Posted: Feb 16, 2021 10:13 PM ET | Last Updated: February 17
An online event on Tuesday about Black History Month paid tribute to Jean Augustine, Canada s first female Black MP who championed the unanimous vote to designate February as Black History Month in Canada in 1995. (Source: jeanaugustine.ca)
Black History Month marks a special time of remembrance, reflection and recommitment, according to the creator of the Pan-African holiday called Kwanzaa.
Dr. Maulana Karenga, an Africana Studies professor at California State University, Long Beach, said the month honours the past, grounds the present and enriches the future. He said is a time to celebrate in meaningful ways the history of African people in the world.
This year s Maclean s Lifetime Achievement winner: Jean Augustine
The trailblazing MP came to Ottawa to make change where she knew it mattered. Over 13 years in federal politics, she paved the way for so many others.
January 12, 2021
When Jean Augustine arrived on Parliament Hill to be sworn in as an MP representing Etobicoke-Lakeshore in 1993, she was accompanied by two busloads of supporters there to witness her oath. But she also brought along, and kept with her throughout her 13 years in federal politics, a much bigger, albeit invisible, contingent: students (especially those who really needed what school could offer them), women blazing difficult career trails, single mothers and Black Canadians.