Afro-Caribbean peoples in Canada

Afro-Caribbean peoples in Canada include those who hail from Caribbean nations such as Jamaica, Haiti, Guyana, Trinidad as well as the African nations of Nigeria, Cameroon, the Ivory Coast, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Somalia, and Ethiopia. According to the 2021 census, 1.5 million Canadians, or 4.3 percent of the population, identify as Black. Afro-Caribbean Canadians typically self-identify as African Canadian, Jamaican Canadian, Haitian Canadian, or Black. It is estimated that about 15.6 percent of those identifying as Black are Afro-Caribbean, a minority Black population in Canada. Most Afro-Caribbean natives in Canada live in Ontario, but some also live Ottawa, Vancouver, and Halifax. A large Haitian population calls Montreal, Quebec, home.

Background

The earliest Black inhabitants in Canada were enslaved, and many Black Canadians in Nova Scotia and southwestern Ontario descended from those who were formerly enslaved in America. While Black people have lived in Canada since the time of the earliest European settlers, the country has not always been a safe place for them. From the 1900s through the 1960s, Black people in Canada faced housing, employment, and public services discrimination, and many restaurants, hotels, and theaters refused to admit or serve them. In 1910, Canada passed immigration legislation increasing governmental authority to bar and deport immigrants, including anyone considered “unsuited to the climate or requirements of Canada.” Because of this, for the first half of the twentieth century, few Black people immigrated to Canada.

It was not until the 1960s, when pressure on the government to restrict immigration lessened, that most Afro-Caribbean people came to Canada. The number of Afro-Caribbean descendants in Canada, therefore, did not exceed twenty-five thousand until the 1960s, when the Black population grew exponentially. The most dramatic movement of Black people into Canada took place between 1965 and 2001, when more than five hundred thousand Caribbean people arrived as “landed immigrants.”

Black Canadians, however, had been inconsistently counted in the past due to changing terminology. Before 1971, African Canadians were only listed under “Negroes.” In 1971, the Census counted 34,445 Negroes and 28,025 West Indians. The 1981 Census was the first to permit more specific ethnic designations.

By 1996, 573,860 persons made up Canada’s Black population, but that number more than doubled by 2016, when 1,198,540 Black persons—with a median age of 29.6 years, as compared to 40.7 for the general population—were tallied. By 2019, Black people accounted for 3.5 percent of Canada’s total population, and projections show that Black Canadians may comprise between 5 and 6 percent of Canada’s population by 2036. More than half the Black immigrants who came to Canada before 1981 were born in Jamaica and Haiti, while Black newcomers in the 2020s represent about 125 countries, more than 170 birthplaces, and more than 200 ethnic or cultural origins.

Overview

Most Afro-Caribbean people in Canada live in large urban areas, such as Toronto and Montreal. Nearly 60 percent of the African Canadian population lives in Ontario, and Toronto has the largest Black population. Ottawa-Gatineau, Lethbridge, and Moncton have a fast-growing Black population.

Despite the wave of immigration since the 1960s, Black people in Canada, including Afro-Caribbean people, still face significant barriers to assimilation, including earnings lowered by 16 percent or more as compared to Anglo-Saxons. They also face prevalent de facto discrimination, marginalization, and unfair treatment. Many argue that systemic, or institutional, racism displayed through practice instead of policy, remains prevalent throughout the country.

Unemployment and poverty rates among Afro-Caribbean Canadians are significantly higher than the national average, with child poverty more than double that of the general population. Afro-Caribbean Canadians, as well as other Black Canadians, are underrepresented in higher education, professional fields, civil service, politics, and police departments. The extreme underrepresentation of Black people in law enforcement has stoked social unrest and contributed to police racism against Black Canadians, especially youths, who are often stopped, searched, surveilled, questioned, or harassed. Black Canadians are more likely than any other minority to fall victim to hate crimes.

A new generation of young Afro-Caribbean Canadians, however, is renewing pride in its community’s accomplishments, taking on leadership roles, renewing Black culture and media, and changing numbers in underrepresented professions. The growing Black Canadian middle-class has contributed to the formation of many Black advancement organizations, including the Canadian Negro Woman’s Association, the Universal Negro Improvement Association, the Jamaican-Canadian Association, the National Black Coalition of Canada, and the Congress of Black Women of Canada.

Nova Scotia became the first and only Canadian province to establish a department dedicated to the catering to the needs of Africans and reserve local school board seats for African Canadians.

Notable Afro-Caribbean people who have come to Canada include the first-known immigrant, Mattieu da Costa, in 1606. He was an African translator and navigator who interpreted for Samuel de Champlain, a French explorer. Mary Ann Shadd was a teacher who became the first North American woman to start a newspaper, which she used to fight slavery. Josiah Henson was born into slavery in the United States in 1789 and escaped to southern Ontario, where he helped found the Dawn Settlement colony for Black people. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin is believed to have been based on his life. The Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, born in Port au Prince, Haiti, was the first Black woman to become governor general of Canada, serving from 2005 to 2010. Born in Toronto in 1922 to Caribbean immigrant parents, Lincoln Alexander became the first lieutenant governor of Ontario.

Bibliography

“African and Caribbean Canadians.” Minority Rights Group International World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples, minorityrights.org/minorities/african-and-caribbean-canadians/. Accessed 21 June 2023.

“The Black & African-Caribbean Community in Canada.” York University Archives, archives.library.yorku.ca/exhibits/show/pushingbuttons/black--caribbean-community. Accessed 21 June 2023.

De Bruin, Tabitha. “Black Canadians.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, 19 Feb. 2019, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/black-canadians. Accessed 21 June 2023.

“Fact Sheet: The African Canadian Population in Ontario.” Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies, www.oacas.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Fact-Sheet-Africian-Canadians-August-20151.pdf. Accessed 21 June 2023.

Gooden, Amoaba, and V.C. Rhonda Hackett. “Encountering the Metropole: Stuart Hall, Race, (Un)Belonging, and Identity in Canada: Exploring the African Caribbean Immigration Experience.” Taylor & Francis Online, 18 Dec. 2020, www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21619441.2020.1858387. Accessed 21 June 2023.

Maheux, Helene, and Deniz Do. “Diversity of the Black Population in Canada: An Overview.” Statistics Canada Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, 27 Feb. 2019, www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/89-657-x/89-657-x2019002-eng.htm. Accessed 21 June 2023.