New $10 bill featuring civil rights activist Viola Desmond debuts today

[Bernardo de La Paz]

Source: CBC

Desmond refused to give up seat at N.S. movie theatre in 1946, years before Rosa Parks's act of defiance

By Cassie Williams, CBC News

A woman who stood up for the rights of black people in Nova Scotia and went to jail for it was honoured Thursday, as the new $10 bill featuring her image was unveiled.

...

On Nov. 8, 1946, Desmond went to see a movie at the Roseland Theatre in New Glasgow while her car was getting fixed.

Desmond, 32, was dragged out of the theatre by police and jailed for defiantly sitting in the "whites only" section of a film house. Black people could only sit in the balcony of the theatre.

The civil rights activist was convicted of defrauding the province of a one-penny tax, the difference in tax between a downstairs and upstairs ticket, even though Desmond had asked to pay the difference.



Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/viola-desmond-10-unveiled-1.4567765

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First person of color and first non-royal woman on Canadian currency.

[riversedge]

1. ..."first non-royal woman on Canadian currency." Good deal.

"

[jberryhill]

2. That's not ten dollars - That's a Tim Hortons coupon

[BumRushDaShow]

6. It's Burger King's now.

[jberryhill]

7. What about the REAL currency in Canada?

[BumRushDaShow]

9. YES!

Makes me want one here due to all the stuff that they have!!!

[IronLionZion]

3. The darker side of Canadian history

damn, those smug liberals up north don't discuss their own racial segregation and discrimination much

[Bernardo de La Paz]

8. Yes and no. Huge discussions / policy / action on First Nations issues now ('native Canadians')

There are some incidents of discrimination by people against other people and even some common-place discrimination in some police forces but it is publicized more than ever before.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was constituted to address the Residential Schools debacle. There has been an official apology and over $1.6 billion paid out to over 78,000 survivors.

There is a commission taking nationwide testimony on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.

Drinking water, health care and educational issues are being addressed with more action than when the Conservatives held the Federal government for ten years.

Racial profiling and discrimination against people of color and indigenous people by police in Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Toronto and a number of other places are getting public review and scrutiny.

There was little official segregation compared to the US but Canadians are increasingly realizing that there was and is a lot more discrimination than previously acknowledged.

[DownriverDem]

12. 3% Indigenous

A recent DNA test showed that I am 3% indigenous person going back to the late 1600s when my folks came to Canada. We are considered Metis meaning European and indigenous.

[riverbendviewgal]

4. Beautiful, eh.

Canadians have the courage to own up to wrongs done.
They can say sorry, eh.

[TheDebbieDee]

5. Canadians are also smart enough

To NOT keep repeating their mistakes...

[luvtheGWN]

10. Well, we do place great emphasis on education....

including history. You know, so we don't repeat it.

But all is not perfect in the Great White North (White stands for snow, not for skin colour, BTW). As has been said, we "immigrants" have a great deal to answer for in our long history of treating the indigenous, or, as they are now called, First Nations peoples. No, our immigrant ancestors didn't kill them in range wars, but our politicians decided they should be set apart in reservations, and their offspring sent to white-run (and often Catholic) residential schools, where they were treated very, very badly. And in certain areas of the GWN, we still have officers of the law who haven't thought that missing indigenous girls and women were worthy of serious investigation.
Lots to make up for, and I can confidently say that the vast majority of Canadians are eager to set things right.

[DownriverDem]

11. Look longingly

Way to go! What a great tribute. I love Canada. My roots on my father's side are French Canadian going back to the late 1600s. I work across the Detroit River from Windsor Ontario. We have Canadians working at our law firm. If only the US could be more like Canada in the way folks are treated including their universal health insurance.

[Scurrilous]

13. K&R