God and Nature first made us what we are, and then out of our own created genius we make ourselves what we want to be. Follow always that great law. Let the sky and God be our limit and Eternity our measurement.
Marcus GarveyMurder trial told of volatile relationship
By Sam Pazzano
TORONTO - Ludlow Jermaine Gillespie attacked Melissa Lewis after she refused to give him money in 2008 to party at Caribana, his murder trial heard Tuesday.
Lewis, 25, is accused of fatally stabbing Gillespie, the father of her seven-year-old daughter, in the neck while he was driving on May 29, 2010. Their child and Lewis’ father, David Winn, were also in the car at the time.
Lewis has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder.
The volatile relationship between Gillespie and Lewis was exposed by several witnesses, including Gillespie’s cousin and close friend, Cyril Logan.
He was with Gillespie when he confronted Lewis in the early morning hours of Aug. 3, 2008, at her Lanor Ave. home in Etobicoke.
Logan, 19, denied there was any physical altercation beyond Gillespie grabbing his ex-girlfriend’s shoulder after she slapped him.
Lewis’ lawyer, Howard Goldkind, however, said Gillespie admitted to some grisly facts when he pleaded guilty in October 2008 to assaulting and threatening to kill Lewis, as well as to violating his court order prohibiting any contact with her due to another assault that year.
Lewis, who had spotted Gillespie outside her home at 3 a.m., grabbed her cellphone, hid in the bathroom and phoned police, court heard.
Gillespie pounded on the door and demanded she come out.
She bolted from the home, but Gillespie tackled her on the front lawn, pinned her on her back and kneed her in the head four times, Goldkind said.
He also struck her in the face, leaving both sides scratched and her jaw and lip swollen, court heard.
Gillespie was sentenced to 60 days on top of the 59 days already served.
His mother, Marjorie, recalled an incident at her Toronto home where Lewis demanded Gillespie repay her $300. Gillespie hurled the money on the floor and Lewis called him “no good … a piece of s---.”
The mother testified she kicked Lewis out of her home for her rude language and behaviour.
The trial continues Wednesday.
Lewis, 25, is accused of fatally stabbing Gillespie, the father of her seven-year-old daughter, in the neck while he was driving on May 29, 2010. Their child and Lewis’ father, David Winn, were also in the car at the time.
Lewis has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder.
The volatile relationship between Gillespie and Lewis was exposed by several witnesses, including Gillespie’s cousin and close friend, Cyril Logan.
He was with Gillespie when he confronted Lewis in the early morning hours of Aug. 3, 2008, at her Lanor Ave. home in Etobicoke.
Logan, 19, denied there was any physical altercation beyond Gillespie grabbing his ex-girlfriend’s shoulder after she slapped him.
Lewis’ lawyer, Howard Goldkind, however, said Gillespie admitted to some grisly facts when he pleaded guilty in October 2008 to assaulting and threatening to kill Lewis, as well as to violating his court order prohibiting any contact with her due to another assault that year.
Lewis, who had spotted Gillespie outside her home at 3 a.m., grabbed her cellphone, hid in the bathroom and phoned police, court heard.
Gillespie pounded on the door and demanded she come out.
She bolted from the home, but Gillespie tackled her on the front lawn, pinned her on her back and kneed her in the head four times, Goldkind said.
He also struck her in the face, leaving both sides scratched and her jaw and lip swollen, court heard.
Gillespie was sentenced to 60 days on top of the 59 days already served.
His mother, Marjorie, recalled an incident at her Toronto home where Lewis demanded Gillespie repay her $300. Gillespie hurled the money on the floor and Lewis called him “no good … a piece of s---.”
The mother testified she kicked Lewis out of her home for her rude language and behaviour.
The trial continues Wednesday.
Drake honoured for his ‘positive impact’
Drake
Canadian recording artist and actor Drake is the recipient of the second Allan Slaight Award presented to a young Canadian making a positive impact in music, film, literature, visual or performing arts, sports, innovation or philanthropy.
The award and a $10,000 honorarium will be presented to the 2010 double Juno-Award winner at Canada's Walk of Fame Awards later this year.
"At 24 years of age, Drake has already achieved what has taken others a lifetime to do," said Canada's Walk of Fame founding director Peter Soumalias. "He is kind, smart, talented, philanthropic and driven. He's an inspiring example to all and we are proud to recognize him this year as our young Canadian making a positive impact."
Slaight, who was inducted into the Canadian Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 1997, has been a leading figure in the national broadcasting industry for the past five decades.
"Drake is a true Canadian ambassador who continues to prove that with hard work, dreams can become reality," said Gary Slaight who, a decade ago, succeeded his father as president and chief executive officer of Slaight Communications.
The six-time Grammy Award nominee said he's proud to be Canadian and grateful to Canada's Walk of Fame and the Slaight Foundation for the award.
He's donating his honorarium to Dixon Hall, an east downtown Toronto multi-agency that offers a wide range of supportive programs and services to its diverse community members in Regent Park, West Donlands and Moss Park.
The 2010 Best New Artist and Rap Recording of the Year Juno winner plans to release his second album, Take Care, on October 24. His debut album, Thank Me Later, released in June 2010, received rave reviews. It debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, selling 447,000 copies in the United States in the first week.
Ten years ago, Drake made his acting debut, playing the role of Jimmy Brooks in DeGrassi: The Next Generation. He appeared in 138 episodes before his role in the show concluded two years ago.
He released his first mixed tape in 2006 and a year later became the first unsigned Canadian rapper to have his music video featured on Black Entertainment Television (BET) when his first single, Replacement Girl, was featured as the "New Joint of the Day" on April 30, 2007.
Drake is only the second artist to have his first two top 10 hits in the same week, following fellow Canadian Nelly Furtado who entered the top 10 in 2001 with I'm Like a Bird the same week as Missy Elliott's Get Ur Freak On, a remix of which included a credited contribution from Furtado.
Established in 1998, Canada's Walk of Fame has 131 members including the late Harry Jerome, the only athlete to hold the 100-yard and 100-metre world records simultaneously, and retired baseball pitcher Ferguson Jenkins who led the National League with 24 wins and 30 complete games in 325 innings in 1971 when he became the first Chicago Cub to win a Cy Young award.
They both entered Canada's Walk of Fame in 2001.
Bursary recipient has much to live up to
Kadian Gonez, Richard Trusty and Sierra Jackson
Younger siblings more often than not feel pressure to live up to the elevated standards set by an offspring.
The bar has been set high for Richard Trusty and he knows the expectations are huge.
Older sister Rhonda-Kaye Trusty graduated this year with honours from the University of Iowa and plans to attend medical school. The four-time Ontario Federation of Schools Athletic Association (OFSAA) champion was also a valuable member of her university's track team.
Last Sunday, her brother was presented with a Malton Church of God bursary.
"It means a lot to be recognized by my community and my church and I am going to use this award in my pursuit of higher education," said Trusty who migrated with his family from Jamaica when he was six years old.
He's enrolled in Carleton University's law program.
"I want to make the world a better place and I feel I can do that by becoming a lawyer," Trusty said.
Bursaries were also presented to Kadian Gonez and Sierra Jackson.
A graduate of St. Marguerite d'Youville Secondary School, Gonez is pursuing Accounting at Brock University.
"Math is my favourite subject and becoming a chartered accountant will definitely be a good fit for me," said Gonez.
Montego Bay-born Jackson, who came to Canada at six years of age, graduated from Harold Brathwaite Secondary School and is pursuing Nursing at Humber-Guelph University.
"It's great to have a good support system such as your church helping you reach your educational goals," said the long-time church member.
The Loving Kindness Ministry (LKM), which is an arm of the church established nine years ago, administers the bursary program.
"I continue to be amazed by the level of talent being manifested among our youths and I am convinced that they are about to change the world in ways that we cannot begin to imagine," said LKM president Rev. Iris Douglas.
This is the fourth year that the church has presented bursaries to deserving high school graduates.
"As we celebrate another year of this bursary program, we do so with the knowledge that we are contributing in a positive way to the future of our society," Douglas said. "We are planting seeds and we look forward to what they will produce."
Dr. Afua Cooper assumes Chair in Black Canadian Studies
Dr. Afua Cooper
As a doctoral student at the University of Toronto, Afua Cooper was part of the Black and academic community's activism that led to the establishment of the James Johnston Endowed Chair in Black Canadian Studies at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia 15 years ago.
Last August 1, the award-winning poet, author and historian assumed responsibility as holder of the rotating Chair in the university's Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology. She beat out two American scholars for the tenured and senior academic position that has been vacant for the past four years after David Divine was seriously injured in a vehicular accident in March 2007. Divine was forced to step down because of multiple permanent injuries.
Jamaican-born Cooper said she was hesitant to apply for the job at first because of the Chair's faculty location.
"After expressing my concerns, I was encouraged by various people in the academic community who felt the work I have done in social history deals with a lot of historical sociology," said Cooper who has a PhD. in Canadian History and the African Diaspora with a focus on Black 19th century communities in Ontario.
"It made sense because the Chair is one in Black Canadian Studies and that's my field and what I have been doing for the past two decades. It's something I have a very solid background in."
The six-year appointment could not have come at better time for Cooper. Opportunities for Black professors landing tenured positions at Canadian universities are rare and there is a Black Canadian Studies vacuum in most Canadian institutions of higher learning.
"I was really beginning to examine my relationship with the Canadian academy and, to put it in a larger context, the unfair treatment given to Black Canadian Studies," said Cooper who has published five volumes of poetry. "It's OK to say you do African-American Studies and even Caribbean and African Studies but when you do Black Canadian Studies, people would ask if such a thing exists or if it is some kind of sub-area of Black American Studies.
"It's difficult for people to conceptualize such a thing. The university system has not given it the respect it deserves. They see it as some unworthy thing which to my mind reflects how Blacks are viewed in Canada because it is knowledge that is produced about us and it seems it's not validated, valued or seen as something worthy of scholarly inquiry. Most people who get a PhD. in any aspect of Black Canadian Studies ironically end up in the United States teaching because there is very little here.
"A Black professor in this city even told me that when students approach him and say they want to study Black Canada, he advises them to also study something on African-America because that is where they might end up. It's sad when you have to say that to students...For me, I had started to see myself in a way like W.E.B. DuBois who was booted out of academy, but who kept up a very extensive publication profile, writing, studying, producing and being involved in his community while also being at the cutting edge of Black scholarship."
Cooper said she had two offers from U.S. universities at the same time that there was an opening for the James Johnston Chair.
"I figured Canada is where I live and Black Canada is what I studied and I needed to make my contribution here," she said. "In addition, I am excited about the position because of the person who it is named after. He had a very stellar and active career."
Johnston, who died in 1915 at age 39, was the first Nova Scotian of African descent to graduate from Dalhousie University's Faculty of Law.
A consultant to the Ontario committee set up to commemorate the bicentennial of the abolition of slavery in 2007, Cooper brings a considerable wealth of experience and knowledge to the distinguished Chair.
Her interest in slavery, abolition and women studies led to her doctoral dissertation on anti-slavery crusader Henry Bibb and the publishing of The Hanging of Angelique: The Untold Story of Canadian Slavery and the Burning of Old Montreal, a national bestseller that was nominated for the 2006 Governor General's Award.
The Dub Poets Collective co-founder and former Ruth Wynn Woodward Endowed Chair in Simon Fraser University's Women's Studies Department also co-authored We're Rooted Here And They Can't Pull Us Up; Essays in African Canadian Women's History which won the prestigious Joseph Brant Award. She's currently writing a series of historical novels for young people, documenting the experiences of enslaved children from the Black Diaspora.
In her new job, Cooper plans to create a Black Canadian Studies web portal designed to help students and researchers find primary source material related to Black Canadian history, interview older generations of Black Canadians to get a sense of their experiences and invite suggestions from various stakeholders in Canada's Black community.
"This Chair comes with a lot of responsibility," she said. "It's multi-pronged and multi-dimensional. Because it has been inactive for the last four years means that I am almost starting from scratch. For that reason, I will not be teaching in the first year. That time will be dedicated to giving the Chair profile and visibility."
She said the interview process, which was delayed by five weeks because of her husband's sudden death early last October, was the most rigorous she has experienced.
It lasted three days and involved interviews by the 10-member search committee, the university's senior administrators, the Department of Sociology & Social Anthropology and members of Halifax's Black community. She also made presentations to graduate and undergraduate students as part of the process.
The day before she was scheduled to leave for Halifax for the interview, her husband of 18 years died of a massive heart attack.
"I was at home when two female police officers came knocking on the door," recalled Cooper who taught Sociology at Ryerson and York University and History at U of T. "When they delivered the bad news, I was totally devastated. It was just out of this world and a very difficult period for me and our two children. I contemplated not going through with the interview but friends, including Dr. George Elliott Clarke and representatives of the Black Canadian Students Association which I formed, called and advised me to give serious thought to the decision I was going to make. They also said they would support that decision.
"In the end, I realized this was an opportunity to do some of the work we have been talking about for decades. It was also an opportunity for a change of scenery since there was a lot of grief and sorrow around here for me and the girls."
Eldest daughter Lamarana, who graduated from Jarvis Collegiate Institute, will pursue Literature & Latin American Studies at Dalhousie University while 15-year-old Habiba will enter a local high school.
Cooper and her children relocated to Halifax last Sunday.
BYE JACK: A tearful Dr Afua Cooper
was among members of the Caribbean Community
who paid their respects at last Saturday's state
funeral for NDP leader Jack Layton in Toronto.
Layton died on August 15 after a battle with cancer
Among the changes Laws brought to Ontario was the establishment of the (SIU) Special Investigations Unit to probe altercations between police and civilians, after Laws marched through the streets of Toronto to protest police shootings of Black men.
Death of a hero
Dudley Laws served his community well
Dudley Laws
Dudley Laws, community activist, founder of the famed Black Action Defense Committee and the man whose relentless campaigning helped forced a change in the way Ontario investigates its police services has died. He was 76 years old.
Mr. Laws passed away at Humber River Regional Hospital Church Street site, off Jane Street, in the heart of the Black and Caribbean community he so loved and for which he worked so tirelessly.
He had been confined to the hospital for the last month as he valiantly battled a litany of medical problems.
His death from complications of kidney disease ended more than 50 years of unbroken service to immigrant communities in England between 1955 and 1965 when he came to Toronto.
His son Robert, one of five children, said his father's commitment to equal rights and justice was grounded in a simple belief that society benefits from the full engagement of its citizens in a "society free of racial prejudice and discrimination".
"His commitment to social justice led to a life's work marked by courage, passion and an unyielding belief that people working together, united in a cause, can make a difference," Robert Laws said.
"In that spirit, he dedicated his life to the betterment of all members of society. While being best known as an iconic figure in the Black community, he has worked with individuals and groups of all backgrounds.
"As a father, he will be remembered for his gentle spirit, warmth and kindness. Most importantly, he taught that one's talents should be fully developed and used not for self-gain but to assist those around us.
"In his last moments, he showed his unbounded commitment, selflessness and love of humankind. He wished to see the fight for justice and equity of all peoples continued."
A strong follower of the teachings of Marcus Garvey, Mr. Laws dedicated his life to the struggles for social justice and equality.
He tirelessly worked against and protested police killings in Toronto and, with a handful of other activists, founded the Black Action Defense Committee in 1988. He was the committee's first chair and was its executive director at his death.
In an interview some years ago, Mr. Laws spoke of the genesis of his community work.
"One of the first lessons that I learned and that was very clear to me, was that a community must be organized if that community hopes to achieve and sustain progress, justice and respect.
"Because of this view, and the historic philosophic teachings of the Honourable Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., and many others, I have joined and co-founded many organizations in England and in Canada.
"The need for community-based organizations, national, and international groups of cultural and political organization cannot be overstated.
"Soon after my arrival in Canada, I became a member of the Jamaican-Canadian Association, of which I am still a member. Soon after I joined the Universal African Improvement Association (the Garvey movement), and became its president in 1972.
"Some of the organizations that I co-founded were: (in England), The Brixton Neighbourhood Association and the Standing Conference of the West Indies. (In Canada), Black Youth Community Action Project (BYCAP), Black Inmates & Friends Assembly (BIFA), the Black Action Defense Committee (of which I am now executive director), and the various other committees that were formed in support of victims and their families because of police use of deadly force.
"In continuation of my community involvement, I am always inspired by the teachings of the Honourable Marcus Garvey. In his Philosophy and Opinions, he tells us: 'Chance has never yet satisfied the hope of a suffering people; action, self reliance, the vision of self, and the future has been the only means by which the oppressed have seen and realized the hope of their own freedom'."
A lightweight in physicality, Mr. Laws was a heavyweight when it came to serving the Black community. He never wavered and would take on any authority when there was a wrong to be righted.
This service went far beyond just activism over wrongs done by the police in Toronto and elsewhere in Ontario.
He struggled against violence among young people with the same vigour that he took on police brutality and racial profiling.
He worked extensively and unceasingly with young people. He was at the scene of every shooting in his community, whether by the police or otherwise. He comforted families torn with grief by the death of a son or daughter. He reached out to Black people in the prisons; assisted those entangled in Canada's maze of immigration laws and would put his hand in his pocket for those in financial distress.
Valarie Steele, the chair of the collective that organized the event "Honouring Dudley Laws" at the Jamaican Canadian Association on March 20, said: "Our community has just lost a true champion and a voice has been silenced that can never be replaced.
"Dudley Laws was a man that made sure that the Canadian institutions that are so brutal to us paused and took note that there was someone looking out for the best interest of the African Canadian communities," said the former president of the Jamaican Canadian Association.
"We owe him so much gratitude and respect for the decades he spent fighting on our behalf. What a Man!
"It was a real privilege for me to be in the audience at the Jamaican Canadian Centre recently to honour him for his decades of service to us. It should be noted that Mr. Law's resistance benefited not only the African Canadian Community, it benefited everyone.
"His fight for immigrants changed immigration laws and policies and his fight for police accountability has changed the face of policing throughout Canada and brought changes to many other areas too numerous to mention."
"He was a joyful, cheerful and delightful person to be around, however, when he was fighting for us, he was consistent, relentless, focused and determined and for that we are forever indebted to him. I am happy that I had the privilege to know him and proud that I could have called him friend."
Audrey Campbell, current President of the Jamaican Canadian Association, knew Dudley Laws as a family friend and as a community activist.
"The passing of Dudley Laws has left a void in our community as well as in our hearts," she said. "His commitment to championing the fight against the injustices within our system was unwavering. His legacy will live on in Canadian history and in the hearts of the many people that he has touched."
Mr. Laws was an incredibly tireless worker who allowed nothing to stop him. Even illness.
When the loss of function in his kidneys about a decade ago forced him into three times a week dialysis, he did not slow his work.
He travelled and worked on despite his condition. He went to Jamaica twice as a member of the Jamaican Diaspora Canada delegation to the biennial Diaspora conference, making arrangements to do dialysis at facilities on his native island.
Nothing stopped his work with the African Canadian and Caribbean Canadian communities.
In fact, he was admitted to hospital for the last time in late February, the day after making the long and tiresome trip to Joyceville Penitentiary in Kingston, where he took part in the Black Inmates and Friends Black History Month celebrations.
"Dudley Speaks For Me," became a catch phrase in the Black and Caribbean community.
He was an advisor, a mentor and an elder statesman to his community.
He was so loved that as he lay on his sickbed, the flow of visitors to his room on the fourth floor of the hospital was almost constant.
His beloved community also showed its love on Sunday March 20, when an event organized by the community to honour him was attended by close to 1,000 people.
Messages of love and affection and praise for his life of work came from the Prime Minister of Jamaica the Honourable Bruce Golding, as well as the Leader of the Opposition in Jamaica the Honourable Portia Simpson Miller and from Jamaica's High Commissioner in Canada Her Excellency Sheila Sealy Monteith and the function was attended by Jamaica's Consul General in Toronto Seth George Ramocan, who read the messages from the politicians and High Commissioner.
Community activist and chair of the committee that organized the event Valarie Steele also gave a tribute, along with Lennox Farrell former Toronto teacher who, along with Mr. Laws was a founding member of the Black Action Defense Committee (BADC); Denham Jolly, a founding member of BADC and until recently owner of FLOW Radio; Mary Anne Chambers, former MPP and Ontario government minister; Toronto Councillor Michael Thompson; MPP for Eglinton Lawrence, Mike Colle; John Tory, former leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, now radio host on AM 1010; Keith Forde, former Deputy Chief of Toronto Police Service; Avvy Go of the Metro Toronto Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic, Numvoyo Hyman, a founding member of BADC; Akua Benjamin, university professor and co-founder of BADC, and many other people.
Community activist Hewitt Loague who has worked for more than 20 years beside the man he calls Brother Dudley said "a giant has passed from our midst.
"He was the kindest and most humanitarian person I have ever known. His passing leaves a huge void in the fabric of our lives.
"He was a brother, a friend, and more like a father to me.
"The work he did has benefited not only the Black community, but the broader community of Ontario and Canada in the same way the Honorable Marcus Garvey did more than 100 years ago.
"Brother Dudley's work will continue through the people he has taught and through the hundreds he has convinced to educate themselves and to have pride and love for their race and for the betterment of all humanity."
Denham Jolly, community activist and former owner of FLOW 93.5 Radio said Dudley Laws was "a huge and irreplaceable asset to this community.
"He was a champion of all Black and all underprivileged people and a fearless warrior until the final curtain."
Dudley Laws was born in the Parish of St. Thomas in Eastern Jamaica on the May 7, 1934. He was the fourth of six children born to Ezekiel and Agatha Laws.
When he was six years old, his family moved from St. Thomas to the parish of St. Andrew which surrounds the capital city Kingston. He attended Rollington Town School in Kingston and then did a five-year apprenticeship as a welder and machinist at Standard Engineering Works.
Like so many other Jamaicans of that era, Mr. Laws left in 1955 for London, England where he attended Kensington College. At the same time, he worked at Cox Watford Limited as a welder.
And his desire to work for his community came to full bloom.
He began by helping new immigrants from Jamaica and other parts of the world to settle in England. For example: Finding them a place to live and finding work for them.
During his time in England, he was a member of the Standing Conference of the West Indies, and a founding member of the Brixton Neighborhood Association. These two organizations were founded to combat racism and discrimination against people of African descent. Between 1955 and 1965, thousands of people of Caribbean and African descent immigrated to England and these two organizations and others helped newcomers to settle in the new country.
He was involved in the maintenance of the cultural heritage of Jamaica, the Caribbean and African countries. He helped organize events included welcoming parties, and the celebration of independence of various African countries. These events were organized and promoted to give newcomers a sense of welcome and belonging and help them retain their cultural heritage.
Mr. Laws came to Canada in 1965, landed at Toronto Airport, traveled by bus to College and Bay, and stayed at the YMCA for a few days.
Two days after his arrival, he began working with Dufferin Material and Construction as a welder.
Within a month he began to seek out various organizations, clubs and churches where Jamaicans, people from the remainder of the Caribbean and other people of African descent met.
The Black and Caribbean community organizations in Toronto at that time were the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), the Jamaican-Canadian Association (JCA), the WIFT Social Club and the Latin Quarter.
At these organizations and clubs, people from the Caribbean and African countries gathered on evenings and weekends.
He joined the JCA in 1967 and the UNIA in 1968. Mr. Laws became President of the UNIA in 1972. He later became Executive Director of the UNIA, and was instrumental in changing the name to the Universal African Improvement Association (UAIA).
Some of the programs that were organized and implemented by him were sewing and typing classes for women that were in Canada as domestic workers.
He is the founding member of various organizations that work in the community, including the Black Inmates and Friends Assembly (BIFA) and in federal prisons such as Millhaven, Warkworth, Joyceville, Collins Bay and Kingston penitentiaries.
Some of the programs included visitations by different groups, ministers of religion, community and social workers, artists and performers.
Mr. Laws founded or co-founded other groups including Immican Youth for Skilled Organization, the Committee for Due Process, the Albert Johnson Committee in 1979, the Lester Donaldson Committee in 1988, Black Youth Community Action Project, the Michael Wade Lawson Committee also in 1988 and the Black Action Defense Committee (BADC) in 1988.
Dudley Laws' 50 years of community involvement covers a large spectrum of activities, which includes: policing, immigration, education, the criminal justice system and other social issues.
On behalf of the various organizations that he represented he made many appearances before government commissions on racism and on independent investigations of the police.
These included the Clare Lewis Commission, the Steven Lewis Commission, the Commission on Systemic Racism in the Ontario Criminal Justice System co-chaired by the Honorable Justice David Cole and Margaret Gittens; the Ontario Human Rights Commission into Racism in Ontario and the Honorable Justice Patrick LaSage's Commission into the establishment of an Independent Civilian Review of policing.
The final report of the LaSage Commission, presented to the Attorney General in 2005, contained 27 recommendations aimed at creating a new and independent police review body that would be both equitable and effective for all, something for which Mr. Laws had long called.
Over the years, Dudley Laws has received many community awards, including: the Marcus Garvey Memorial Award, The Pan African Award, the Canadian Black Achievement Award, Spirit Of The Community Award, Bob Marley Memorial Award, The Lion's Club Memorial Award for Advocacy, The Jamaican-Canadian Community Award, The Dunhill Alumni Association Spirit of the Community Award and The Mannings High School Past Student Association Award.
Dudley Laws was great admirer of Marcus Garvey
Chance has never yet satisfied the hope of a suffering people; action, self reliance, the vision of self, and the future has been the only means by which the oppressed has seen and realized the hope of their own freedom.
From The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey, Or, Africa for the Africans (published 1986).
This Garvey quote was a favorite of Pan-African, anti-racist activist Dudley Laws who transitioned to be with the ancestors on Thursday, March 24. Laws was a great admirer of the Honourable Marcus Mosiah Garvey and often quoted Garvey. Like Garvey, Laws was born in Jamaica, lived in England and North America and was a tireless advocate for equity in the education system, health-care system, justice system, labour movement, housing etc.
In 1972, a few years after moving to Toronto from England (1965), Laws became the President of the Universal African Improvement Association (UAIA) which was located at 355 College Street. In 1938 Garvey established the School of African Philosophy at 355 College Street, a site the organization had owned since 1919 according to the documented history of the Kensington area.
The 8th International Convention of UAIA was held at their 355 College Street property from August 1 to 17, 1838. Laws would have been a four year old child living in Jamaica at that time. However, like his hero Garvey, Laws was a freedom fighter and the founder of organizations that advocated for the civil rights of Africans from which other racialized and marginalized people benefited.
While living in England (1955-1965) Laws co-founded the Brixton Neighbourhood Association (the Executive Director was Mr. Courtney Laws) and the Standing Conference of the West Indies. These groups were necessary to combat the rabid racism to which Africans were subjected in Britain. Most of the Africans in Britain at that time were British subjects, citizens of countries colonized by Britain. The violent, White supremacist Teddy Boys were only part of the problems that many Africans who immigrated to Britain, the "mother country", faced. They also faced systemic racism in the workplace, transportation system, health care, housing etc., Dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson has written and performed several pieces: about that reality.
In Toronto Laws co-founded the Black Youth Community Action Project (BYCAP), Black Inmates & Friends Assembly (BIFA) and the Black Action Defence Committee (BADC). The organization with which he was most familiarly associated is BADC, which he co-founded in 1988 (with Charles Roach, Sherona Hall and Lennox Farrell), after several African Canadian men had been killed by Toronto police. Laws served as its executive director until 2011.
Like his hero Garvey, Laws was persecuted by the authorities. Garvey had been under constant surveillance by the FBI because of his uncompromising stance that his people deserved to be treated as human beings, the equal of the White people who wielded power in every area. Garvey was the victim of FBI sabotaging of his work which eventually led to imprisonment and deportation from the USA.
While the American government agency was successful in framing Garvey and obtaining a wrongful conviction, the Canadians did not enjoy the same success with Laws. Following the spate of police killing of African Canadian men Laws referred to them as "the most brutal and murderous in North America". In May, 1991 the Metro Toronto Police Association launched a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Laws for defamation. In April, 1994 the police dropped the suit even though a trial was set for May.
On October 15, 1991, Laws was arrested after a four-month undercover police operation that included video surveillance and phone wiretaps. The operation involved 30 staff of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Metropolitan Toronto Police with a budget of $400,000. In a February 1994 jury trial, Laws was found guilty of conspiring to violate U.S. and Canadian immigration laws and sentenced to a nine-month jail term. The evidence against Laws at the trial was presented by four undercover agents. During the trial documented evidence (compiled by the Metro Toronto Police Intelligence Services in April 1989) of police surveillance of 18 individuals including Laws and 13 groups which were active in the fight against police brutality, racism and apartheid in South Africa surfaced.
Even though the government and police secured a conviction against Laws in the trial, there continued to be widespread public support for Laws in his uncompromising stance as a Pan-African activist opposed to police brutality. The revelations of police spying on anti racist political activists seemed to weaken the government's case against Laws. On September 10, 1998 the Ontario Court of Appeal overturned the conviction of 1994 because Laws had not received a fair trial as the judge and prosecutors had three private meetings to discuss police wiretap evidence from which Laws and his lawyers were excluded. On October 14, 1998 prosecutors dropped the charges against Laws, who agreed to perform 200 hours of community service.
Laws and his supporters were convinced that he was the victim of an entrapment operation as part of a police attempt to intimidate and silence him because of his vocal opposition to police brutality. In the tradition of generations of African freedom fighters Laws was a warrior to the end. He attended countless meetings at schools with parents whose children had been subjected to racial profiling, he was a support to family members of marginalized people who were railroaded into the justice system and he attended numerous wakes and funerals of people who were victims of violence whether from others in their communities or police violence.
An outspoken critic of police brutality it is not surprising that he was victimized by police. With his trademark black beret and full beard (the beard gradually became white) Laws was a well known figure, always enthusiastically welcomed at any demonstration or event for human rights. Only in photographs will we see Brother Dudley, beret set "just so" and the white beard.
Ricardo Keane (Brother Power), Hewitt Loague and other members of BADC established Dudley Laws Day in May, 2001. Several Dudley Laws Day celebrations were held at Brother Power's home before moving to the Northwood Community Centre and in 2010 to the Lawrence Heights Community Centre.
