1st Black woman elected to Canada's Parliament visits Winnipeg for screening of film about trailblazing career
Black History Month festivities continue with gala, screening of doc with Manitoba students
From Happy Hill in the Caribbean to Parliament Hill in Canada, Jean Augustine has led a trailblazing life — and on Friday, the first Black woman elected to Canada's Parliament will speak about that at a Winnipeg screening of a film detailing her storied career.
Augustine, who made history when she was elected as the Liberal MP for the Toronto riding of Etobicoke-Lakeshore in 1993, presented the legislation that established February as Black History Month in Canada in 1995.
She won four consecutive elections, and made history again in 2002, when she became the first Black Canadian woman appointed to the federal cabinet.
That career is the focus of the new documentary Steadfast: The Messenger and the Message, a film that will screen Friday night during a gala sponsored by the Black Manitobans Chamber of Commerce.
Augustine is scheduled to speak at the event, which begins at 5:30 p.m. at the Manitoba Museum.
Zita Somakoko, the president and founder of the Black Manitobans Chamber of Commerce, says the event is intended to celebrate and showcase achievements of Black Canadians that have "been overlooked for so many, many years."
It was scheduled for March to highlight the idea that celebrating Black stories shouldn't stop at the end of February, which is Black History Month, she told CBC.
A lifetime of service
Augustine, now 85, remembers wanting "an opportunity to do good things" from a young age.
"I was raised in the whole notion of service, and so I knew I wanted an opportunity to be of service," she told CBC in a Thursday interview.
"Life has a way … with twists and turns and ups and downs, and I think some of that is shown in the documentary — the issue of the immigrant experience, the coming, the starting from the bottom, the pushing ahead."
Augustine, who was born in Grenada and came to Canada in the 1960s, was a social studies teacher before she became an MP. She says she noticed stories that young people needed to hear were missing from the Canadian curriculum she was teaching.
"Right away I knew that the education system did not offer modules that would teach me, that would teach other immigrants, about life in Canada," she said.
"And at the same time, I was a part of the African Canadian community. And I wanted to know a little bit more — who was the first African Canadian who came to Canada? What communities did they build? What things were happening? None of that was in the modules that I taught."
She set out to educate herself because it is important "to be consciously teaching what I considered to be information that young people must have," said Augustine, who has received many honours for work advocating for the rights of women, immigrants and visible minorities, including being named a member of the Order of Canada in 2009.
On Thursday, Augustine spoke to a group of Manitoba students at a screening of the documentary.
Misha Pawlikowski, a 12-year-old student who attended the screening, said the documentary was "empowering."
"I am transgender and I thought, as [Augustine] said, we need to continue to work so that everybody's included," said Pawlikowski.
For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.
With files from Chidi Ekuma