Alexandra Bastiany is the first Black woman in Canada to become an interventional cardiologist(a branch of cardiology that treats structural heart disease using techniques like cardiaccatheterization, angioplasty and stents). When she graduated with honors from the...

Suzette Mayr (Born 1967)Suzette Mayr, an award-winning author and professor, is thought to be the first out queer winnerof Canada’s prestigious Scotiabank Giller Prize.Born in Calgary, Alberta, Mayr is of German and Afro-Caribbean background. In her...

Emily Arabella “Emma” Stark (1856-1899)Emma Stark was the first Black teacher on Vancouver Island. Emma’s full given name wasEmily Arabella Stark.Born in California, Stark’s parents Sylvia and Louis brought her and her brother to Salt SpringIsland in 1860,...

Sylvia Sweeney is “Canada’s first lady of basketball.” She was born in Montréal, the daughter ofrailway cook James Sweeney, and music and piano teacher Daisy Sweeney (née Peterson),whose brother was the legendary pianist Oscar Peterson.Sweeney is a talented musician...

Herbert H. Carnegie was a hockey player and philanthropist. Perhaps The CanadianEncyclopedia put it best: “Arguably the first Black Canadian hockey star, Herb Carnegie iswidely regarded as the best Black player never to play in the National Hockey League (NHL).”Born...

Laurent Duvernay-Tardif is a Canadian football player and physician – the fourth medical schoolgraduate to play in the National Football League (NFL) and the first active player to hold amedical degree. He is also an avid sailor since...

Portia May White, a gifted singer and teacher, was the first Black Canadian concert singer togain international renown. Born in Truro, Nova Scotia, Portia White was the third child in afamily of 13 children. Her father’s parents had been enslaved in the...

“To be Black and female in a society which is both racist and sexist is to be in the uniqueposition of having nowhere to go but up.” – Rosemary BrownRosemary Brown (née Wedderburn) was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and came to Canada in 1951to study social work, first...

Harriet Rhue Hatchett was an educator, missionary, musician, and writer/composer of songs,hymns and poems. In the First World War, the Canadian armed forces chose a hymn she hadwritten, entitled “The Sacred Spot,” as the official marching song of the Canadian troops....

Hugh L. Fraser is an Olympian and a recognized international expert in sports law, now retiredfrom an outstanding career as a justice of the Ontario Court of Justice. Fraser came to Canada from Jamaica when he was seven years old. At the time, his...

Jully Black is a Canadian icon in entertainment, best known as a singer, songwriter, actor, andtelevision and media personality. Born in Toronto, she is the child of Jamaican immigrantparents, the youngest of nine children and the first in her family to be born in...

Michaëlle Jean is a social activist, stateswoman, diplomat humanitarian, journalist anddocumentary filmmaker, and was the 27 th Governor General, Commander-in-Chief of Canada,from 2005 to 2010 – the first Black person and the first Haitian Canadian to hold...

Dany Laferrière is an acclaimed novelist, essayist, poet, journalist and public intellectual. Winnerof the prestigious Prix Medicis, Laferrière is the first Haitian, Canadian and Québécois to beelected to the Académie française. Laferrière is renowned for...

Lincoln MacCauley Alexander (1922-2012) Lincoln Alexander was born in Toronto, the son of immigrants from the Caribbean. Because of racism, many forms of employment were not open to Black Canadians. As a result, Alexander’s mother worked as a maid, and his father, who...

Bushra Junaid is a Nigerian-Canadian multidisciplinary artist, curator, author and artsadministrator. She was born in Montréal to Jamaican and Nigerian parents, and raised inNewfoundland and Labrador. Her background and experiences have given her a...

George Brooks (on the left in photo) lived a long, multi-faceted and adventurous life, as a renowned story-teller, a singer and a soldier. He served in three major wars: the Civil War; the Spanish-American War; and the First World War. In fact, he enlisted in the...

Maydianne Andrade is a Canadian ecologist and evolutionary biologist, renowned for her studies on the mating habits of spiders, and with professional interests in evolutionary ecology, sexual selection and adaptive plasticity. She is also an award-winning teacher,...

 Charles Lightfoot Roman (1889-1961) Charles Lightfoot Roman was a surgeon, author, researcher and lecturer, and one of the first Black Canadians to graduate from McGill University’s Faculty of Medicine. He became a widely recognized expert in...

Today, we celebrate not a person, but an historic destination – the Black Loyalist Heritage Centre in Shelburne, Nova Scotia. It shares the story of an amazing group of Black people who lived there in the late 18 th century – at that time, comprising the world’s...

Lawrence Hill (born 1957) Lawrence Hill is an award-wining Canadian novelist, essayist, journalist, memoirist and educator. He was born in Newmarket, Ontario, and grew up in nearby Don Mills, a mostly white community. Hill’s father was African American and his mother...

Oscar Emmanuel Peterson (1925-2007) Oscar Emmanuel Peterson was a renowned jazz pianist, composer and educator, and one of Canada’s most honoured musicians. Born in Montréal, Peterson was mostly self-taught, yet he went on to amaze audiences worldwide with his...

Mathieu Da Costa (1589-1619) Historians believe the first Black person to come to Canada was Mathieu Da Costa. European colonizers hired him, as a free man, to work as an interpreter. There is not much verifiable information about Da Costa’s life, but it seems he was...

Lillian Allen (born 1951) On her website, Lillian Allen describes herself as a “grassroots artist, cultural activist and university professor – …a godmother of rap/hip hop, dub and spoken word.” Born in Jamaica, Allen came to Canada in 1969 to attend Waterloo...

Kayla Grey (born 1993)In 2018, award-winning journalist and racial-justice advocate Kayla Grey became the first Black woman to host a national sports show in Canada. She regularly speaks on racism in Canada and in sports. Grey began her broadcasting career as an...

Dudley Laws (1934-2011) Dudley Laws was a Canadian civil rights activist whose rallying cry was “No justice, no peace.” Born in Jamaica, Laws emigrated to England and lived there for 10 years before coming to Canada in 1965. He worked in Toronto as a welder and...

Mabel Adeline (Addie) Aylestock (1909-1998) Mabel Adeline (Addie) Aylestock was the first Black woman to be ordained in Canada, becoming a minister of the British Methodist Episcopal Church. Raised in the rural community of Glen Allan, Ontario, located northwest of...

Jean Augustine (born 1937) In many ways, the Honourable Jean Augustine has lived the Canadian dream! In 1960, she came to Canada from Grenada to work as a nanny. When her contract ended, she enrolled in teacher’s college, graduated and taught at elementary school,...