Labour Board Signals Unions Can’t Ignore Racism Among Their Members
Truro Police Constable, Brent Bowden, says that a year ago on June 24, 2024, D/Sgt Robert John Hunka, in the presence of Cst. Ed Cormier, threw a banana peel on […]
First African Nova Scotian Chief Judge of Provincial, Family Courts Appointed: Perry Borden
Judge Perry F. Borden will be the new chief judge of the Nova Scotia provincial and family courts.
Judge Borden was appointed to the bench in 2020 after serving as a Crown attorney with the Nova Scotia Public Prosecution Service. His time there included five years in the special prosecutions service, focusing on cybercrime, child pornography, child-luring and sexual assault offences.
(Sept 12-28) Black Justice Strategy Community Engagement Sessions
Canada’s Black Justice Strategy Community Engagement Sessions – Hosted By ANSJI The African Nova Scotian Justice Institute is leading public engagement sessions across Nova Scotia to inform the development of […]
Halifax constable referred to restorative justice for 2020 assault on Black teen [VIDEO]
Const. Mark Pierce, the Halifax Regional Police officer charged with assaulting a 15-year-old Black boy outside of a mall in Bedford in February 2020, came face to face last week with the youth and his parents for the first time since the night of the incident.
Demario Chambers, now 19 years old, said he received a concussion, cuts, bruises, and badly hurt finger at the hands of Pierce and his partner Const. Craig Trudel when they arrested him.
They released Chambers without charges to his parents later that night.
Black and African Diaspora degree program at Dalhousie may be first in Canada, professor says
A Black history professor at Dalhousie University says a proposal to expand the university’s Black and African Diaspora studies minor program into a full degree could make it the first program of its kind in Canada.
The current minor program started online in 2017 within the faculty of arts and social sciences. Isaac Saney, chair of the Black and African Diaspora Studies Degree Major Committee, is now working with other Black professors at Dalhousie on the final proposal for the full degree program.
“Then the idea came out,” Saney said. “Why don’t we have a major where somebody can come in and graduate with a degree in Black and African Diaspora Studies?”
A coalition for Black voices in Nova Scotia
Since 2015, the African Nova Scotian Decade for People of African Descent Coalition has been working on issues in the Black community, including justice, health, education, employment, and social services.
The long road to Emancipation Day
“Twenty-five years ago the Honourable Jean Augustine [the first African-Canadian woman to be elected to as a Member of Parliament] put forward a motion in the House of Commons to have February designated Black History Month. And at the same time, there were lobby efforts being made to have Emancipation Day recognized. So that’s how long this has been in the making. Over 25 years.”
Emancipation Day, August 1, marks the same day in 1834 when slavery was officially banned in all of the British colonies, including in what would eventually become Canada.