Juneteenth is an Important Holiday—But It's Not a *Canadian* One

 
 

By sTACY LEE KONG

Image: BBC

 
 

This week’s newsletter is a guest post by Tayo Bero, an award-winning journalist, columnist for The Guardian, former radio producer at CBC and the founder of Sisi Media. A super smart culture critic, you’ve definitely seen her bylines in Teen Vogue, Essence, Refinery29, The Walrus and more. Follow her on X and Instagram!

As the world continues to grapple with the weight of multiple simultaneous tragedies, the ongoing attacks on the rights and freedoms of everyday people and myriad ways that vulnerable people are progressively made more and more unsafe, cultural celebrations like Juneteenth are a critical way to commemorate Black history in America. 

As you probably already know, Juneteenth marks the date (June 19, 1865), when the last enslaved Black people, located in Galveston, Texas, were made aware that they were free. In 2021,U.S.President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, making June 19 a federal holiday. (On this side of the border, Canada’s House of Commons had voted to recognize Aug. 1 as Emancipation Day throughout the country just a few months earlier. It’s the anniversary of the day the British Empire officially abolished slavery in 1834.)

And even though Juneteenth has always been a major celebration in America, there's no doubt that it’s had a far more prominent presence in our collective cultural radar since 2020’s Black Lives Matter protests—including its recognition as a national holiday. After the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and the ensuing socio-political reckoning, stocks in all things Black went up, including interest in Black historical moments like Juneteenth. 

At a time when the U.S. president is requiring government agencies to terminate their diversity initiatives, major corporations are rolling back their DEI mandates and critical race theory remains a bogeyman in American school systems, it’s not appropriate but absolutely imperative that Americans mark this day. I even see the value in other communities and countries recognizing the importance of Juneteenth. My question is, why isn’t there a similar culture around Emancipation Day?

In Canada, Black folks have always known about and paid attention to the culture around Juneteenth, just based on our proximity to the U.S. But I do wonder if Juneteenth has taken up the kind of cultural space that means we now acknowledge it to the exclusion of Canadian commemorative days like Emancipation Day. Writer Lincoln Anthony Blades wrote about our fraught relationship with the holiday in a CBC Opinion column titled “Canada does not have a Juneteenth celebration—and we don't need one.”

“Juneteenth is not Emancipation Day, and Emancipation Day is not Juneteenth,” Blades writes. “While Canada has a wealth of Black historic communities in Nova Scotia, Owen Sound, Ont., and Salt Spring Island, we also have a young and developing Black community made up of first- and second-generation Canadians and their immigrant elders, who are establishing what Black Canadian identity means to them… If the federal government truly wants to assist Black Canadian communities, then a priority must be made of supporting our emerging, organic cultural celebrations.“

And he’s absolutely right. Canada and the U.S. have similar and connected histories but very different experiences when it comes to their relationship to the state, the ways that relationship has shaped the Black experience and the ways our communities have developed. 

So, when I think about what it says about the Black Canadian experience that Juneteenth, for some, is a more recognizable concept than Emancipation Day, I think about the ways that Black Canadian identity is intrinsically linked to Black American identity. It's a relationship that mirrors the dynamic between the two countries as a whole, but that relationship has always been an uneven one—Americans don't celebrate any of our holidays, and if you asked the average Black American what Emancipation Day is, or why Nova Scotia is so important to Black Canadian history, they probably couldn’t tell you. 

But does any of this matter? And does this focus on America as the nucleus of diasporic Blackness really affect the material realities of Black people in Canada? The answer to both of those questions is absolutely. Because privileging the Black American experience to the detriment of Black Canadians is a microcosm of the broader ways in which Black Canadian identity is stifled, and our history erased from the national memory. 

From the death of historically Black neighborhoods like Toronto’s Eglinton West, to the lack of Black representation in politics, to the refusal of major cities across the country to acknowledge the anti-Black bias that is rampant throughout their police systems, being Black in Canada means being subject to a collective and constant gaslighting. This country perpetually refuses its truth as a violent colonial entity, rewrites history to make itself look good and continues that violence in real time—all the while telling Canadians that it is far better than America.  

This is why, as Blades writes, we need to focus on nurturing the experiences, traditions, histories and cultures that are specific to Canada and the Black Canadian experience. 

There's a reason why the Black Lives Matter movement has always had a Canadian contingent (institutional controversies aside)—Black Canadians are killed by police at a rate that is disproportionate to their share of the population, Black maternal mortality is abysmal and Black children continue to see their potential trampled upon in academic institutions while they face harsher consequences for “bad” behaviour than their peers. For those who don’t chose to look away, the rampant systemic anti-Blackness that pervades all of Canadian society is clear to see. 

Juneteenth and Emancipation Day are about commemoration, which means both remembering the past truthfully and moving forward into the future with accountability. But those are things Canada has never been good at. Our follow-through on the calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada has been shameful, and for a long time we refused to meaningfully acknowledge that slavery even happened here. Canada's understanding of, and rhetoric around, its own Black history places this country in the role of saviour, the glorious end point of the Underground Railroad and a symbol of Black freedom. But that history is far from accurate—Canada has its own long and violent history with enslavement—and the state continues to oppress Black people to this day. Canada also doesn't collect race-based data in any broad, systematic way, so we often are working with little to none of our own information when it comes to creating effective and sustainable solutions to the problems that Black people complain about today. 

So, on days like this, the hype around Juneteenth—and Emancipation Day’s comparative quietness—is also a bleak reminder that the very idea of Black life as being foundational to Canadian identity is steadily being erased. And if we know that Canada is now fully invested in following in America’s footsteps (which we do; just just look at Prime Minister Mark Carney’s “border safety” and “nation building” bills) then we should be very worried not just about Black life now, but in the future as well. 

It's for all of these reasons that celebrations like Emancipation Day are more important than ever, not just because of the histories they represent, but also because recognizing them is emblematic of our collective refusal to let the traditions that birthed and sustained them die—even in the face of violent opposition, and our own historical erasure.  

Black Canadian history is Canadian history and being Black in this moment means refusing to allow that to be watered down, dismissed or deprioritized.

✨ Out Now: The Friday Talks: Take It to the Group Chat Season Finale✨

The final episode of Friday Talks: Take It to the Group Chat is out now! Featuring writer, editor and culture critic Katherine Singh and actor Orville Cummings, who stars in Morningside, director Ron Dias’ tribute to Scarborough, this episode explores what it means to be multi-ethnic (or whatever we're calling it!). Think, feelings of cultural connection and disconnection, how others perceive us—and what we even call ourselves.⁠

Also, ICYMI, last week’s episode featured the brilliant Sharine Taylor and Ryan Persadie, who helped me tackle a question I’ve been coming back to for years: who is Carnival actually for? And if you want to catch up on previous episodes, or even seasons one and two, check out Friday Things on YouTube!

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CultureStacy Lee KongJuneteenth, Emancipation Day