The builders of the QBBE were driven by a commitment to education and community
There was a time when the Quebec education system was even less accommodating to Black students than it appears to be today. A time when many students coming to Montreal from the Caribbean were being arbitrarily funneled to special-needs schools where, grouped with learners with real disabilities they struggled to make it to college and to university. “For the handful of Black educators at the time, it was troubling to see,” says Garvin Jeffers. “ Because we knew what the children were experiencing was not an inability to learn but culture shock. So, we had to do something.” At an …