Search for "black history"

An artist of colour closely associated with the Vancouver School, Stan Douglas examines the complexities of social reality and history and the means by which they are represented. While his initial reputation was as a video and installation artist, more recently he has been acclaimed for his large format back-lit photographs of elaborately re-staged historical scenes.

Jeffrey John Spalding, CM, artist, teacher, curator, gallery director (born 5 November 1951 in Edinburgh, Scotland; died 14 October 2019 en route to Toronto, ON). Throughout the greater part of the 1970s, Spalding produced abstract works, primarily paintings, generated through predetermined, systematic processes. His early commitment to procedural artmaking methods emerged during his senior high school years 1968 and 1969. It was refined during his initial studies at the University of Guelph (1969–72), where, associated with Eric Cameron, Spalding produced a series of abstract, hard-edge, geometric screenprints and paintings. He used procedures elaborated from elementary colour theory and from alphabetical and numerical systems.

Sports have a long history in Canada, from early Indigenous games (e.g., baggataway) to more recent sports such as snowboarding and kitesurfing. Officially, Canada has two national sports: lacrosse (summer) and hockey (winter).

Acadia’s history as a French-speaking colony stretches as far back as the early 17th century. The French settlers who colonized the land and coexisted alongside Indigenous peoples became called Acadians. Acadia was also the target of numerous wars between the French and the English. Ultimately, the colony fell under British rule. Many Acadians were subsequently deported away from Acadia. Over time, as a British colony and then as part of Canada, Acadians increasingly became a linguistic minority. Nonetheless, Acadians have strived to protect their language and identity throughout time.

Joseph Albert (Pierre) Paul Pilote, hockey player (born 11 December 1931 in Kénogami, QC; died 9 September 2017 in Barrie, ON). Pilote was a National Hockey League (NHL) defenceman and was regarded as one of the best blueliners from the Original Six era. He played a hard-hitting style but was also respected for his offensive prowess. Pilote won the Stanley Cup with the Chicago Blackhawks in 1961 and was awarded the James Norris Memorial Trophy three times. During his NHL career he scored 80 goals and tallied 418 assists and 1,251 penalty minutes during the regular season; in 86 career playoff games, he scored eight goals and 53 assists.

Prior to 1960, black Africans comprised a very small, scattered and almost unknown group of newcomers to Canada, although Africans of European and Asian ancestry had a clearer presence. According to the 2016 census, 1,067,925 Canadians reported being of African origin (682,570 single and 385,355 multiple responses). Of that number, 230, 110 people reported Central and West African origins; 355, 040 reported North African origins; 260, 145 reported Southern and East African origins and; 239, 560 reported other African origins.

Louis Stanley Hooper, jazz pianist, composer, teacher (born 18 May 1894 in North Buxton, ON; died 17 September 1977 in Charlottetown, PE).

Tessa Virtue, figure skater (born 17 May 1989 in London, ON) and Scott Moir, figure skater (born 2 September 1987 in London, ON). Virtue and Moir are the most successful Canadian ice dance team of the early 21st century, and were the first North Americans to win the Olympic Gold Medal for ice dance, at the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games. At the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, they won silver in ice dance and in the team competition. They won gold in ice dance and in the team competition at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, becoming the most decorated figure skaters in Olympic history. They have also won four world championships (three senior and one junior), three Four Continents championships, nine Canadian championships (eight senior and one junior) and multiple Grand Prix events, including a Grand Prix Final.

Daniel Grafton Hill IV, singer, songwriter, guitarist, writer (born 3 June 1954 in Toronto, ON). Dan Hill is a successful adult contemporary singer and songwriter. Known for his plaintive voice and unabashedly sentimental lyrics, he achieved international stardom at age 23 with the hit single “Sometimes When We Touch.” In addition to his solo work, Hill has enjoyed a long career as a pop and country songwriter. He has amassed over 100 million in sales for his songs, which have been recorded by such artists as Céline Dion, Britney Spears, Alan Jackson and Reba McEntire. Hill has won five Juno Awards, a Grammy Award, five SOCAN Awards for outstanding radio airplay in Canada, and six ASCAP Awards for airplay in the United States. He was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2021.

Michael Hollingsworth had his first play, Strawberry Fields, produced by the Factory Theatre Lab in 1972. His next, performed at Toronto Free Theatre the following year, was Clear Light. In this LSD-inspired play, 2 couples and 1 ex-husband gather for a game of cards.

Michaëlle Jean, social activist, journalist, documentary filmmaker, governor general of Canada 2005–2010, secretary general of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie 2014–2019 (born 6 September 1957 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti).

Charles Leon Aurthello Bibb (a.k.a. Lee Charles), OBC, singer, actor, civil rights activist, guitarist (born 7 February 1922 in Louisville, Kentucky; died 23 October 2015 in Vancouver, BC). Leon Bibb was a Tony Award-nominated actor, popular folk singer and trailblazing civil rights activist. After moving to Vancouver in the early 1970s, he made pioneering contributions to professional theatre and Black culture in Canada. He was inducted into the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame and the Order of British Columbia.

Dany Laferrière, né Windson Kléber, novelist, essayist, poet and journalist (born 13 April 1953 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti). Winner of the prestigious Prix Medicis and the first Haitian, Canadian and Québécois to be elected to the Académie française, Laferrière has established himself as one of the premiere chroniclers of the immigrant experience and one of the finest novelists of his generation.

William Stener Ferguson, travel writer and novelist (born 12 October 1964 in Fort Vermilion, AB).

Charles William Jefferys, painter, illustrator, muralist, writer, teacher (born 25 Aug 1869 in Rochester, England; died 8 October 1951 in Toronto, ON).