There are many people and moments that have defined Canada’s history. Viola Desmond, a businesswoman and cardinal figure in African-Canadian history, is one of those people. Desmond was a successful beautician who opened up her own beauty school, studio, and curated her own line of beauty products. However, Desmond is regarded for more than her entrepreneurial success and achievements. After events that took place on November 8th, 1946, in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, Desmond challenged racial segregation and discrimination laws in the town’s Roseland Movie Theatre. She was forcefully removed and jailed for one night by a police officer. Desmond was charged and fined on the account of tax evasion. She never won her court case, but her story became …show more content…
Many places in the United States had ‘Jim Crow’ laws in place, laws which legally allowed for the segregation of black people in society. Canada lacked these laws, but segregation took place nevertheless. For the first time in 1841, the Common Schools Act was enacted into Canadian legislature in Upper Canada, on the principle of separating schools on the basis of religion, specifically between Protestant and Catholic. This act, which was renamed and modified many times, narrowly allowed for the creation of segregated Black schools. (Viola Desmond’s Canada) Due to this, segregated schools existed and operated in quieter areas in Ontario, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. This explains why Desmond was unable to attend a beauty school in her own province and accentuates the impact she made on her community by creating her own school. The last segregated school in Ontario was in the town of Merlin, and closed in 1965. The last segregated school in Nova Scotia and all of Canada was closed in 1983 (Black History Canada). Due to the fact that racism and segregation were not enshrined into Canadian law but were still present, one may contend that only made the topic harder to navigate and …show more content…
Unfortunately, the case of Viola Desmond is an example of this. One evening, while the entrepreneur was completing a business trip between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, her car broke down and caused her to stop and spend the night in the small town of New Glasgow in Nova Scotia. She then decided to catch a movie at the local cinema, the Roseland Movie Theatre. She requested and purchased upstairs ticket. On her way to the lower portion of the theatre, the ticket-collector stopped and notified her that her ticket was for the upper section. Thinking he was mistaken, she returned to the cashier to exchange her ticket and was refused. When Desmond queried as to why, the cashier responded, “I’m sorry, but I’m not permitted to sell downstairs tickets to you people” (The Halifax Chronicle). Desmond found no good reason for her forbiddance, and returned to the lower portion of the theatre. Shortly after, the manager and a policeman arrived. As Viola describes to local newspaper The Halifax Chronicle, “The policeman grasped my shoulders, and the manager grabbed my legs, injuring my knee and hip. They carried me bodily from the theatre out into the street” (The Halifax Chronicle). She was then driven to a police station and jailed for the night. The next morning, she was put on trial and charged on the account of tax evasion; the difference on the amusement tax between an upstairs and
A Critical Analysis of Racism in Canadian Law and the “Unmapping” of the White Settler Society in “When Place Becomes Race” by Sherene H. Razack
In McLaurin’s hometown of Wade, North Carolina, segregation was obvious and everywhere in daily routines of life. Segregation was often meant to mean that blacks had separate facilities from whites, yet equal. However, this was often not the case. In fact, it was quite opposite. Many times, a public restroom for white was well kept, nice, and clean, whereas if it was for a black, it was dirty and rundown. A good example of the difference in facilities for whites and blacks were the elementary schools McLaurin described. The black elementary school was a one-story frame building, had no lunch program, no indoor plumbing, poor sports equipment, and hardly a playground. The white elementary school however, was a two-story brick building, “a large auditorium and stage, indoor plumbing and modern restrooms, a well-equipped kitchen, and a large dining room in which hot lunches were served daily (23).” It is clear when the two schools are compared against one another, that there is a vast difference in facilities which are for blacks, and those that a...
The segregation in South Carolina happens everywhere and every day. Indeed, racism is manifested through the media, the law, which legitimizes segregation, and the perceptions that white and black people have of each other. Because of the laws against colored people, Rosaleen, as a black woman, lives with constraints in her life. For example, she cannot live in a house with white people (Kidd, p.8), she cannot represent Lily at the charm school (Kidd, p.19), or even to travel with a car with white people (Kidd, p.76). The media is also influenced by racism, and constantly shows news about segregation such as the case of Martin Luther King, who is arrested because he wan...
...ality is another concept that relates to the residential school system. As Stated earlier, the Canadian and American governments were the ruling class and the aboriginals were the subject class. Here we are left dealing with the differences in power. The aboriginals were seen as savage and uncivilized and had to be destroyed to create the image that Canada wanted to portray for itself. This inequality still exists today, and when discussing this we must not forget the “long-standing history of colonial domination and cultural oppression that aboriginal people have faced” (Tepperman et al.2004:188).
Systemic discrimination has been a part of Canada’s past. Women, racial and ethnic minorities as well as First Nations people have all faced discrimination in Canada. Policies such as, Charter of Rights and Freedoms, provincial and federal Human Rights Codes, as well has various employment equity programs have been placed in Canada’s constitution to fight and address discrimination issues. Despite these key documents placed for universal rights and freedoms Aboriginal and other minority populations in Canada continue to be discriminated against. Many believe there is no discrimination in Canada, and suggest any lack of success of these groups is a result of personal decisions and not systemic discrimination. While others feel that the legislation and equality policies have yet resulted in an equal society for all minorities. Racism is immersed in Canadian society; this is clearly shown by stories of racial profiling in law enforcement.
“Honey, you’re not a person, now get back in the kitchen and make me a sandwich!” If a husband were to say these words to his wife today, he would likely receive a well-deserved smack to the face. It is not until recently that Canadian women have received their status as people and obtained equal rights as men. Women were excluded from an academic education and received a lesser pay than their male counter parts. With the many hardships women had to face, women were considered the “slave of slaves” (Women’s Rights). In the past century, women have fought for their rights, transitioning women from the point of being a piece of property to “holding twenty-five percent of senior positions in Canada” (More women in top senior positions: Report). The Married Women’s Property Act, World War I, The Person’s Case, and Canadian Human Rights Act have gained Canadian women their rights.
Schissel, Bernard, and Terry Wotherspoon. “The Legacy of Residential Schools.” Inequality in Canada: A Reader on the Intersections of Gender, Race, and Class. 2nd ed. Ed. Valerie Zawilski. Don Mills: Oxford University Press, 2010. 102-121. Print.
Women had proven their significance in Canadian history through their struggles in gaining rights that provided equality. In order to improve the rights of women, the following were established: Royal Commission on the Status of Women, Pay Equity, and Employment Equity Act. The Royal Commission on the Status of Women (RCSW) was called by Prime Minister Lester Bowles Pearson on February 3rd, 1967, to investigate and report on the condition of women which was initiated immediately after an organization, which was led by a coalition of thirty-two women, who protested for equal rights. Together, the thirty two women’s groups gathered to form an alliance against the government. They threatened to “lead a women’s march on Parliament Hill” if nothing were to be done for this matter. Therefore, Prime Minister Pearson did not have any other option except to establish the RCSW in response to this campaign. The C...
The case of Viola Desmond was an incredibly significant event in shaping Canadian multicultural rights and all equality. Viola Desmond was an African American woman born in Halifax, Canada, who refused to remove herself from the ‘whites only’ main floor seats in the Roseland Movie theatre. On November 8, 1946, Desmond had requested to buy a ticket located in the main floor section of the theatre, which was strictly forbidden from people of colour, and was willing to pay the extra amount for the seat. The ticket seller, Peggy Melanson, had given Desmond a balcony seat ticket regardless of her request, without her noticing until a later confrontation by a ticket-taker on the main floor. The confusion resulted in Desmond returning to the ticket seller. “I'm sorry but I'm not permitted to sell downstairs tickets to you people.” -Melanson. Desmond decided to attempt to sit in the floor section again, only to be interrupted from sitting quietly by the ticket taker who called upon Henry MacNeil, the theatre manager who shortly after called the police and had Desmond dragged out. Despite her will to pay extra for the seat, she had been harshly dragged out by a Police officer who caused her knee and hip injuries during the process, and put her in jail. “Equality before and under law and equal protection and benefit of
Jonathan Kozol, an award winning writer, wrote the essay “Still separate, Still Equal” that focuses on primary and secondary school children from minority families that are living in poverty. There is a misconception in this modern age that historical events in the past have now almost abolished discrimination and segregation for the most part; however, “schools that were already deeply segregated
Her book focuses on the myriads of issues and struggles that Indigenous men and women have faced and will continue to face because of colonialism. During her speech, Palmater addressed the grave effects of the cultural assimilation that permeated in Indigenous communities, particularly the Indian Residential School System and the Indian Act, which has been extensively discussed in both lectures and readings. Such policies were created by European settlers to institutionalize colonialism and maintain the social and cultural hierarchy that established Aboriginals as the inferior group. Palmater also discussed that according to news reports, an Aboriginal baby from Manitoba is taken away every single day by the government and is put in social care (CTVNews.ca Staff, 2015). This echoes Andrea Smith’s argument in “Heteropatriarchy and the Three Pillars of White Supremacy: Rethinking Women of Color Organizing” that colonialism continues to affect Aboriginals through genocide (2006, p. 68). Although such actions by the government are not physical acts of genocide, where 90% of Aboriginal population was annihilated, it is this modern day cultural assimilation that succeeded the Indigenous Residential School System and the Indian Act embodies colonialism and genocide (Larkin, November 4,
Do you know that despite Canada being called multicultural and accepting, Canada’s history reveals many secrets that contradicts this statement? Such an example are Canadian aboriginals, who have faced many struggles by Canadian society; losing their rights, freedoms and almost, their culture. However, Native people still made many contributions to Canadian society. Despite the efforts being made to recognize aboriginals in the present day; the attitudes of European Canadians, acts of discrimination from the government, and the effects caused by the past still seen today have proven that Canadians should not be proud of Canada’s history with respect to human rights since 1914. First, is because of the attitudes of European Canadians towards aboriginals, which were mostly cruel and inhumane.
Thompson, John Herd, and Mark Paul Richard. "Canadian History in North American Context." In Canadian studies in the new millennium. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008. 37-64.
Afro Canadian people have made several important contributions to Canadian History. They have shaped Canada’s culture and devoting their lives to fight for freedom and equality. Josiah Henson, Delos Davis, and Rosemary Brown were three of many Afro Canadians who exhibited perseverance in the face of discrimination.
Mary Mebane used her own experience on the bus to show how segregation affected her life. Mary Mebane points out, white people “could sit anywhere they choose, even in the colored section. Only the black passengers had to obey segregation laws.” When Mebane was young, she saw a conflict on the bus. The driver asked a black person who sat in the ‘no-man’s-land’ to move back to colored section to give the seat for the white person who was standing on the bus because the bus was full. Segregation on the bus represented how white people unequally treat black people. When black people refused this driver to move, the driver try to send them to police. Black people were living in the shadow of racism and segregation at that time. However, that situation still affects school system and community now. Mebane asserts, “It was a world without option.” Black people have lower economic and social status because they are restricted to a small box because of segregation. “In Six Decades After Brown Ruling, in US Schools Still Segregated”, Dexter Mullins claims that in some schools like Valley West Elementary School in Houston, about 90% of people are not white people. These kinds of schools do not have enough funds to support adequate school resource to these students, and these students have lower opportunities to contact with cultural diversity. Both reasons negatively impact on the