":26127,"date":"2020-03-06T18:38:17","date_gmt":"2020-03-06T23:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=26127"},"modified":"2020-03-06T18:38:25","modified_gmt":"2020-03-06T23:38:25","slug":"being-black-in-canada-spurs-valuable-dialogue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/being-black-in-canada-spurs-valuable-dialogue\/","title":{"rendered":"Being Black in Canada spurs valuable dialogue"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A panelled discussion on Being Black in Canada, the first\nof its kind in Aurora, took place at the Aurora Public Library last Thursday as\npart of Black History Month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Magna Room in the Aurora Public Library (APL) was\npacked to capacity as people from different walks of life, and quite fittingly\n\u2013 different ethnic origins \u2013 came to listen to leaders from the Black\ncommunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The panelists included Juno-nominated singer and\nsongwriter Glenn Marais, recently-retired Justice of the Peace and former\nschool board trustee Tessa Benn-Ireland, as well as Executive Director of the\nWomen’s Support Network of York Region Jacqueline Benn-John.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The discussion was moderated by Brock Weir, Editor of The\nAuroran, who asked engaging and relevant questions relating to the advancements\nand challenges experienced by the Black community over the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marais, who works in York Region schools and raises\nawareness through his company, Music in Mind, spoke to the importance of even\nhosting such an event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is very encouraging that we are even doing this event\nin Aurora. Growing up here, the social setting was vastly different and we\ndidn\u2019t enjoy the cultural mix we have now. My parents came from South Africa in\n1964 because of the Apartheid regime, and I never learnt what it meant until I\nwas older and faced blatant racism,\u201d he shared. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The audience listened intently as each speaker came up to\nthe podium and pointed to the gaping holes in the acknowledgment of Black\nhistory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBlack history is made every day and we are making it right\nhere tonight,\u201d said Tessa Benn-Ireland, adding, \u201cAny history not documented is\nleft behind. Black Canadians have made achievements in arts, education,\nreligion, politics, agriculture and science. Black History Month is a time to\nhear more of these stories and their contribution to the growth and development\nof Canada. The role of Blacks in Canada has not always been viewed as a key\nfeature in Canada\u2019s historical landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coming from a personal standpoint, Jacqueline Benn-John shared\nhow she didn\u2019t see herself represented on the Canadian Moments Mural painted on\nthe side of a building at Yonge and Wellington Street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI saw the Canadian flag and many individuals from\nhistory but I didn\u2019t see myself represented, again. I immigrated from Trinidad\nat the age of one with my parents and Canada is my home, my children\u2019s home.\nIt\u2019s where I have dedicated my life\u2019s work. But Canadian history doesn\u2019t\nnormally include people like me,\u201d she pointed out, asking, \u201cIf I\u2019m not\nrepresented in a prominently placed mural, think about the discussions in\nclassrooms, in your homes, in your places of work. When will Canadian history\ninclude Black history? When will Indigenous and other people of colour\u2019s\nstories be part of Canadian history?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benn-John acknowledged that Canada has come a long way\nbut barriers to housing, healthcare, social support, employment, promotion,\neducation and other forms of inclusion continue to persist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe experience of invisibility is common to women of\ncolour in Canada who often find that their experiences of racism are not\nreflected in men\u2019s academic work on racial oppression, and yet their\nexperiences as women are not reflected either in hegemonic feminist work\nconcerning sexism and gender-based violence here in Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The panelists took turns to further the discussion by\nanswering engaging questions posed by Weir to delve into understanding black\nexperience. From their passion for community involvement and social justice to\nthe prevalence of systemic racism in school boards, there were some difficult\nquestions, and, perhaps, more difficult answers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benn-Ireland, who worked as a school board trustee for\nnine years, shared her inspiration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy parents always stressed that education is the key.\nWhen I volunteered for attendance checks at schools, I heard discussions and\nobserved many things. I felt it was imperative to get involved in my community\nand get parents out at schools to find out what\u2019s going on, get them to parent\nteacher meetings, or if they were unable, get them someone who would ask the\nright questions,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benn-John lived in a home where she experienced violence\nin the family and observed that women played roles that were subservient to\nmen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was through reading and, eventually, my academic\nstudies that I started to realize there was a connection to my experiences at\nhome and among relatives, that forms of violence were so normalized. I learnt a\nvery strong work ethic from my parents. They instilled in us the idea of how we\nhave to work twice as hard, and I critiqued it later on through my studies\nabout how powerful that message can be to children. I can work as hard as you\ntell me to but I\u2019m compensating for my blackness, and on top of it, I\u2019m\ncompensating for my gender too,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout Black History Month, Marais spent a lot of\ntime in schools and he acknowledged the ignorance that is present in all levels\nof education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe can never assume that people are aware and\nenlightened because they occupy certain positions,\u201d he said, as the panelists\npointed to anti-Black racism policies implemented by the York Region District\nSchool Board. \u201cI believe strongly in the power of legislative changes. It is an\nimportant step in the right direction but it\u2019s just a beginning, that\u2019s all it\nis. Legislative changes help us ensure minimum standards and we have to work\nbeyond it by looking at teacher education as a whole and the importance of building\nit in at the foundation of programs,\u201d said Benn-John.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is important to look at necessary and mandatory\neducation for people in public service, be it our educators, health care\nprofessionals, or our justice professionals. There are all kinds of\ninappropriate comments made across the globe by the Judiciary and it is very\ndifficult to mandate training for judges. I\u2019m pleased with the sexual violence\naction plan by the Ontario government, which included mandatory training for\nthe police. So, we have seen some gains.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the evening wore on, the discussions got deeper, and\nthe question-answer session brought to the table more lived experiences from\nCanadians with origins around the globe. It was perhaps agreed upon that we\nmust continue to speak up against discrimination and put measures in place to\nprotect the values of equity and inclusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, as Benn-John remembered Maya Angelou\u2019s famous words, \u201cHistory, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived but if faced with courage, not be lived again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Kinjal Dagli Shah <\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A panelled discussion on Being Black in Canada, the first of its kind in Aurora, took place at the Aurora Public Library last Thursday as part of Black History Month. The Magna Room in the Aurora Public Library (APL) was packed to capacity as people from different walks of life, and quite fittingly \u2013 different […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":26110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/2020-03-05-02.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6Np","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 01:24:21","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}