Guysborough County, 1983

By: Greg Birkett

Greg Birkett

Historical/Educational Contributor

Greg Birkett is a published co-author (Black History: Africa, the Caribbean, and the Americas – Emond Montgomery Publications, The Great Black North Poetry Anthology-Frontenac House Poetry) and a recognized educator (Governor-General Award for Teaching Excellence Finalist, 2011, A.H.E.N. Excellence in Teaching Award winner, 2016). Greg has written curriculum for the Ontario Ministry of Education and has served as a curriculum consultant for the OBHS (Ontario Black History Society). He is also the co-developer and co-presenter of See Us, Learn Us: Teaching the Black Canadian Experience, a nationwide webinar for educators and education stakeholders in partnership with Nelson Education. He has and continues to create material and resources for Nelson’s digital learning eco-base Edwin, some of which correspond with the topics presented in the See Us, Learn Us webinar. Greg has also worked as Senior Writer for the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) Kids website and has also written freelance for the Toronto Star. Greg is a poet and playwright: Two plays that Greg wrote, Do You Remember Me and Pieces of a Black Woman’s Soul, were performed at the Toronto Fringe Festival, Toronto’s largest theatre and performance festival, and for sold-out audiences at the Sandbox Theatre in downtown Toronto respectively.

Greg is the founder of G.I.A. Productions, a youth-focused organization that uses the artistic mediums of spoken word, drama, dance, and music to stage original productions that promote education, history, and positivity in the community. He has appeared on CityTV News and Breakfast Television, Global News, CTV News to discuss issues pertaining to anti-Black racism, its impact on the education system, and strategies to address these ongoing challenges. He has also been featured in articles in the Globe and Mail, the National Observer, The Toronto Star, CBC News and Saltwire highlighting his leadership in the development of resources that promote inclusive education.

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Guysborough County

1983

Over a century of segregation in education ceases

Before school, after school, at lunchtime and at recess

You will now see us-

Entering and leaving, the same building

White, Black, and Brown children

found on playgrounds around children-

of all ethnic backgrounds and so-called races in spaces that were previously exclusionary

Guysborough County

1983

A watershed, defining Canadian moment when enrolment into an educational institution would no longer be a race-based foregone conclusion

Desegregated schools serving as a major step toward the solution

to issues connected to inclusion and equity in a relatively new nation

claiming multiculturalism and a willingness to view all people objectively- as its foundation

Information- acknowledging this occasion is- generally missing from national narratives

The average- citizen unaware of the existence of Canadian practices of segregation or segregated schools

is likely unaware of the systemic tools- that were, and still are, being used to produce outcomes that advantage some students and disadvantage others

In the 18 and 1900s, Black fathers and mothers- in Atlantic Maritime provinces, in Canada East and Canada West

did their best to protest the grotesque conditions

impeding the success of Black children in-

one room schoolhouses with poor heating and indoor plumbing

who were forced to walk for kilometres outside of their districts in harsh weather, so it was hard to keep coming

whose teachers were paid less, overworked, and stressed but still did their best to teach them something

And while- incidents like a Black child- being locked out of a public school in Campsie, Alberta, were stunning

The proliferation of systemic racism in social systems like education was simultaneously systemically stunting-

Black achievement, opportunities, and possibilities

setting the table for streaming and questioning Black student abilities

Post secondary facilities also doubted Black learning capabilities

Off limits to Black Canadians at varying times in their histories-were the hallowed halls of U of T, Queen’s, and McGill universities

Bursaries and scholarships

and other grants analogous- to attempting to achieve equitable outcomes did not exist

Enrolment in some Canadian educational institutions for Black students was less of a right and more of a risk

which-really should have changed when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was drafted

With language carefully crafted

to explain that no parents or students should ever be short-changed or feel short-handed

or disadvantaged

concerning the pursuit of formal education

in a nation- that bore significant signifiers symbolizing civility such as “first world” and “developed”

The Canadian delegation sent in 1948 to the United Nations voted in favour of parental rights to choose the educational pathway of any child enveloped

by the borders of this northern expanse

Permitting neither race nor religion as factors prohibiting an individual’s desire to advance

The stance- on education taken by the UDHR was theoretically endorsed but not practically enforced

Remorse, or retraction, or new courses of action, for Black students and common or public schools was absent

Absent in the hearts of superintendents and administration

Absent from public opinion with no indication

of change for decades, even after forced integration

some school districts

still witnessed- Black students being treated like misfits

being made to use separate washrooms, exits, and entrances

However, in some instances- Education Acts were revised after being revisited

Some provinces- even removed biased references- to “different races” in their legislated documents

On top of this, the school board in Toronto took some racist books and films out of schools in 1956

But discriminatory conflicts- still plagued playgrounds, classrooms, staff rooms, and school board rooms, from the Atlantic to the Pacific

Some public schools continued restrictive enrollment practices

The work of activists- like Leonard Braithwaite

urged provincial policymakers to eradicate this racially prejudicial mistake

And in 1965, Ontario would close its last school to racially segregate

Nearly 20 years later Nova Scotia would embrace the same policy,

and shut the doors permanently to the Guysborough county segregated school in 1983

finally- bringing an end to racially segregated schooling in a land that boldly asks God to keep it “glorious and free”

but there is still much work to do to ensure that equitable practices

are enforced and enacted

and alive and active in all Canadian classrooms

Some assume-that if something is not a part of their lived reality, then it doesn’t exist

But Black student streaming

lowered Black student standards and expectations of achievement

stereotypes, biases, and higher suspension and expulsion rates

negates any argument made by any person or system that insinuates

that everything is better and education reforms now are designed

to eradicate and thoroughly erase those blatantly racially biased experiences back in time

Listen to Black communities, speak with Black communities, work with Black communities, learn from Black communities

And, in turn, Black communities-can experience authentic inclusion

And continue the legacy of irreplaceable essential contribution

to a society whose foundation

falters without education

Guysborough county, 1983

Instantaneously the end and the beginning, and a past and a future, that depends on you and me