Katherine Laidlaw, National Post · Monday, Aug. 9, 2010
Nova Scotia, trying to discard its reputation among some blacks as Mississippi of the North, is facing a new racial flashpoint: a group of white families were given keys to a private road in a predominantly black area, while black residents were not.
The clash comes as Nova Scotia authorities made significant efforts to improve race relations this year, including a posthumous provincial apology and pardon to Viola Desmond, a black woman convicted for sitting in a white-only section of a movie theatre in 1946, and a Halifax city hall apology for the razing of Africville in the 1960s.
But Nova Scotia has been struck by a series of high-profile racial incidents, including a cross-burning on the front lawn of an interracial couple in Hants County; allegations of systemic racial profiling by Halifax Regional Police; a racially charged fight at a Halifax-area high school that sent students to both hospital and jail; and arsonists burning the Black Loyalist Heritage Society in Shelburne in 2006.
Monday’s conflict centred around the main road leading into North Preston, a longtime black community, and a detour caused by bridge repair.
A crowd of about 50 residents blocked traffic at a detour entrance, waving signs reading “Black or white, we can all go around” and “Equality is a two-way street.”
Lake Major Road is closed and residents of the 3,700-large town have to take a 7.6 kilometre detour between the community and the main highway. Ten white families who live in nearby Lake Major, however, have access to a private, padlocked dirt road behind the Grandview Golf and Country Club. They’ve been given keys to the road, which is also a detour but cuts the drive down by two kilometres. The Ernst family, which owns two of the 10 homes, also owns part of the private road along with the golf club.
“We weren’t able to get access to [the road], it was only 10 certain families. We don’t feel that it’s right,’’ said Neville Provo, a 46-year-old North Preston resident who organized Monday's protest. ‘‘It’s a lot of uncertainties with the HRM and the track record is not good.’’
Memories of Africville, a black community near downtown that was bulldozed in the 1960s, still echo through the province. Mr. Provo said excluding the rest of the community from the road is the last in a long string of communication breakdowns between the black community and the Halifax Regional Municipality. “[The community] is the last to know what the HRM plans are. We want to be consulted on things that are going on,” he said.
David Hendsbee, who grew up in the area and has been councillor for nearly seven years, insists the allegations of racism are misguided.
He negotiated the road access, and said the primary reason for ensuring road access is for emergency vehicles. The geography of the community would also mean an 11-kilometre detour for the ten families. The owners agreed to allow the ten families to use the road after they signed personal waivers releasing the owners from liability. The road, which is one-lane and goes through a wooded area, will also be used by emergency vehicles in the interim and $40,000 was spent by the city for necessary road upgrades.
“It was just a courtesy the property owner extended. They happen to be white. But no matter who lived in those houses, they would have got a key,” Mr. Hendsbee said, adding the community is using this point to lobby for other issues, including road paving and electrical problems.
Carol Aylward, a professor of law at Dalhousie University who has written a book about Canadian race relations, said on Monday it doesn’t matter whether anyone intended to discriminate against the residents of North Preston.
“In Canada, the definition of discrimination or racism is not based on intent. They didn’t intend that only white people get keys. In this particular instance, the impact is that 90% or more of black people in that area did not get a key. The effect to the people who are impacted by it is: we are excluded,” she said.
Racism in Nova Scotia isn’t necessarily unique, she says, just more pronounced than elsewhere in Canada. “The whole issue of racism in Nova Scotia is founded on our history. Our history is the history of slavery and colonialism.”
Prof. Aylward said she has been frustrated with government response to the incidents of the past several years. “I think Nova Scotia, like Canada generally and probably more so here, politically has always been to negate the existence of any kind of racism or discrimination in the country. What we’re seeing are cosmetic responses to a very deep problem,” Ms. Aylward said. “I think there ought to be a dialogue. I think that’s one thing Nova Scotians have often shied away from.”
Irvine Carvery, who lived in Africville for five years as a child, said he thinks progress is being made; The province’s lieutenant-governor, Mayann Francis, is black, and hundreds of whites demonstrated against the cross-burning.
Mr. Carvery, president of the Africville Genealogy Society and chair of the Halifax Regional School Board, said sometimes people are quick to point out there’s racial motives when none exist because of the area’s painful history. “I’m positive there was no intent to say, ‘OK, all the folks that are black can’t do it and all the folks that are white can do it’,” he said. “There still are pockets. There still are people with sick attitudes. For the most part, I think the people of Nova Scotia have come a long way.”
klaidlaw@nationalpost.com