Varishini Deochand shown on a Zoom call
Photo Credit: CBC
Ontario teenager Varishini Deochand wrote to Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil with a special request in the name of Viola Desmond.
Deochand, a grade 11 student from Vaughan, Ont., asked the province of Nova Scotia to symbolically reimburse court costs charged to Desmond when she was convicted in 1946.
Desmond was dragged out of New Glasgow, N.S. movie theatre for sitting in a whites-only seat. She was charged on Nov. 9, 1946 with, “attempting to defraud the provincial government based on her alleged refusal to pay a one-cent amusement tax.”
Desmond was ordered to pay court costs of $26, approximately in today’s dollars.