A message to the Laurier community for Black History Month

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Dear Laurier community,

February 2026 marks an important 30-year milestone in the Canadian celebration of Black History Month. Following a motion by the Hon. Jean Augustine, with wide support from members of Canada’s Black communities, Canada officially recognized Black History Month in December 1995.  

This year, we are encouraged to reflect on the theme of “30 Years of Black History Month: Honouring Black Brilliance Across Generations — From Nation Builders to Tomorrow’s Visionaries.” The notion of “Black brilliance,” rather than a mere suggestion of Black singularity and exceptionality, acknowledges the remarkable adaptability, creativity, imagination, inventiveness and resourcefulness of ordinary Black Canadians who, since the 17th century, have found a way to build family and community under conditions that have made their very survival difficult.  

National historical narratives often focus on those who have achieved great military accomplishments or demonstrated political leadership. However messy this history of conquest and settlement, Black people in Canada can and must be numbered among these leaders (Sir James Douglas and Victoria Cross recipient William Hall, for example). 

But what also of the formerly enslaved Africans who had the foresight and political acuity to fight alongside the British during the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, in campaigns for their own freedom and the freedom of their generations?  

And what of the Caribbean women who had the courage to leave their families to work in Canada as domestic servants during the 1950s or teachers during the 1960s, empowering white women to work outside the home and addressing crucial labour shortages? 

Some of these women went on to distinguish themselves in Canadian political and social life (the Hon. Jean Augustine) but many others quietly mentored and founded the next generations of Black scholars and intellectuals, writers, politicians and business leaders. In short, they created the means by which Black brilliance would become deeply embedded in Canadian society.  

This year, Laurier’s Office of the Associate Vice President: Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (AVP: EDI) is pleased to support two annual flagship events focused on “tomorrow’s visionaries": the Beating the Odds Conference (BTO) and Black Brilliance Elementary Conference. 

BTO is a longstanding student-led initiative organized by the Black Student Association at Laurier’s Waterloo campus, with support from the Centre for Student Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, Dean of Students Office, and Alumni and Community Engagement. It is an all-day conference that, for more than 20 years, hosted high school students at Laurier to help facilitate their access to postsecondary education and inspire them to follow their passions through educational, motivational and skill-building programming.  

The Black Brilliance Elementary Conference is a partnership with the Waterloo Region District School Board, Tshepo Institute  and Office of the AVP: EDI. The conference connects African, Caribbean and Black-identifying elementary students with Laurier’s faculty, staff and students, helping to foster a sense of belonging and representation and promote a university environment that is accessible and welcoming.  

In addition, our second event in the 2025-2026 Lamine Diallo EDI Speaker Series, “Black Intellectual Life and the Post-EDI University,” will take place on March 5 from 2:30 to 4 p.m. This year’s series explores how Black scholars are situated within Canadian universities and why the research they do is critical for the contemporary global world. “Black Intellectual Life and the Post-EDI University” will bring together a panel of Black scholars across multiple disciplines from the Universities of Waterloo, Laurier and McMaster University to think about these and other questions. Refusing the idea that knowledge can be contained within the discrete borders of individual universities, these scholars will gather as an act of Black intellectual community to consider what it means to teach and do research in a shifting social, political and academic landscape. 

The panel of Black thinkers includes Naila Keleta Mae: Canada Research Chair in Race, Gender and Performance, University of Waterloo; Dalon Taylor, Faculty of Social Work, Laurier; Maurita Harris, User Experience Design, Laurier; moderator Shaunasea Brown, Communication Studies, Laurier; and respondent Alpha Abebe, Humanities, McMaster University. This hybrid event is a partnership between Laurier’s Lamine Diallo EDI Speaker Series, the Tshepo Institute and Laurier’s Office of the AVP: EDI, in collaboration with the University of Waterloo’s Pan-African Initiative for Research, the University of Waterloo’s Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Anti-Racism, and the Black Researchers of Southwestern Ontario. 

As we pause in various ways to celebrate Black history and the ongoing contributions and cultures of Black peoples in Canada and globally, let’s celebrate all their brilliance in February and beyond. 

Andrea A. Davis, PhD 
Associate Vice President: Equity, Diversity and Inclusion