Black History Month 2023: Je me souviens !

Black History Month (BMH) 2023 has come and gone. Let’s remember, lest we forget!
On February 1st, the City of Montreal and the Service de police de la Ville de Montreal (SPVM) announced that the Pan-African flag would be flown throughout BHM in front of the Montreal Police Headquarters and at City Hall. A message of inclusion they said.
However, while recognizing that the Pan-African flag was created in 1920, at the first convention of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), they forgot that in June 1919, one of the first Canadian branches of the UNIA was founded right here in Montreal. Within a year, the Montreal UNIA became the largest and most active division in Canada. The Montreal UNIA’s “Liberty Hall” was an important centre for education, economic, social, and cultural activities. But more importantly, it is right here in Montreal that Malcolm’s parents – Earl and Louise Little – both members the UNIA, met in 1917 and married in 1919. In planning to “raise the flag”, neither the SPVM or the City of Montreal remembered (if they even knew) to contact and consult with the Montreal UNIA, which has an office on Notre-Dame Street West!!! The UNIA and its Pan African flag is part of OUR Black History! Lest we forget!
Meanwhile, during BHM 2023, anti-Black racism continued to raise its ugly head. As the Pan-African flag was being raised, on February 1st the Red Coalition was advocating for a Montreal-area family denouncing racist incidents that took place at Collège Bourget, a private school near Rigaud Quebec. The family alleged that white students at the elementary and secondary school have pulled Black students’ hair, spat on them and called them the N-word. The tolerance of the use of the N-word in elementary and secondary schools contributes to the development of anti-Black racism that continues in the workplace. Racial harassment of our children is still a daily reality! Lest we forget!
On Feb 16th, Quebec’s Crown prosecutor’s office (DCPC) released a statement explaining their decision to not charge the Repentigny police officers who shot and killed a Black man on Aug. 1, 2021, after his mother had called the emergency services because of the state of psychological instability of her son. In the middle of BHM, the decision was a blow to the family but in keeping with law enforcement authorities, which have been known to legitimize the excessive use of force police in similar incidents while erasing race from the equation. The family is now suing the City of Repentigny, and the civil rights groups Red Coalition and Lakay from Repentigny are asking the Chief coroner for a public inquiry to examine the use of force by police in similar incidents against Black and racialized people. Race matters! Lest we forget!
On February 19th, a West Island family called out alleged racism on hockey rink at John Rennie High School. The young player claimed that he and other racialized players have been facing incidents of race-based bullying from some white teammates shortly after joining the hockey program at the school. But John Rennie is not the only program where young Black hockey players experience racism. A Lac St-Louis minor hockey league player who says he was repeatedly subjected to racial slurs finally decided to file a complaint against Hockey Quebec with the Quebec Human Rights Commission. We can’t talk of diversity and inclusion, where there is racism and discrimination! Lest we forget!
But the BMH 2023 prize must go to a Black puppeteer who insisted that his freedom of artistic expression superseded the showing to 4 to 11-year-old children, of the grotesque anti-Black imagery that his puppet represents. The puppeteer, who has Martinique roots, moved to Montreal from Paris in 1998 and has been performing his puppet show all over the province of Quebec and in France for the last 15 years, no less! His show even won the Plume de paon prize in 2017 in France!
On February 24th, the West Island Black Community Association (WIBCA) and the Red Coalition vehemently denounced the use of the puppet because of its representation of how Black men and women have been depicted throughout north American history, particularly within Blackface minstrelsy and anti-Black racism imagery right here in Montreal. Our intervention was centred around the protection of Black youth from the negative stereotyping portrayed by some of the play’s imagery, which could negatively impact their sense of self, while simultaneously desensitizing white children to the realities of being Black.
While Beaconsfield respected the will of the Black community and cancelled the show, Pointe-Claire cancelled the performance as part of the BHM activities but kept it on the general artistic agenda for the City. Meanwhile, the puppeteer refused to see any harm or any negative racist undertones in his show! How much damage has been done? We’ll never be able to quantify it. That’s how systemic racism operates. It manipulates anyone it can! Lest we forget!
Our Black History and ongoing struggles in this province are very real. Lest we forget! I was born and raised here; Je me souviens!