Final day of Black Canadian summit sees historic declaration

The National Black Canadians Summit concluded Sunday with a historic declaration demanding justice and equality for Black Canadians and people of African descent.

"We will remember this moment becoming a movement," said Michaëlle Jean, one of the declaration readers. She is a former governor general of Canada, and her foundation hosted the summit.

The Halifax Declaration is a comprehensive document that grew out of the discussions, panels and workshops that took place over the course of the three-day summit. Writers of the declaration also spent months leading up to the summit gathering input from community members.

Sunday began with a non-denominational church service. A number of speakers then took the stage, including Ahmed Hussen, the minister of housing, diversity and inclusion, and Sen. Wanda Thomas-Bernard.

The declaration was presented artistically with prominent Black leaders reading excerpts from the document while musicians and a dancer brought the performance to life. 

It opens with an acknowledgement of the displacement of many Africans due to colonization, genocide and slavery. 

Lynn Jones, a Black Nova Scotian elder, started off the declaration performance by recognizing the history of African Nova Scotians.

"From strength to strength, we have persisted, created, remembered and marched forward," Jones said. "We are here."

The body of the declaration has three main pillars: recognition, justice, and development. These are the same pillars introduced by the United Nations international decade for people of African descent, started in 2015. 

"We also really wanted to make sure it was a declaration grounded in community, grounded in a full understanding of not just our local place, but connecting globally," said El Jones, an activist and one of the declaration's authors.

The declaration contains numerous calls to action, some of which are:

DeRico Symonds, a co-chair of the summit, said he hopes those in power across Canada feel a sense of urgency to act in the face of the declaration.

"We're really hoping, demanding, wanting, needing folks to really take heed of what's being said and for those who are in positions to make decisions to get things done for communities to act," Symonds said.

El Jones said she's proud that the declaration is inclusive of LGBTQ people, seniors and people with disabilities.