ANGELA GISMONDI - The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America in collaboration with the International Union of Painters and the Plumbers and Pipefitters Union sponsored this year’s Black History Month Celebration at Queen’s Park in Toronto
“Officials like Ucal Powell, Lester Tennant, Dory Smith and Phillis Gallimore…they paved the way for individuals like me and Ivan Dawns and Roodney Clarke. This is a moment that we should respect and give these men and women the admiration that they deserve.” He spoke about the formation of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, who attended to passengers aboard sleeping cars, which signed its first collective agreement with Canadian Pacific Rail in 1945. The majority of sleeping car porters were Black men and the position was one of only a few job opportunities available to them in Canada.ANGELA GISMONDI – Premier Doug Ford recently attended a celebration of the contributions of Black Canadians in the legislature.
“I have made it my duty and my responsibility to document our diverse history in our union,” he said, adding the first member of colour joined the union in 1964. “We had an influx of members while they were building the Pickering Nuclear Plant…Since then we have been growing slowly and steadily.”