Black Montrealers reflect on a tumultuous year
“Canadians like to think (systemic racism) is an American issue. But the numbers here are very similar to the U.S. in terms of discrimination in employment, housing and other things we like to make believe don’t exist here.”
Lawyer Patricia Fourcand
MONTREAL — When images of George’s Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police went viral last year, Ousmane Bary felt an eerie sense of déjà vu.
For the 50-year-old father, who is a defensive coach for Collège Montmorency’s football team in Laval, Que., it brought back memories of a similar watershed moment, decades earlier.
Bary was playing football for Syracuse University when Rodney King was beaten by L.A. police in 1991, leading to riots following the officers’ acquittal.
“Thirty years later, it’s exactly the same thing happening,” said Bary, who went on to play in the CFL and NFL Europe. “It stirs up a lot of memories.”
Bary has experienced racial profiling. When he was younger, he would get pulled over by police “at least once a month.” He no longer drives, but was stopped randomly by police while walking his daughter to school a few years back.
His younger brother Momar — a Montreal dentist who in a Facebook post last year said he had been profiled “at least 100 times,” despite “having never been involved in anything illegal my entire life” — was once arrested and roughed up by New York police while studying at NYU.
Bary mentors young Montreal athletes wishing to follow his path to playing professional football. On more than one occasion, police have interrogated him and two or three of his charges during training sessions in Lafontaine Park.
“I think cops, in general, are good people,” he said. “It’s just the system and the way they’re taught to react to certain situations (that is the problem).”
Bary was one of several Black Montrealers who shared their reflections with Postmedia, to mark Black History Month following a particularly tumultuous year.
At first, Patricia Fourcand tried to not get consumed by Floyd’s death.
“For years, we have seen videos of young (Black) boys, adolescents, young men being killed by police officers,” said the family lawyer, 46, who has a 15-year-old son. “Every time, it breaks my heart. Every time, I have had to grieve another death caused by prejudice, racism and ignorance.”
Inspired by the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, she turned her distress into action. Last summer, Fourcand co-founded the Quebec chapter of the Canadian Association of Black Lawyers, which recently elected its first board of directors; in the fall, she gave a talk on anti-Black racism and the legal profession to the Canadian Bar Association; and in December, she co-authored an open letter on systemic racism in Quebec, initiated by former Quebec Human Rights Commission president Tamara Thermitus and signed by over 850 people.
“Canadians like to think (systemic racism) is an American issue,” Fourcand said. “But the numbers here are very similar to the U.S. in terms of discrimination in employment, housing and other things we like to make believe don’t exist here.”
Black people are underrepresented in the upper echelons of the legal system, she notes, pointing out that the Quebec Superior Court has just one Black judge among its 157 judges, 101 of them in the judicial district of Montreal. (Blacks represent nine per cent of the city’s population.) A 2016 study by the Institute for Research on Public Policy found just three judges from visible minority groups among the province’s 500 judges.
When she began practising law in 1998, Fourcand was the first Black lawyer hired by her former firm, which had a team of over 100 lawyers. In 2008, she was named partner at Miller Thomson LLP, becoming the first Black woman partner at a national law firm in Quebec. She has served on the firm’s inclusion and diversity committee for the past decade.
While it has been a difficult year, Fourcand takes solace in the possibilities it has presented.
“There has been a lot of hope, in terms of people wanting to make the effort to change and have a society that is less racist and more inclusive,” she said. “It’s been tough to reopen all those wounds, to try to be proactive, to see if we can create change that is sustainable, and progress in terms of justice, providing more opportunities for people of all backgrounds, and Blacks in particular.”
Floyd’s death upset Harvin Hilaire for several reasons.
“I felt a lot of anger toward the situation,” said the 26-year-old student at Concordia’s John Molson School of Business, who is studying business technology management with a double major in marketing.
“On the other hand, I was mad it took so long to finally reach the spotlight. And there was also anxiety; I felt a lot of tension about race and colour everywhere, even here in Canada … Seeing people who look like you getting killed on TV brings anxiety whenever you see a police officer.”
The St-Hubert resident, who last year served as president of Concordia’s Haitian Students’ Association, was selected as a student representative on the university’s President’s Task Force on Anti-Black Racism, launched in October.
“The task force is working to improve Black lives at Concordia,” Hilaire said, explaining the body will address issues of discrimination at all levels of the institution.
“I find it really encouraging. I feel like the school is extremely receptive to what we’re saying, which is motivating. When you’re facing an issue around your race, the conversation is always difficult to start.”
Winnie Daniel was furious upon learning of Floyd’s death.
“I was so angry,” said the occupational therapist, 31, who works at Albert-Prévost Hospital, which specializes in mental health. “I would vent about it to everybody who would listen. I posted a lot of stuff on social media.”
Daniel’s initiatives led to her participation in events including a town hall meeting held by the West Island Black Community Association. She and a nurse colleague began speaking up at work about issues related to race, injustice and discrimination involving patients who were visible minorities. To her surprise, her colleagues were receptive to the interventions.
“It helped me realize that most people are open-minded and willing to learn,” Daniel said. “They’re just so uncomfortable with the topic that (most of the time) it’s easier to ignore.”
With the encouragement of Daniel’s supervisor, the two women took the matter to the multidisciplinary board representing hospital professionals for the local health authority.
“I feel like I was able to put into action all the feelings I have been having over the years,” Daniel said. “So now I have more hope for the future than anger, sadness or powerlessness.”
She has found release from the year’s stress in her creative outlets. Daniel is a member of the Montreal Gospel Choir and of dance crew Montreal Steppers, which recently released a video featuring a musical interpretation of Maya Angelou’s poem “Still I Rise,” over images from the Black Lives Matter movement.
“It helped us express how we felt about what was happening to Black people all over the world,” she said.
Kaie Kellough believes Floyd’s death, beyond the sheer horror of it, may have had such a strong impact because it spoke to people on multiple levels.
“One of the things that kept occurring to me,” said the award-winning Montreal poet and novelist , “is that while the imagery of the police officer’s knee on George Floyd’s neck was striking, and shocking — and there’s a specific racial context for that — the symbolism of an armed authority with his knee on a Black person’s neck, a lot of people in different positions in the world could relate to that. In a way, you can think of that image as confirming that we live in a predatory society.”
Kellough was up past midnight, last month, reading a poem by Derek Walcott, the late Nobel Laureate from Saint Lucia. He was struck by one line: “They heard the century breaking in half.”
“I think that’s what we heard last year,” said Kellough, 45. But out of great tragedy, he noted, has emerged a historic wave of civic engagement.
“I have never seen a discussion of race that happens so broadly in mainstream culture, across different media platforms and social media, and in workplaces.
“People were discussing race as it relates to diversity and inclusion, to fair practices when it comes to hiring, discrimination and policing — that broad-based discussion was quite moving. I never thought I would see that moment.”
Dr. Myrna Lashley has been busier than ever. An assistant professor in McGill’s department of psychiatry, and former director of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, she was selected in July to lead the Lester B. Pearson School Board’s task force on equity and inclusivity. And she has been in high demand to conduct training sessions on antiracism in the workplace, for clients including the federal government.
“People all of a sudden, since they saw a man murdered on TV, have finally figured out what we’ve been saying for years is true,” Lashley said. “My hope is that once this dies down, people don’t just use it as a way to tick a box. Training means nothing if you don’t change.”
She is encouraged by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s acknowledgement of systemic racism, and hopes it leads to a wider awareness — particularly in Quebec — of the issues she has spent decades addressing.
“Racism has no border,” Lashley said. “The U.S. had slavery, Canada had slavery. Canadians have to come to terms with that.
“My hope is that all the work all of us are doing will lead to good outcomes, and that we will see a better society for our children and grandchildren.”
The death occurred, in the presence of her family, at Maplewood Manor, Alberton on Sunday, January 31, 2021 of Georgie Marion McInnis, formerly St Lawrence, aged 83, beloved wife of the late Russell McInnis. Georgie was born in Campbellton on December 11, 1937, daughter of the late Harry & Ida (Bradshaw) MacKay. Cherished Mum to Christine (David) Power, Charlottetown; Carolyn (Harvey) Stewart, West Point; Connie McInnis (Lionel MacNabb), Grand Tracadie; Reggie (Elizabeth), Unionvale; Wade (Natalie) Cascumpec; Rhonda (Rod) Millar, Ellerslie; Irma (Gerard) MacPhee, Ten Mile House; Scott, Charlottetown; Norma MacKinnon, Charlottetown; Amy McInnis (Todd Best), Whitehorse, Yukon and Shelley (Shannon) Ellis, Northam. Loving Nanny to 33 Grandchildren and 33 Great Grandchildren. Dear sister to Norma Condley, Summerside, Marjorie Wood, Howlan; Sylvia (Brian) Dubickas, Coquitlam, BC; Nancy (Paul) Beattie, Summerside; Linda Chappell, Summerside and Lila (John) Rix, St Lawrence; sister in law to Sheila MacKay, Campbellton; Helen (Preston) Hardy, Bloomfield; John (Faye) McInnis, St Lawrence and Joan (Donnie) Waite, St Lawrence. Georgie was predeceased by her parents and his daughter in law Sherri, son in law Blaine MacKinnon and brother Ross MacKay, brothers in law Orville Condley, Lloyd Ferguson, Jimmy Rix, Andrew Wood and Terry Chappell. Resting at Ferguson Funeral Home and Chapel, O’Leary, due to Covid restrictions, private funeral arrangements for invited guests. Interment in the Mininegash United Church Cemetery. In memory of Georgie, memorials would be appreciated mailed directly to Miminegash United Church Cemetery. c/o Jock Rix 10985 Lady Slipper Dr. St. Louis, PE, C0B 1Z0. www.fergusonsfh.com