Rosemary Sadlier
By michelle-lee
On Sunday August 1st the 2nd Annual Emancipation Day was celebrated in Toronto.
Rosemary Sadlier who was instrumental in getting the Ontario Legislature to recognize August 1st as Emancipation Day noted that Ontario was the final destination in the Underground Railroad for American slaves searching for freedom.
Ontario Premier Dalton McGinty presided over the ceremony in Queen’s Park on July 30th. He said the abolitionist legislation is one of the province’s greatest achievements. “Ontario is so much better. so much stronger because of our Black history. Ontario is always showing the way, all the way back to 1793 when John Graves Simcoe passed the Anti-slavery Act making Ontario the first British colony to limit slavery”.
Emancipation Day legislation was passed in 2008, moved by Conservative MPP Ted Arnott and Liberal MPP Maria Von Bommel – the first such bipartisan legislation in the history of Ontario.
