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Look Down The Track Senators – Wanda’s Emancipation Train Is Heading For Ottawa. By Stephen Weir Wanda Thomas Bernard at the mike Union Station Stand back  honourable members of the Senate. The Emancipation Train is heading to Ottawa and Senator Wanda Thomas Bernard is going to blow her conductor’s whistle until Canada’s Upper House listens to the voices of the Caribbean and African American communities. Dr. Bernard championed a bill proclaiming August 1 st  Emancipation Day in Canada. Even though the legislation was passed by the Liberal Government and made it through two readings in the Senate, it failed to come up for the final vote before the Senate recessed.  The bill will not be brought back for a third and final reading. At last Wednesday’s Freedom Train Ride in Toronto, the Nova Scotia senator said she is not going to give up.  Speaking to a crowd of close to 1,000 people inside TTC ‘s Union Station she told them  “I am 66 years old and I don’t have to retire (

Ride the Night Train, July 31st for August 1 Emancipation Ceremony By Stephen Weir The Honourable Wanda Thomas Bernard – Senator from Nova Scotia (East Preston) is coming back to Toronto next week to blow the whistle on Toronto’s Underground. Back for the second time to help out with the annual July 31 st train ride, this year the senator will be the conductor. As the Conductor she will welcome over one thousand people onboard Toronto’s Underground Freedom Train, leaving Union subway station in celebration of Emancipation Day on July 31 st . The riders will be riding in a special TTC subway train on a non-stop ride to the Sheppard St West subway station. Senator Wanda Bernard The Hon. Wanda Thomas Bernard – Senator from Nova Scotia (East Preston), recipient of the Order of Canada and the Order of Nova Scotia, and a highly regarded social worker, educator, researcher, community activist and social change advocate was a guest speaker last year at last year’s ride.  

--> Senator pledges to make August 1st National Emancipation Day across Canada   It all happened underground late last Tuesday night while most of Toronto slept. Looking out over a sea of Caribbean Canadian faces at the start of the annual Freedom Ride; Senator Dr. Wanda Thomas Bernard yelled out “You should see the beautiful view from here!” The Halifax senator, one of only a few Afro-Canadians in the Upper Chamber, was a keynote speaker at the 6th annual Emancipation Day Underground Freedom Train ride. She told the huge audience that she is going to work to make August 1 st a federally proclaimed national day to honour Emancipation Day.  Senator Bernard shared the microphone with the Toronto Caribbean Carnival's Rita Cox, the honourary conductor of the 2018 Freedom Train. They stood on the steps of the Rotunda inside the TTC Union Station. The pair were surrounded by people wanting to join them on a special subway train ride to mark the August 1,1834

Toronto’s Rosemary Sadlier asks Canadians to sign-up and make August 1st National Emancipation Day By Stephen Weir Rosemary Sadlier, the former president of the Ontario Black History Society, is using the internet to reach Canadians wanting to see the Federal Government declare August 1 st as Emancipation Day across the Dominion.   She is strongly supporting both on-line and in person, this new petition that will, upon completion on February 15, 2018 be presented to the House of Commons in Ottawa. The House of Commons E-Petition 1289—was initiated by Montreal’s David Haisell on October 15th. He is the Communications Director of the Canadian branch of The Royal Commonwealth Society.   The petition has the support of the Liberal party, it is sponsored by Toronto Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith   (Beaches-East York). The petition cites the fact that Canada has been a leader in the fight for human rights since the Act Against Slavery was passed in 1793 by the Briti