By LINCOLN DEPRADINE
The recent announcement by Ontario’s education minister, Stephen Lecce, that the
provincial government is making studies of Black History mandatory for kids in Grades 7,
8 and 10 is great news for retired school principal and former MP Dr. Jean Augustine.
“The time has come,” she said. However, Augustine has certain expectations for the
mandatory studies program which would be introduced in schools in September 2025. She
wants province-wide talks on the schools’ compulsory “Black History Learning” program,
and also “would like to see the teachers who are going to be teaching this new
curriculum”.
“I would like to see the modules being taught and that there is no opting out,” Augustine
said at a recent event in Scarborough. “If it is the curriculum, it is the curriculum; no
opting out.”
According to Conservative government officials, the planned curriculum change would
allow for students to learn “about the overwhelming contributions of Black individuals to
Canada’s foundation as a young nation, and the obstacles they faced in the pursuit of
building a democratic, inclusive and prosperous country”.
It’s about making the curriculum “more relevant to the diverse stories of our country by
honouring our past and honouring the sacrifices of our forefathers”, and “enshrining the
voices and stories of Black Canadians within our curriculum”, Lecce said.
“By mandating learning on the contributions Black individuals made to our country’s
founding and success, the next generation of Canadians will better appreciate the sacrifice,
patriotic commitment and long-lasting contributions Black Canadians have made to
Canada.”
But Augustine who, as Liberal MP for Etobicoke-Lakeshore, received unanimous
parliamentary support in 1995, declaring February as Black History Month in Canada,
recalled Black community struggles around issues such as classroom streaming of
students, establishing Afrocentric schooling and the lobbying against an education system
that all but excluded the history of Indigenous peoples and African Canadians.
“There was nothing in the textbooks about African Canadians, except something about the
Underground Railroad somewhere and Canada as the North Star. And apart from that, there
were no modules that spoke to the fact that Africans – Black people – have been here since
1603 and that we were part of the building and the development and the contributions to
Canada,” Augustine said.
With the “mandatory Black History Learning” curriculum scheduled to be launched next
year, Augustine recommends “consultation across our province to establish what it is we
want. I would like to see a consultation around who are going to be the writers of that
curriculum, so that we’re not taking the same colonial things and rolling it together and
giving it back”.
Augustine, a former federal cabinet minister, suggested the need for training of trustees
and school board officials, who will be implementing the curriculum.
“We have to make sure,” said Augustine, “that what is passed on is fact; what is passed on
is passed on by people with expertise and what is passed on would be the kind of
information that would have us all understand that Black History is Canadian History, not
just for Black people.”
