Right now in the west there is an organization called the National Black Coalition, one extant chapter, and we do try to work with that person.
The Exodusters—that's a phenomenal story of people who accepted the offer to come into Canada to settle like anyone else, only to suddenly discover that there were special requirements that they had in order to get into the country, which they met because they were affluent and they were healthy. They were given all kinds of disincentives to settle, and in fact it was decided that they were deemed unsuitable for the climate of Canada because they were coming from the warmer areas of Oklahoma.
I think there are many stories. I had ten minutes so I thought what's the best way for me to approach this, to answer all of the questions or attempt to provide a general sense of why I think it's important that we look at Africans as founding people and that we create—as it turns out we share this—a centre for African Canadian history and culture. I think those are some of the stories that need to be reflected.
When the earlier questioner mentioned the Amherstburg museum...it's a wonderful museum. It tends to tell a story that's focused on Amherstburg, or maybe a little bit Essex-Kent.
What I hope that our proposal reflects clearly is that we want to tell all of those stories, because Toronto is home to half of all Canadians of African origin; Toronto is a significant tourism hub; and Toronto—until maybe recently, and maybe it still is—tends to be a centre for culture. It tends to have influence that extends beyond its borders. I think those are ways that we can do that.