Ottawa residents attend Emancipation Day event at Upper Canada Village
Thursday 1 August 2024
Bus loads of Canada’s Black History enthusiasts headed from Ottawa to Morrisburg, Ontario, to celebrate Emancipation Day, organized by the Black Legacy Collective, at the renowned Upper Canada Village. The visitors included Board members of Black History Ottawa; youth from the Black History Ottawa Youth Mentorship program, and seniors from both the Ottawa Golden Oldies Black Seniors’ Social Club and Flo’s Seniors. The event included performances by singer, Paula C; Ngoma of Africa dancers from Kenya and Kamengo Cultural Troupe drummers from Uganda. The visitors did their part by enthusiastically joining in the singing and dancing, helped along by the performers. Participants were also treated with inspirational speeches by Jean-Marie Guerrier, Vice-President of Black History Ottawa; Chandra Jones of the Future Paths Network and Chadwick Lewis owner of Urban Fresh, an organic vegetable farm. In attendance at the event was the Executive Director of the Upper Canada Village, Julian Whittam.
The afternoon was rounded up by a visit to the newly minted Black History Museum featuring the best of the first arrival of slaves fleeing death and persecution in the U.S.A., to the day the government of Canada abolished slavery in the country.
It should be noted that on March 24, 2021, the House of Commons voted unanimously to designate August 1 as Emancipation Day in Canada. It marks August 1, 1834, when The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 came into force across almost all of the British Empire, with some exceptions, including territories in the possessions of the East India Company.
