On February 13, 2024, the PSAC Toronto Racially Visible Committee held a Black History Month event. It was a great night filled with African drum beats, great food and amazing guest speakers. It all started with an ancestral acknowledgement. It acknowledges our ancestors and their struggles and recognizes their impact on the current and future generations. During the acknowledgement, it was important to internalize the words and become the ancestors for the future generation. It is a stark contrast to how public servants do indigenous land acknowledgements. Too many times as public servants when we listen or do our indigenous land acknowledgement, we do not follow up with actions to correct the wrongs of our history.
After a brief speech from the host, Camar “CeCe” Cameron, our CEIU HRRR (Human Rights / Race Relations) rep, we experienced African drum beats by a father-son pair and their friend. The father moved around the room ensuring that everyone got an up-close and personal experience and was blessed with the rhythm of his drums.
After experiencing the beats from this amazing trio, we got our first guest speaker, Dr. Jill Andrew, the NDP MPP for Toronto-St. Paul’s area. She gave a very moving speech about representation in politics. As a queer, black woman she was not represented in the political space of Ontario and she sought to change that. She stated that only 6 out of 124 provincial MPP seats are held by black individuals including herself. She stressed how important representation is in politics to ensure that policies are put in place that do not unfairly disadvantage certain groups. A great example was Bill 124, which unfairly disadvantaged nurses who are mostly women. She also mentioned that by having more represented from equity-seeking groups can there be proper representation and to ensure that policies do not pass that would unfairly disadvantage equity-seeking groups. She gave a final hurrah to encourage everyone, especially young individuals get involved with politics as everything we do is political and politics affect every single one of us whether we want it to or not.
Following the speech from Dr. Jill Andrew, we got to hear from Gabriel Allahdua, author of “Harvest Freedom: The Life of a Migrant Worker in Canada”. I heard his story on how migrant workers in Canada lack the rights, safety, and affordability of Canadians. A shocking example is that migrant workers must pay into EI but they can’t receive EI and they are getting paid below minimum wage for dangerous, dirty and undesirable work. Hearing his story affected me on a deeply personal level as my father was a farmer who left his country to get more money for his siblings back home. My father was able to move and live as a Canadian Citizen and can enjoy all the rights and freedom. However, Gabriel a migrant farm worker, isn’t allowed to partake in the same rights and freedom that I can enjoy, as he is a migrant worker whose rights have been denied. His story inspired me to buy his book to learn and understand the plight of migrant workers in Canada.
This event has inspired me to attend more union events and to expand my horizons. I leave you a quote from Gabriel Allahdua to inspire you to take action and learn more:
“Justice is what Love Looks Like in Public”
