Raymond Sheppard: “With all the racism and hate we faced for hundreds of years, we still maintained Black values, many would say our values were sacred, and although every generation is different, we always seemed to cling to the things that keep us grounded and inspired.”
Awareness of environmental racism in Nova Scotia has changed for the better over the last five years or so. A private members bill, shaped to a large extent by Dr. Ingrid Waldron and introduced by then NDP MLA Lenore Zann in 2015, played a considerable part in that shift. Waldron and Zann, now a Liberal MP, are giving the legislation another shot, this time in Ottawa.
It would be good to know how many African Nova Scotians are being targeted as police get more aggressive in enforcing COVID-19 regulations, and how that number compares to the white population. It was exactly to answer these questions that Dr. Wortley recommended that the police track race-based data on all interactions with citizens. However, we will never know, as work on that recommendation hasn’t even started.
Wayne Desmond takes a closer look at two occasions where Walmart security staff and Halifax police officers harassed Black shoppers, and suggests a pathway to justice. Sue the bastards!
Press release: On Thursday, December 3, 2020, the MP for Cumberland-Colchester will be putting the federal private members bill A National Strategy to Redress Environmental Racism (Bill C-230) forward to second reading in the House of Commons.
Africville survivors, their descendants and supporters rallied at City Hall today to send a clear signal to politicians of all stripes that their decades-long struggle for meaningful reparations is picking up steam.
PSA: Come out and support the former residents of Africville as they demand justice in their lifetimes. The event will include speakers and music from Africville, as well as politicians and allies who support justice for Africville!
Rachel Zellars is an African-American academic, lawyer, and community organizer who has lived in Canada for more than a decade and a half, and in Halifax for the last couple of years. Wendie Wilson is an African Nova Scotian teacher, artist, writer, and community advocate whose family has been in the province for at least eight generations. Scott Neigh interviews them about the African Nova Scotian Freedom School that they were part of organizing this past summer.
Wayne Desmond: “The idea of Black spaces and the need for inclusive education have always been important to me. Why is it that it wasn’t until I went to university that I began to feel fully validated as a Black learner?”
After days of pressure from the African Nova Scotian community the Chronicle Herald made some changes to its story on boxer Jaye Byard . The story contained many anti-Black stereotypes.