Anti-racism activist in N.B. among honoured

OTTAWA can’t recall any specific incidents of racism against him while growing up as a Black person in New Brunswick in the 1940s and ’50s, but says that was more about the rural community where he lived and not because it didn’t exist.

“We protected each other, and I grew up in a white community,” says Thomas, of his upbringing in Willow Grove, about 25 kilometres east of Saint John, N.B.

“But my brother and my sister grew up in the city, which was 16 miles from where I grew up, and it was a big difference because they were not allowed to go into certain restaurants or the Admiral Beatty Hotel.”

Decades later, Thomas says racism still exists in New Brunswick and the rest of Canada. But the 82-yearold also sees change coming with the recent Black Lives Matter movement and societal focus on system racism — a development he finds unsurprising.

Thomas has been president since 1997 of an advocacy and service group called Pride and Race, Unity and Dignity through Education, or PRUDE Inc., which works with the Black community as well as other visible minorities and newcomers in Saint John.

It’s one of many roles — along with having co-founded the New Brunswick Black History Society and serving as an ambassador for the province’s Sports Hall of Fame — for which Thomas is being awarded the Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers.

It’s also one of many in which he has sought to eliminate racism and foster diversity and inclusion in the community — a mission that appears to have gotten a boost when hundreds of Saint John residents of backgrounds turned out for a Black Lives Matter rally on June 14.

“I had expected us to see great change,” says Thomas, who spent his early years in amateur and professional boxing, where he earned the nickname Tiger.

“It was outstanding,” he says of the rally. “It was wonderful to see.”

Gov. Gen. Julie Payette announced Thomas as one of 123 Canadians who are being recognized for their skills, courage or dedication to service by receiving a decoration for bravery, a meritorious service decoration or the volunteer medal.

Another 21 people are receiving the Meritorious Service Cross, including Jonathan Pitre, the 17-year-old known as the “Butterfly Boy,” for raising awareness about his life with a rare debilitating skin disorder called epidermolysis bullosa before he died in April 2018.

Ralph Thomas