Happy Pride Weekend and Happy Emancipation Day

Hey friends,

Happy Pride Weekend and Happy Emancipation Day! I’m looking forward to seeing folks at events over the weekend, celebrating freedom and the people who fought relentlessly for us to have it.

Emancipation Day is a yearly celebration of the end of slavery in the British Empire. On August 1st, 1834, almost a million enslaved Africans finally had their freedom upheld in law.

It’s always been a time of celebration, remembrance, and resolve in my culture. Growing up in Ontario and experiencing Caribana along with all the BBQs, domino matches, and dance parties was a little slice of bliss. It was a yearly escape for just a couple days from the weight of the world. Children running in all directions, music bumping, food out of this world, and the old timers cracking up at the same stories year after year.  

Joy is such a necessary practice within liberation efforts.

Joy says “you can’t take my humanity” to those who are bent on stealing everything from us.  It’s resistance to a system that only seeks to extract and exploit.  

Last week was a grave reminder of what the system is capable of. The ABC majority voted to evict 40 people, including seniors, from their home at Myron Manor for the sake of a high-priced tech worker hotel. We’ve always known that our systems are heartless, but it’s quite something to watch it live. 

We saw the callous indifference to human suffering of those who have been empowered to govern over our lives. We saw their loyalty to speculators who will displace a community for the sake of profit.

We saw seniors beg for their homes, while ABC councillors looked on with boredom, preparing to sign their eviction notice.

It reminded me why we have to fight.

We have to fight for our neighbours the way we’d fight for ourselves.

We fight because we love each other.

All of us in the movement towards a better world have our personal reasons we keep showing up. It’s been an incredible honour to meet many of you over the last few months and get a chance to hear why you fight. It’s inspiring.

From preserving our natural habitat to ensuring kids have a caring education, from protecting renters from displacement to making food affordable: our collective is cultivating a shared vision of greater freedom, just like those who came before us.

Many of our ancestors didn’t get to see the freedom they fought for, but still they fought. They told the truth about the system’s violence, even when punished for doing so.  

They knew the antidote to the fearmongers pushing hopelessness was more courage. And they kept showing up in community, imperfect as it was, with care and joy.  

And so will we. 

See you in the days ahead, save a boogie for me, and all power to the people. 

Stephanie Allen