Vaughan African Canadian Association pays tribute to accomplishments of community

Yorkregion.com
Feb. 22, 2014
By Tim Kelly

Members of the Vaughan African Canadian Association marked Black History Month with a brunch at the GTA Faith Alliance office in Richmond Hill Saturday.

Senator Don Meredith, only the fourth African-Canadian to be appointed to the Senate when Prime Minister Stephen Harper named him to the upper chamber in December 2010, gave the keynote speech to the assembled guests, which included Veterans Affairs Minister and Vaughan MP Julian Fantino.

Mr. Meredith recognized a long list of black heroes of the past such as Rosemary Brown, first black MLA in British Columbia, Bromley Armstrong, who in 1954 led a march on Parliament Hill so that she, as a Canadian, "could come to this country, that those from the Caribbean could come to this country, because we have some laws in this country at the time that prevented visible minorities from coming here. They thought we couldn’t handle the cold. But I’ve gone down some hills on some skis and been on some skates. How about you"?

Or, the first deputy chief of police, Keith Forde, the first black man in Canada to have that post, when at the time Mr. Fantino was Toronto’s chief of police at the time of Mr. Forde’s appointment.

Mr. Meredith paid special tribute to the late Lincoln Alexander, who was Lt. Governor of Ontario, a Progressive Conservative federal cabinet minister and a trailblazer in many ways.

“I’m proud to table a private member’s bill in the Senate of Canada. My bill will make Jan. 21, the day of his birth, Lincoln Alexander Day across this great country. I’m happy to report that bill has gone through second reading and it’s about to go off to committee. Next week when we go back to the Senate, hopefully that bill will become law by the end of the month. That bill is about recognizing Lincoln Alexander.”

He also paid tribute to icons such as Nelson Mandela, who Mr. Meredith said, he had been able to honour just after his death with a ceremony at a church in Ottawa.

Mr. Fantino received an award from the Vaughan association - it was originally presented to him at last year’s 10th anniversary gala, but he was out of the country and unable to receive it until today - and saluted black history month as a highlight of the Canadian mosaic.

He spoke about his year as International Co-operation Minister, speaking of the difficult spots around the globe he visited, including the heart of Africa, refugee camps and, noted "the good lord has truly forgotten some people".

He recalled sending a planeload of school supplies to Kingston, Jamaica after a request came from a teacher who asked that chalk be sent. Eventually, Mr. Fantino said many different companies pitched in and they eventually had to get a 767 plane because they had so much product to take back.

"We ended up making a lot of people happy,” he said.

Mr. Meredith called on the crowd to put the focus on young people as they focus on the future.

“Our youth are not just a percentage of our population, they’re 100 per cent of our future,” he said.

But he also wants to remember the past, all of it.

“Black history is just history, so why are we keeping it out of our history books? That’s something that I am hoping to change. We need to tell this fuller story,” said Mr. Meredith.