08/01/2025
August 1st is Emancipation Day in Canada. This day is meant to acknowledge Canada’s role in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, which led to the kidnapping and enslavement of over 13 million Africans to Canada, the United States, the Caribbean, Central and South America between the 16th and 19th centuries.
Emancipation Day is an opportunity to acknowledge the ongoing impacts on the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade on Black communities in Canada, especially when considering adverse health effects, including the disproportionate impact of HIV, high incarceration rates, and poor maternal health outcomes for Black mothers.
WHAI commits to rupturing system of white supremacy in the work we do in our communities and seek to be active co-conspirators of long-lasting change for Black community members.
"A Blk/Woman/Speaks"; by Sonia Sanchez:
i am deep/blk/soil
they have tried to pollute me
with a poison called america.
they have tried to
scorch my roots with dope
they have tried to
drown my dreams with alcohol
with too many men who spit
their foam on top of my fruit
till it drops
rotten in america's parks.
but i am deeeeeeeep
blue/blk/soil
and you can hear the
sound of my walken
as i bring forth green songs
from a seasoned breast
as i burn on our evening bed
of revolution.
i, being blk
wooooooman
know only the way of the womb
for i am deep/red/soil
for our emergen blk nation.
