NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is in Halifax this weekend for the provincial NDP’s annual convention. But before attending the event, he made a stop at the Halifax North Memorial Library on Saturday to make an apology.
“The African Nova Scotia community has played a really significant part in contributing to Canada and to Nova Scotia, and for a lot of the history, the community has been ignored and neglected and I think it’s important to acknowledge that,” said Singh said at the library event that was taking place on reparations.
READ MORE: ‘This is so achievable’: NDP tables universal pharmacare bill, seeking Liberal support
Part of that acknowledgment was to recognize how Lynn Jones, who became the first Canadian-born African Canadian woman to run in a federal election, was wronged by the party 27 years ago when the NDP set out to celebrate its 100th female candidate.
In 1993, the party prepared an event expecting another woman, who was running in another riding uncontested, to be the party’s 100th female candidate. The day before her nomination became official, however, Jones won her nomination as the NDP candidate in the Halifax riding, making her the 100th.
But that was ignored.
“Everything was set up for somebody else so they opted not to change,” said Jones, who is currently the chair of the Global African Congress (Nova Scotia Chapter), which seeks reparations for the Atlantic Slave Trade.
READ MORE: Collection chronicling four decades of African Nova Scotian civil rights launched
Singh says that was a mistake.
“I want to apologize as leader of the national New Democratic Party on my behalf, as well as the party’s behalf I want to apologize to the African Canadian and the African Nova Scotia community,” said Singh.
The apology was made on the last day of African Heritage Month, which celebrates the contributions of African Canadians.
Jones says she was surprised by how much the apology meant to her.
“You think that it doesn’t matter what happened. It’s gone, it’s over with. But once it surfaced again, I realized it wasn’t,” Jones said, adding that more important than the apology itself is action.
READ MORE: N.S. town moves to address concerns after ‘watching deer while black’ incident
“The party has agreed to advance the issues of reparations.”
Singh told the community that part of advancing the issue of reparation means looking at a concrete strategy to work closer with African Canadians and African Nova Scotians to ensure they take on leadership roles.
It is something the provincial party has already taken steps towards by creating a diversity fund, Singh said. At the party’s annual meeting this weekend, that fund was renamed after Yvonne Atwell — the first African Nova Scotian woman to be elected as an MLA in the province.
“It’s important to encourage people from diverse communities to put their name forward. All the people who feel they’re on the fringe, they feel they don’t have the opportunity to engage,” said Atwell.