Feds help fund Voices of Freedom Park
Government helps shed light on stories of black history
The screams of a slave woman are still being heard in large part through the efforts of a group of people of Niagara-on-the-Lake.
Chloe Cooley’s name was brought up more than once at a ceremony last week to mark federal government funding of $388,000 for the creation of The Voices of Freedom Park on land that was once home to the Niagara-on-the-Lake Lawn Bowling Club at the corner of Regent and Johnson streets in the Old Town.
“It’s not widely known, but it has deeply impacted this country from this region,” Niagara Centre MPP Vance Badawey told a gathering at the park, which is currently under construction.
On March 14, 1793 Cooley was bound and thrown in a boat to be taken across the river and sold into slavery in the United States. She resisted fiercely and Peter Martin, a free black man, noticed her screams and struggles and brought a witness, William Grisley, to report the incident to Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe. The incident led to the Act to Limit Slavery in Upper Canada.
“Through commemorating the story of Chloe Cooley, the hope is to bring greater awareness of the stories and experiences of black Canadians from across the country from the past and as well as the present,” Badawey said.
Arif Varani, a Toronto MP and parliamentary secretary to Minister of Canadian Heritage Melanie Joly announced the grant from the feds, called it “an extremely significant day” for black Canadians not only in Niagara, but across the country.
“What we are doing here is honouring today, courageous people who raised their voices to speak out against injustice, to speak out against racism and to speak out against hatred.”
The act which limited slavery, Varani said, “opened the door to the expansion of the Underground Railroad and the eventual ending of slavery in Upper Canada.”
And like Badawey, Varani said the stories of black history in Canada are not well known but they need to told.
“Just recently in Ottawa, just outside the Bank of Canada, there’s a huge poster of a woman who’s gracing our $10 bill and my son asked me if that was Rosa Parks. I said no, that is not Rosa Parks, that’s Viola Desmond, a Canadian leader in civil rights, a Canadian woman who fought against segregation in places like Nova Scotia. What we need to do is empower people to learn those stories of the Viola Desmonds, the Chloe Cooleys. They’re stories that resonate right here in Niagara-on-the-Lake and right around the country.”
Niagara-on-the-Lake Lord Mayor Pat Darte called NOTL “a town of many firsts,” listing off things such as the town being the first capital of Upper Canada, home of the nation’s oldest printing press used to publish The Gazette, the first newspaper in Upper Canada and home to the first public library.
“Today’s announcement marks another exciting day for us as a town,” he said. “This parkland has been part of the Town since the 1850s and I’m elated that it has been dedicated to honouring the voices of our past and supporting the voices of our future.”
Darte lauded the work of The Voices of Freedom Park committee co-chairs Coun Betty Disero and John Hawley. “They put this together,” he said. “They’ve been co-chairs of this campaign.”
Hawley said the campaign to raise funds for the park succeeded because of the generosity of the community and the hard work of the committee.
“From the private sector, private citizens to the Rotary Club to horticultural society and everybody in between, we’ve had a wonderful broad spectrum of support for this project.”
The park is expected to open on Sept. 17.