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Allan Selwyn Bundy, pilot (born 1920 in Dartmouth, NS; died 9 December 2001 in Toronto, ON). Allan Bundy was a member of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) during the Second World War and one of the first Black Canadian combat pilots. He flew more than 40 missions in Europe as a member of 404 Squadron.

Alexander Thomas Augusta, physician, army officer, hospital administrator, professor, rights activist (born 9 March 1825 in Norfolk, Virginia; died 21 December 1890 in Washington, D.C.). Augusta fought anti-Black discrimination throughout his life. In 1853, he moved to Toronto, where he studied medicine at Trinity College. He opened a drugstore and surgical practice in the city and was the president of the Association for the Education of Coloured People in Canada. Augusta returned to the United States during the American Civil War and was the first Black officer in the Union army. In 1865, he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel, becoming the army’s highest-ranking Black officer at the time. Augusta was the first Black hospital administrator and Black medical professor in the United States. He also fought racism and segregation in Washington, D.C., where he founded the National Medical Society of the District of Columbia.

The Algonquin are Indigenous peoples that have traditionally occupied parts of western Quebec and Ontario, centring on the Ottawa River and its tributaries. Algonquin should not be confused with Algonquian, which refers to a larger linguistic and cultural group, including First Nations such as Innu and Cree. In the 2016 census, 40,880 people identified as having Algonquin ancestry.

Salome Bey, singer, actress, songwriter (born 10 October 1933 in Newark, New Jersey; died 8 August 2020 in Toronto, ON). Salome Bey was an award-winning jazz, blues and R&B singer. Known as “Canada’s First Lady of the Blues,” wrote and starred in Indigo, a Dora Award-winning history of the blues, and was part of the all-star lineup of Canadian singers who produced the charity single “Tears Are not Enough.” Bey received a Toronto Arts Award and the Martin Luther King Jr. Award for lifetime achievement from the Black Theatre Workshop of Montreal. She was made an honorary member of the Order of Canada in 2005 and was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame in 2021.

The Victoria Pioneer Rifle Corps was a Black militia unit in British Columbia. It is considered the first British or Canadian military unit formed west of Ontario and was one of several Black militia units in Canada in the 19th century. Formed by immigrants from California in 1860, the Pioneer Rifles dissolved by 1866.

People from the Caribbean region began to settle in Canada in the late 18th century (see Jamaican Maroons in Nova Scotia and Black Canadians). In the 2016 census, 749,155 Canadians reported that they originated from the Caribbean, and most have immigrated to Canada since the 1970s.  

Deanna Bowen, visual artist (born 5 November 1969 in Oakland, California).

Camille Turner, artist (born 11 March 1960 in Kingston, Jamaica). Camille Turner’s new media and performance works question Canadian identity and notions of belonging, and interrogate the erasure of Black history from Canadian narratives. Turner is active throughout Canada and internationally, where she regularly performs as her beauty queen persona, Miss Canadiana.

On 5 July 1916, the Department of Defence and Militia authorized the formation of No. 2 Construction Battalion. It was the largest Black unit in Canadian history. Its members continued the proud tradition of service to king and country that went back to the American Revolution and continued through the War of 1812 and the Rebellions of 1837–38 to the start of the First World War. But there were many obstacles: Black soldiers and communities faced racism both at home and overseas, despite their commitment to the war effort.

Willie O’Ree, CM, ONB, hockey player (born 15 October 1935 in Fredericton, NB). On 18 January 1958, Willie O’Ree became the first Black hockey player to play in the National Hockey League (NHL). He played professional hockey for more than 20 years, including 45 games with the Boston Bruins. Since 1998, O’Ree has been the NHL’s Director of Youth Development and ambassador for NHL Diversity. He is a Member of both the Order of Canada and the Order of New Brunswick. He has been inducted into the New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame, the Hockey Hall of Fame and Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame. The Boston Bruins retired O’Ree’s No. 22 on 18 January 2022 ? the 64th anniversary of his first NHL game.

Karim Ouellet, Quebec songwriter, composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist (born 8 December 1984 in Dakar, Senegal; died 17 January 2022 in Quebec City, Qc). He is the standard-bearer of an intelligent brand of pop music flavoured with soul, reggae, folk and electroacoustic elements. His poise, velvety voice and catchy refrains make him a distinctive artist. In 2007, he started working more and more with Quebec City artists (CEA, Webster, Limoilou Starz) and was part of the band Movèzerbe. At the same time, he set the stage for his solo career by taking part in the 5 fois 5 music project at the Théâtre Petit Champlain, a showcase for young, up-and-coming Quebec artists. He later played at the Francofolies music festival in La Rochelle, France. In 2009, he made a strong impression by making it to the finals at the Granby International Song Festival. In 2011, with his first album, Plume, Karim Ouellet caught the eye of both the public and the music industry. He won the Pop Album of the Year award at the Gala Alternatif de la Musique Indépendante du Québec, which recognizes excellence in independent music. In 2012, he had his first hit, “L’amour,” from his album Fox, earning him his first major public recognition.

Mary Ann Camberton Shadd Cary, educator, publisher, abolitionist (born 9 October 1823 in Wilmington, Delaware; died 5 June 1893 in Washington, DC). Mary Ann Shadd was the first Black female newspaper publisher in Canada. Shadd founded and edited The Provincial Freeman. She also established a racially integrated school for Black refugees in Windsor, Canada West. She played an important role in giving Black people a voice and advocating for women’s rights. In 1994, Shadd was designated a Person of National Historic Significance in Canada.

Dominique François Gaspard, physician and community builder (born 22 December 1884 in New Orleans, Louisiana; died 6 February 1938 in Montreal, QC). Gaspard was a respected doctor and a trailblazer in Montreal’s Black district. After serving with distinction at a field hospital during the First World War, he devoted himself to medical practice in Montreal. He also worked to create social and intellectual outlets for Black men in the city. A bilingual Catholic, he was unique in the city’s early-20th-century anglophone  Protestant Black community. His story speaks of a complexity of language, ethnicity and migration not often explored in narratives of Quebec’s English-speaking and Black communities.

Elnora Ruth Collins (née Procter), CM, singer, actor (born 21 November 1919 in Edmonton, Alberta). Canada’s “first lady of jazz,” Eleanor Collins was the first Canadian woman and the first Black entertainer in Canada to have her own national television show, CBC TV’s The Eleanor Show (1955). Often compared to American singer Lena Horne, Collins performed on many television and radio variety shows, as well as in clubs. She is a member of the Order of Canada and the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame and the recipient of numerous lifetime achievement awards. Canada Post released a commemorative stamp in her honour in January 2022.

The Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes (CHL) was an all-Black men’s hockey league. It was organized by Black Baptists and Black intellectuals and was founded in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1895. It was defunct during and after the First World War, reformed in 1921 and then fell apart during the Depression in the 1930s. Play was known to be fast, physical and innovative. The league was designed to attract young Black men to Sunday worship with the promise of a hockey game between rival churches after the services. Later, with the influence of the Black Nationalism Movement — and with rising interest in the sport of hockey — the league came to be seen as a potential driving force for the equality of Black Canadians. Canada Post issued a commemorative stamp in honour of the league in January 2020.

Joseph Lewis, alias Levi Johnston, also Lewes and Louis, fur trader (born c. 1772–73 in Manchester, New Hampshire; died 1820 in Saskatchewan District). Joseph Lewis was a Black fur trader, originally from the United States, who participated in the fur industry’s early expansion into the Canadian Northwest in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He is one of very few Black people involved in the fur trade whose name was documented in existing texts. Joseph Lewis is further notable for being the first Black person in present-day Saskatchewan, as well as, in all likelihood, Alberta.

Sleeping car porters were railway employees who attended to passengers aboard sleeping cars. Porters were responsible for passengers’ needs throughout a train trip, including carrying luggage, setting up beds, pressing clothes and shining shoes, and serving food and beverages, among other services. The vast majority of sleeping car porters were Black men and the position was one of only a few job opportunities available to Black men in Canada. While the position carried respect and prestige for Black men in their communities, the work demanded long hours for little pay. Porters could be fired suddenly and were often subjected to racist treatment. Black Canadian porters formed the first Black railway union in North America (1917) and became members of the larger Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in 1939. Both unions combatted racism and the many challenges that porters experienced on the job.

Four the Moment, was an a cappella quartet formed in 1981 in Halifax by Delvina and Kim Bernard, Jackie Barkley, and Deanna Sparks.

Black Hawk (Black Sparrow Hawk, Makataimeshekiakiak), Sauk War Chief (b at Saukenuk, near Rock Island, Ill, 1767; d near Des Moines, Iowa, 3 Oct 1838).