Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin by thanking my hon. colleague for his speech and the friendship that is clear to all of us today.
I am going to talk about Motion No. 36 to designate emancipation day. My colleague talked about education, so I am going to take this opportunity to revisit history, because knowing where we come from is the best way to know where we are going. Let me share a few historical facts.
According to the Canadian Encyclopedia, the abolition of slavery in the British Empire began with the Act for the Abolition of Slavery throughout the British colonies for promoting the industry of manumitted slaves; and for compensating persons hitherto entitled to the service of such slaves, also known as the Slavery Abolition Act. The member mentioned it earlier. The act received royal assent on August 28, 1833, and took effect in August 1834.
The act abolished slavery in most British colonies, freeing the 800,000 African slaves in the Caribbean, South Africa and Canada. However, in the eastern colonies of Lower Canada, now Quebec, in Nova Scotia and in New Brunswick, abolitionist efforts remained unsuccessful.
In 1793, for instance, Pierre-Louis Panet introduced a bill to the National Assembly to abolish enslavement in Lower Canada, but the bill languished over several sessions and never came to a vote. Instead, individual legal challenges first raised in the late 1700s undermined the institution of enslavement in these areas.
One important case arose in February 1798, when an enslaved woman named Charlotte was arrested in Montreal and refused to return to her mistress. She was brought before James Monk, a justice of the King’s Bench with abolitionist sympathies, who released her on a technicality.
According to British law, enslaved persons could be detained only in houses of corrections, not common jails. Since no houses of correction existed in Montreal, Charlotte could not be detained there. Charlotte and another enslaved woman named Judith were accordingly freed that winter. Justice Monk stated in his ruling that he would apply this interpretation of the law to subsequent cases.
New France was not free from slavery. Thanks to the trail-blazing, if dated, work of Marcel Trudel, we know a fair amount about slavery in Quebec. He listed a total of 4,185 slaves for a period ranging from the 17th century to 1834. Of that number, three-quarters were indigenous slaves. The slave trade took on different proportions. The proportion of indigenous slaves, the Panis, was greater than that of African slaves. In 1759—there are a lot of dates, but it is important to remember them—records listed 1,100 Black slaves in Canada toward the end of the Seven Years' War. That is terrible.
Obviously, we cannot talk about slavery without talking about the young Marie-Josèphe-Angélique, who was born in 1710 and hanged in 1734. In their book Elles ont fait l'Amérique, anthropologists Serge Bouchard and Marie-Christine Lévesque helped make many people aware of Marie-Josèphe-Angélique's story, which is the first documented case of slave resistance in the history of Quebec and Canada.
Obviously, in 2020, we recognize that slavery is an extremely unfair practice. Unfortunately that was not always the case over the course of history. It was not until the 19th century that slavery was slowly abolished.
Although the Bloc Québécois is in favour of this motion, it might have been a good idea to have the motion place more emphasis on the agency of slaves in the slavery abolition process. What does agency mean? It is the ability of historical actors, particularly those who were oppressed, to make their mark on the world, transform and influence it for the better, rather than simply being subject to it.
In fact, the motion seems to give the British Parliament an all-powerful role in the abolition of slavery, as if it were a divine gift that British parliamentarians bestowed upon slaves in the four corners of the empire. The historical reality is much more complex. We need to remember the context in which slavery was abolished. The emancipation proclamation was only the culmination of a historic process that slaves were an integral part of.
Our version of history so far has credited liberal abolitionists alone with putting an end to this unjust system. However, in a fairly recent book called Slave No More: Self-Liberation Before Abolitionism in the Americas, Russian historian Aline Helg describes the slaves' own agency and how they were the architects of their own liberation.
She details, from the very beginning, how slaves in the Americas between 1492 and 1838 engaged in rebellions and emancipation strategies. How were these slaves agents of their own liberation? Through marronage, enfranchisement, military involvement and rebellion. This cannot be forgotten.
This motion is also inspired by the International Decade for People of African Descent, the theme of which is “People of African descent: recognition, justice and development”. In recognizing this decade, the House of Commons will put itself at the forefront of the recognition, justice and development of people of African descent as a distinct group whose human rights must be promoted and protected. This needs to be made clear here, in the democratic institutions that belong to all citizens.
That is why this motion, which recognizes historical facts and builds on this international decade, highlights the contributions made by African descendants to Quebec's and Canada's societies and acknowledges Canada's history of slavery through a national day of commemoration.
The Bloc Québécois will obviously vote in favour of this motion. I want to take a moment to acknowledge our beloved mayor back in my riding of Laurentides—Labelle, who has been in office for 14 years. He is one of just two Black mayors in Quebec's history. I congratulate Michel Adrien for his 14 years—