The chilly frostbite warning on the evening of Friday 13 December did nothing to deter the hundreds of people who packed the Parkdale United Church to honour the late icon of freedom and civil rights, South Africa’s apartheid fighter Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. Under the guidance our own Sarah Onyango as MC, dressed in a colourful traditional Xhosa cultural attire, the audience was treated to an evening of music and song by the SIFA choir, led by the irrepressibly bubbly and effervescent Neema Mugala, and reflections by those whose lives have been touched in one way or another by the beloved Madiba’s legacy.  Rev. Anthony Bailey was at his most eloquent as was host Senator Don Meredith, in an evening filled with inspirational tributes and eulogies by Senators Anne Cools, Noel Kinsella and Mobina Jaffer, Minister of State Hon. Pierre Poilievre, Deputy Mayor Eli El-Chantiry and president of the South African Rainbow Nation Association Ken Winchu.

Nelson Mandela