Viola Desmond’s legacy a light that shines on other trailblazers

This week marked the official circulation of Canada’s new $10 bank note highlighting the story of trail-blazing entrepreneur and civil rights activist Viola Desmond.

Desmond was selected in a process that spanned years of public consultation to identify an iconic Canadian woman to be featured on a regularly circulating bank note. Canadians welcomed the concept of widening the net beyond former prime ministers on our currency.

A total of 26,300 submissions were collected in the nomination process, of which 461 qualified. To be considered for a feature on the bank note, nominated candidates were required to have been deceased for a minimum of 25 years.

Following this process, an advisory council identified a 12-person long list, later narrowed to five women. Among the women nominated were authors, artists, athletes, suffragettes, scientists, businesswomen, engineers, politicians and humanitarians — all extraordinary changemakers in their respective fields.

I remember finding myself emotional upon learning that Desmond was selected as the first Canadian woman to be printed on our regularly circulated currency last spring. It came with a sense of pride and belonging that I couldn’t shake.

Desmond valiantly took on Canadian justice systems for the discrimination she experienced in 1946 in a segregated movie theatre, and she dedicated her livelihood to elevating other women entrepreneurs and leaving her community better than she found it. She was the first Canadian to receive a posthumous pardon by the government of Nova Scotia for her appalling treatment. The legacy she left is well deserving of the celebration it is receiving today.

I see in Desmond’s story in the stories of my own family and community members in Southwestern Ontario going back multiple generations — women who quietly worked to transform their communities and endeavoured to make Canadian institutions better for their daughters with little recognition for their tireless efforts.

I saw generations of Black Canadian women in rural and urban communities across the country who fought courageously to break glass ceilings while carrying an additional load combating racism in Canada.

It is thrilling to see a Black woman on the Canadian $10 bill, but we also have a long way to go to ensure Canadian women are earning their fair share of these dollars today. We’ll need continued advocacy aimed at seeing that women of all backgrounds feel the benefits of work being carried out to close the gender pay gap.

Desmond’s character can be seen today in women continuing her tradition of building supportive communities for women entrepreneurs as they seek genuine inclusion. Emily Mills of How She Hustles is a trailblazer in these efforts, blazing her own path changing Canadian institutions for the better, while serving as a prism reflecting light that shines onto her on more Canadian women deserving of recognition.

Mills hopes the circulation of the bill doesn’t only change how we see the past, but rather serves as a catalyst to change how we act in the present, “We don’t have to wait until someone is long gone for us to acknowledge that they stood up for something they believed in.”

I’ve framed my first note, and will be gifting a few for family and friends to cherish over the holidays. I’m also considering ways I can better support organizations and individuals carrying out the spirit of Desmond’s work today.

This includes organizations like Black History Ottawa as they take a leadership role in the delivery of the Connecting the Dots project aimed to connect the rich histories, lived experiences, and intergenerational promising practices of Black Canadians from coast to coast. Within the past year, they’ve visited Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Hamilton, Edmonton, Vancouver, and Windsor researching local stories.

There are countless local opportunities for engagement in carrying out Desmond’s legacy today, both in supporting women’s economic empowerment, and challenging Canadian institutions to address systemic racism.

With each exchange of the bill comes a teachable moment, an opportunity to discuss the invaluable contributions and sacrifices made by women and Black women across our great country — and with that a moment of self-reflection to consider how each individual effort can continue to shape our country for the better into the future.

Tiffany Gooch is a Toronto-based Liberal strategist at public affairs firms Enterprise and Ensight. She is a freelance contributor for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @goocht

(Published in the Toronto Star on Sunday, November 25, 2018)  

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