Educator and community worker Janelle Brady recognized with Viola Desmond Faculty Award
April 7, 2022
It was not until Dr. Janelle Brady was in university did she learn about Viola Desmond.
“It is unfortunate that Black Canadian history was missing from my elementary and high school experience,” she said. “Growing up, we mostly learned about Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I am grateful for Carrie Best who broke the story in ‘The Clarion’ newspaper she co-founded and was owned by Black Canadians and the work of Desmond’s sister (Wanda Robson died in February) for keeping Viola’s legacy alive.”
Brady, who joined Ryerson University staff in July 2021, was the recipient of the Faculty Award presented in Robyn Maynard’s name at the 14th annual Viola Desmond Awards and Bursary Program celebration on March 21.
“What this award means to me is really an understanding of Black women’s intersectional role in which race, gender, class, ability, sexuality, status and immigration are all coming together,” she said. “It means that there is an acknowledgment of Black women’s work that often is done behind the scene and goes unnoticed. It is very much community-oriented and does not fall under the traditional tropes of what scholarship might look like or leadership might look like.”
Given the opportunity to dedicate the award to someone, Brady said it would be her late paternal grandmother, Jesina Julien, who migrated from Trinidad & Tobago to Italy before coming to Canada.
“She encouraged me to volunteer, get involved and make change in the community,” noted the Ontario New Democratic Party first Black President and co-founder/publisher of ‘The Downsview Advocate’. “She found ways to build community and empower women, whether it be to pursue their education, have a place to live, connect with various networks or find work. She also valued education and supported me to pursue my dreams and goals while valuing the importance of the collective.”
Brady was elated to be associated with an award named after Maynard who is a Black feminist writer and doctoral candidate at the University of Toronto.
Dr. Janelle Brady was the recipient of the Viola Desmond Faculty Award (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
The Vanier Canada Graduate Scholar has spent a large part of her life examining and exposing Canada’s history of racism and the injustices that have damaged the lives of generations of Black, Indigenous and racialized Canadians.
“She’s an activist/scholar in the Canadian state who is acknowledging and looking for better possibilities and new imaginaries in abolition and really rethinking the carceral state and thinking about Black women years and years of community building and activism,” added the Assistant Professor in the School of Early Childhood Studies and Faculty of Community Services. “I just love that.”
Dr. Sejal Patel, an Associate Professor in the School of Early Childhood Studies, nominated Brady for the award.
“As a racialized South Asian woman, it is important to me to celebrate and amplify the work of my colleague who demonstrates commitment to equity and transformative change,” she said. “At this early stage of her career, she has demonstrated a strong track record that will continue to contribute to the field of Black Studies with a focus on children and families. Already, she has had scholarly and, more importantly, community impact.”
The Ryerson Staff Award honouring University of British Columbia School of Creative Writing professor and science fiction writer Nalo Hopkinson was presented to Shurla Charles-Forbes, the Manager of Talent Development and Equity, Diversity & Inclusion and Anti-Black Racism Strategic Lead.
The University of the West Indies graduate worked in the health and hospital sectors in Trinidad & Tobago for 15 years before migrating to Canada in 2005.
In 2020, Charles-Forbes was the recipient of the Larissa Allen Employee Experience Award for developing and implementing Ryerson’s Career Development program designed to retain, include and provide more opportunities for employees.
The lifelong learner is pursuing a PhD in Adult Education & Community Development at the University of Toronto.
Eternity Martis completed her Master’s in Journalism at Ryerson eight years ago. This fall, she returns to the downtown university campus as an Assistant Professor.
The award-winning journalist was recognized with the Ryerson Alumna Award bearing the name of Jill Andrew who is the Member of Provincial Parliament for Toronto-St-Paul and the first queer Black person elected to a Canadian legislature.
“I feel very humbled to receive this award because I have gone through my career doing what felt right,” said Martis who is the Non-Fiction Writer-in-Residence at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. “In the notoriously White industry that journalism is, I was often told to drop it and to not cover race and gender. To follow myself and see where I am at, to be honoured for doing that, to be considered a positive role model for other Black women and to be among so many Black women who are doing this great work make me feel like I am in a ‘made it moment’.”
The Ryerson Student Award honouring Visions of Science Chief Executive Officer Dr. Eugenia Duodu-Addy was presented to Recruitment Office and Ted Rogers School of Management (TRSM) Business Career Hub Student Ambassador Nikesha Sampson.
The 2021 Youth in Policing Initiative (YIPI) participant, who is enrolled in Ryerson’s Bachelor of Commerce program, is a TedPack mentor for first-year TRSM students and a Black Business Students Association (BBSA) Events Marketing Co-ordinator.
Nine years ago, the Viola Desmond Bursary was established for students who self-identify as female and Black, African or African-Canadian and are enrolled in a degree or certificate program at Ryerson in the following academic year.
The 2022 recipients are fourth-year students Oluwapelumi Egbewumi and Nya Martin-Hemming.
A Psychology student, Egbewumi co-founded Women of Colour in Law (WOCINLAW) that supports students who identify as women of colour in their legal profession journey.
“Being able to curate and facilitate this initiative has given me the opportunity to change the lives of racialized women at Ryerson University,” the WOCINLAW President said.
Martin-Hemming, who is majoring in Business Law at the TRSM, is the Executive Vice-President and Vice-President of Events at Ryerson Women in Leadership. She is also the Executive Vice-President and President-Elect of the first BBSA that provides resources for Black business students and helps increase representation.
Grade 12 students Kiya Busby and Ashley Levins were honoured with Viola Desmond Awards for high school graduates.
Busby, who attends Our Lady of Mount Carmel Secondary School in Mississauga, founded Black Voices Lab that supports Black students subjected to racial and social injustice.
“We have been able to create a safe and inclusive space for high school students across the Dufferin-Peel region and, in the past year, we have advocated for social justice within our schools to help dissolve institutionalized anti-Black racism,” she pointed out. “As a result, there is now funding and other resources available to Black student associations to assist with the staging of Black History Month events and to compensate Black graduation coaches. Because of this, I know that I and other young trailblazers are carrying on with Viola Desmond’s legacy. Being the recipient of an award in honour of a woman who was such a pillar in the Black community is so empowering.”
Ever since experiencing an unfortunate event in her first year at St. Joseph Morrow Park Catholic Secondary School in Toronto, Levins has been speaking out against racism.
She is enrolled in the first anti-Black racism course offered by the Toronto Catholic District School Board.
“Receiving this award acknowledges not only the work I am being honoured for, but moreso those who have helped me along my journey,” Levins said. “Through high school, I have been supported by strong, caring and inspiring women. These educators were relentless in their efforts to encourage me to find my voice, speak up and make a difference.”
Mohamed Lachemi, the university’s President & Vice-Chancellor, said the award winners are change makers transforming lives in their communities.
“When I look at the award recipients we honour today, I see inspiration and hope,” he said. “They lead by example and, like Nelson Mandela who went from activist to be President of his country (South Africa), inspire us in the same way. They are showing us that change is inevitable.”
Provost & Vice-President, Academic Jennifer Simpson acknowledged the role women have played in paving a path.
“It is often Black women who tell us that change needs to happen,” she pointed out. “It’s often Black women who are able to identify and speak with wisdom about where we need to go and how we are going to get there. And, it is often Black women who have the courage and the persistence to say, ‘No, not there yet, we need to keep doing some work together’.”
Equity & Community Inclusion (ECI) Interim Vice-President Anver Saloojee acknowledged that Black women have been the cornerstone of the communities, carrying loads, breaking barriers and driving change.
“Yet, the names and contributions of so many Black women who have left a lasting impression on our country continue to be unrecognized,” said the Department of Politics and Public Administration professor. “We at Ryerson want to change this. The Viola Desmond Awards ceremony brings us together to honour, celebrate and recognize the emerging legacies of some of these incredible women.”
Saloojee presented an Honourary Viola Desmond Award to Denise O’Neil Green who, after nearly a decade leading the university’s ECI portfolio, concluded her tenure at the end of February.
“She personifies everything the Viola Desmond Award stands for,” he said. “She built a solid foundation in her 10 years in the role that has seen the values of equity, diversity and community inclusion infused into every corner of our community and in everything we do at our university. She has been and remains a trailblazer and a pioneer for transformational change.”
Denise O’Neil Green with a Viola Desmond $10 bill at the Toronto launch in November 2018 (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
Even though no longer with the university, having left at the end of February after serving as the first ECI Vice-President in a Canadian university, O’Neil Green was excited to be part of this year’s virtual awards ceremony.
“To be honoured in this way really means so very much to me,” she noted. “It means that I made a difference and that I connected with and built solid relationships during my time at the university. I will always view this award with such fondness and great memories, having learned about this amazing human rights icon and being able to celebrate her contributions.”
The annual awards celebrate the legacy of Desmond, a Halifax beauty shop owner who, in 1946, refused to sit in a New Glasgow theatre balcony section designated for Blacks. Instead, she sat on the ground floor reserved for White patrons.
She had gone to the Roseland theatre to pass time while her car was being repaired.
After being forcibly removed from the theatre and arrested, Desmond was found guilty of not paying the one-cent difference in tax on the balcony ticket from the main floor theatre ticket and fined $20. She was also ordered to pay $6 in theatre court costs.
When efforts to overturn the conviction at higher levels of court failed, Desmond closed the business, moved to Montreal and enrolled in a business college. She eventually settled in New York where she died in 1965 at age 51.
A National Historic Person, her image is on the $10 banknote and three Canadian public schools bear her name.
