The OPSEU/SEFPO Coalition of Racialized Workers (CoRW) joins the growing call for the Government of Canada to formally acknowledge and apologize for Canada’s historical role in the trafficking and enslavement of Africans. We also call upon this government to provide a clear explanation for its decision to abstain from a recent United Nations resolution addressing the legacy of slavery and to take meaningful action to address the systemic inequalities that continue to affect Black Canadians.
This is not a call for Canadians today to accept personal blame for the actions of previous generations. It is a call for institutional accountability. Canada is a nation that rightly speaks about human rights, equality and inclusion, but those commitments require us to confront our own history honestly. We cannot celebrate Emancipation Day while treating Canada’s history of slavery as something that happened elsewhere, nor can we build a more equitable future while refusing to acknowledge the historical forces that helped shape the present.
Canada’s History Must Be Acknowledged
For more than 200 years, people of African descent were enslaved in the colonies that became Canada, from approximately 1629 until the abolition of slavery in 1834. Enslaved Black people lived and worked in what are now Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. They were bought and sold, their labour was exploited, and families were separated. Slavery was not simply an American institution that existed somewhere beyond Canada’s borders; it was part of the colonial societies that eventually became this country.
Progress in Canadian law did not automatically result in equality. In 1793, Upper Canada passed legislation restricting the further importation of enslaved people following the courageous resistance of Chloe Cooley, an enslaved Black woman who was violently seized and transported toward the United States. However, the legislation did not immediately free those already enslaved. Legal slavery was ultimately abolished throughout most of the British Empire, including the colonies that became Canada, in 1834.
The struggle for official recognition of Emancipation Day also demonstrates how long it has taken for Black history and the legacy of slavery to receive formal recognition in Canada. In 1994, Rosemary Sadlier and the Ontario Black History Society led efforts that resulted in Toronto becoming the first major municipality in Canada to formally recognize August 1 as Emancipation Day. Fourteen years later, in 2008, Ontario passed the Emancipation Day Act, formally proclaiming August 1 as Emancipation Day across the province. It was not until 2021 that Emancipation Day received national recognition from the Government of Canada.
This progression, from municipal recognition in 1994, to provincial recognition in 2008, to national recognition in 2021, illustrates both the persistence of Black advocacy and the long road toward institutional recognition of Canada’s history of slavery and its legacy.
Emancipation was a historic achievement, but it was not the end of the struggle for Black freedom or equality. Following emancipation, Black Canadians continued to encounter racial discrimination and segregation in employment, education, housing and public life. Black communities nevertheless built institutions, businesses, churches, schools, cultural organizations and labour movements that have made enduring contributions to Canadian society.
We remember the courage of people such as Viola Desmond, whose 1946 arrest after refusing to leave the whites-only section of a Nova Scotia theatre exposed the reality of racial segregation in Canada. We remember Africville, the historic Black community in Halifax that was denied adequate municipal services before being dismantled through urban redevelopment and its residents displaced. We remember the men of No. 2 Construction Battalion, who served Canada during the First World War despite the racial barriers that made it extremely difficult for Black volunteers to enlist on equal terms with white Canadians. We remember the Caribbean women who came to Canada through the West Indian Domestic Scheme, whose labour contributed to Canadian families and communities while they navigated significant racial, gender and employment barriers.
These are not isolated chapters in Canada’s history. Together, they demonstrate that Black Canadians have repeatedly been required to fight for rights, recognition and opportunity in a country they helped build.
The Legacy of History Is Still Visible in the Workplace
For the OPSEU/SEFPO Coalition of Racialized Workers, this is fundamentally a labour issue. The struggle against anti-Black racism cannot be separated from the struggle for decent work, pay equity, workplace dignity, employment security, collective bargaining and meaningful access to leadership.
Black workers continue to experience disparities in employment, income, advancement and economic security. The Canadian Labour Congress has highlighted significant gaps affecting Black workers, including lower average earnings, disproportionately high unemployment among Black youth and persistent poverty among Black families, including families whose presence in Canada extends across multiple generations.
These realities require us to look beyond individual experiences and examine the systemic barriers that can shape opportunities and outcomes in Canadian workplaces. Achieving genuine workplace equality requires addressing barriers that may contribute to disparities in hiring, promotion, compensation, protection from discrimination and access to leadership opportunities.
Anti-Black racism is a workers’ rights issue.
The labour movement has always understood that rights do not become real simply because they are written into law. Workers have organized for safer workplaces, pay equity, pensions, employment protections and collective bargaining because equality requires action. The fight against anti-Black racism belongs within that same tradition.
We must continue to challenge systemic racism in our workplaces, strengthen protections for Black workers, and ensure that equality, dignity and opportunity are realities. not simply promises.
Canada’s UN Abstention Requires an Explanation
The urgency of this conversation has been heightened by Canada’s position at the United Nations in 2026. On March 25, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 80/250, titled the Declaration of the Trafficking of Enslaved Africans and Racialized Chattel Enslavement of Africans as the Gravest Crime Against Humanity. The resolution was overwhelmingly supported, with 123 countries voting in favour, three voting against and 52 abstaining. Canada was among those that abstained.
For Black Canadians, that decision raises a straightforward and important question: Why?
Canada acknowledges that slavery existed in the colonies that became this country for more than two centuries. Canada also recognizes that anti-Black racism and its legacy continue to affect Black communities and workers. Against that backdrop, the Government of Canada owes Canadians a clear and public explanation for its decision.
An abstention is not simply the absence of a vote; it is a position. When that position concerns the historical trafficking and enslavement of Africans, a history in which Canada has its own undeniable connection, Canadians have a right to understand the reasoning behind it.
The OPSEU/SEFPO Coalition of Racialized Workers (CoRW) therefore joins the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists and the Canadian Labour Congress in calling for transparency, acknowledgement and action. Canada’s international positions should be consistent with the human rights and racial justice commitments it advances at home and abroad.
We call on the Government of Canada to:
- publicly explain its decision to abstain from UN Resolution 80/250;
- formally acknowledge Canada’s history and role in the trafficking and enslavement of Africans;
- issue a meaningful apology for Canada’s historical role in slavery and its legacy;
- address the systemic inequalities that continue to affect Black workers and communities; and
- take concrete, measurable action to advance racial justice, economic equality, workplace equity and meaningful inclusion.
Canada cannot ask Black Canadians to remember history while refusing to fully confront it. Nor can recognition be the final destination.
From Remembrance to Accountability: The Work Is Not Finished
Emancipation Day must be more than a commemoration of the past. It must be an opportunity to ask what freedom, equality and justice mean for Black Canadians today.
We cannot celebrate emancipation while treating Canada’s history of slavery as something that happened elsewhere. We cannot commemorate freedom while ignoring the systemic barriers that continue to affect Black workers and communities. And we cannot speak credibly about human rights and racial justice internationally while failing to confront the uncomfortable parts of our own history.
For Black Canadians, freedom means more than the abolition of slavery. It means equal opportunity, decent work, pay equity, economic security, protection from discrimination, meaningful representation and the ability to participate fully in Canadian society. It means workplaces where race does not determine who is hired, who advances, who is heard, who is protected and who has access to leadership.
The Government of Canada now has an opportunity to demonstrate that remembrance is not merely symbolic. It can begin by formally acknowledging Canada’s history of the trafficking and enslavement of Africans and issuing a meaningful apology; by providing a clear public explanation for Canada’s decision to abstain from UN Resolution 80/250; and by taking concrete action to address the systemic inequalities that continue to affect Black workers and communities.
The OPSEU/SEFPO Coalition of Racialized Workers calls on Canada to move beyond recognition alone. We call for accountability that produces measurable change in workplaces, institutions, public policy and communities.
We remember those who endured slavery. We remember those who resisted it. We remember Black Loyalists, freedom seekers, community builders, workers, activists, soldiers, entrepreneurs and generations of Black Canadians who helped build this country while fighting for rights, dignity and recognition.
Their history is Canadian history. Their contributions are part of Canada’s story. Their struggle for equality is not finished.
Canada must now move from remembrance to recognition, from recognition to accountability, and from accountability to meaningful action.