Honourable senators, I also rise today to speak in support of Bill S-255 and to thank Senator Bernard for bringing forward this important bill to proclaim Emancipation Day and commemorate the abolition of slavery in Canada.

Like other aspects of Canada’s history of racial discrimination, too few of us are educated about this country’s legacy of enslaving Indigenous peoples and peoples of African descent.

As we discussed during Senator Bernard’s inquiry into anti-Black racism, we know that, like our neighbours to the south, Canada used non-consensual, unpaid labour to build infrastructure and wealth for European settlers.

In 1792, six of Upper Canada’s 16 elected legislators and six of its nine appointed representatives asserted ownership over Indigenous and Black people.

I’d like to share a story of someone whose name each of us should know: Marie-Joseph Angélique. Born in Madeira, Portugal, around 1705, unfortunately, we don’t know much about the first 20 years of her life. We know Angélique was an enslaved woman who was first sold when she was only a teenager and brought to Montreal to work as a domestic slave in the home of François Poulin de Francheville and Thérèse de Couagne.

While enslaved, Angélique gave birth to three children who did not survive infancy. Some scholars believe that enslaved women like Angélique were expected to produce offspring with an enslaved man in order to contribute to their owner’s workforce.

In 1733, Angélique began to assert her right to freedom. She asked Madam de Francheville to grant her freedom. She was denied. Not surprisingly, Angélique was rightfully upset. She is said to have consequently threatened de Francheville’s life and to have lashed out at others.

Whether that is true, Angélique most certainly refused to be silenced. When de Francheville arranged for Angélique to be sold, she began to plan her escape with the intent to return to her home in Portugal. As she fled, Angélique is said to have set fire to her bed and set off in search of a ship bound for Europe. She was captured shortly thereafter, jailed and returned to her owner. Angélique continued to assert her desire to be free.

The following year, in 1734, Angélique was accused of burning down a large portion of Montreal. Although she denied setting the fire, she was presumed guilty and sentenced to death. A Black, enslaved, poor woman, who was also deemed a foreigner, she was afforded no rights in Canada and ultimately died an enslaved person on Canadian soil.

For over 200 years, slavery was legal in Canada. For over 200 years, people like Angélique were captured and forced to perform all manner of tasks against their will. Their resistance, their consistent assertions of self and their demands to be recognized as humans did finally result in the abolition of slavery.

One-hundred and eighty-four years after Emancipation, Black Canadians continue to experience systemic anti-Black racism in numerous ways, from socioeconomic disparity; active discrimination; erasure of history; and over-representation in child welfare, juvenile and adult criminal justice systems.

Black Canadians face anti-Black racism at all levels of the criminal justice system, from racial profiling and carding to the exercise of prosecutorial discretion, the imposition of pre-trial detention, incarceration and disparities in sentencing. We cannot continue Canada’s legacy of ignoring the root causes of anti-Black marginalization and criminalization. Failure to name the harmful stereotypes and other ongoing effects of Canada’s colonial history only serves to further impair progress.

The 2017 report from the United Nations Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent noted that systemic racism in the criminal justice system has led to the over-representation of Black Canadians in prisons. While Black Canadians make up 3 per cent of Canada’s population, they comprise 8.6 per cent of individuals in federal penitentiaries. In addition, between 2003 and 2013, the incarceration rate of Black people increased by almost 90 per cent. Once they are inside, Black Canadians routinely experience harsher conditions of confinement, including over-representation in segregation and other forms of solitary confinement. In addition to the devastating consequences for mental and physical health, segregated conditions of confinement severely limit opportunities for prisoners to access programming, education, visits and conditional release.

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The harms of anti-Black racism within the criminal justice system are too often incalculable for those ensnared in the criminal justice system, for their families and for the integrity of their communities. I echo the UN working group’s recommendation that the Government of Canada:

Develop and implement a National Corrections Strategy to address and correct the disproportionately high rates of African Canadians within the correctional system . . . .

Abolish the practice of segregation and solitary confinement and explore alternatives to imprisonment.

In her book Policing Black Lives, Robyn Maynard discusses the racialization of crime in Canada. She points out that the association between Blackness and criminality can be traced back to fugitive slave times. Black freedom seekers were seen as property and their attempts to escape bondage were criminalized. Escaping enslavement was the first crime associated with being Black in Canada. This association between Blackness and criminality has firmly taken root in Canada in ways that continue to perpetuate discrimination.

Earlier this year, Canada made an important step toward recognizing this racist legacy. Prime Minister Trudeau officially recognized the International Decade for People of African Descent and was the first incumbent Prime Minister to acknowledge the damaging effects of anti-Black racism in Canada. The government should now prioritize and implement the recommendations of the UN working group to address the legacy of slavery, end systemic racism and ensure substantive equality for Canadian residents of African descent.

We should also ensure that sites such as the Saint-Armand, Quebec site, which is the only known cemetery for those who were born and died enslaved in Canada, are clearly recognized as historical sites. This site and other similar sites are at risk of being lost due to the lack of support from the government to recognize them as historically significant locations for Canada’s Black communities.

Honourable colleagues, I hope each of us is encouraged to educate ourselves and those around us about the history of Black Canadians and the legacy of slavery and anti-Black racism in Canadian society today.

Let us support Senator Bernard’s bill to proclaim Emancipation Day and continue to foster solutions that bring justice to communities, particularly those affected by Canada’s history of racial discrimination.

Thank you, meegwetch and, for Angélique, obrigado.