Inaugural Order of Hamilton honour for community leader
February 6, 2020
Completing Evelyn Myrie’s nomination form for the inaugural Order of Hamilton was quite an ordeal for Deborah Barfknecht.
“When you look at all she has done in the community, her imprint is on so many things that it is so hard to leave out all that she has accomplished,” the lawyer said. “In the end, I got it down to four pages and that was still quite a handful for the committee.”
Myrie and nine other Hamiltonians were honoured with the port city’s newest award of merit at Mayor Fred Eisenberger’s New Year’s Levee at City Hall.
“These ten individuals have dedicated their time and efforts to the betterment of our community and deserve to be recognized and celebrated,” he said.
Mayor Fred Eisenberger hangs the medal around Evelyn Myrie’s neck
In 1974, Myrie and five of her sisters left Jamaica to join their mother in Windsor.
Deloris Samuels, who is 87 and was at the awards ceremony, came to Canada four years earlier under the West Indian Domestic Scheme that paved the way for a quota of about 280 Caribbean women to enter Canada annually. They were subsequently granted landed immigrant status in return for their services.
Graduating with a Mass Communications degree from the University of Windsor in 1984, Myrie was employed with Women Working for Immigrant Women that set her on a path as a women’s equity and immigrant issues advocate and an active community participant.
She relocated to Hamilton in 1989 to take up a job offer with the Status of Women Canada (SWC).
Barfknecht met Myrie in Windsor while pursuing Law studies at the southwestern Ontario city law school.
“Everyone out there talked about the good work Evelyn was doing with in the community, particularly when it came to women issues,” she said. “When I came to Hamilton in 1990, she was with the Status of Women and she had all of these committees that were assisting newcomers and dealing with issues of race. She gives so much of herself to the community and in so doing has made Hamilton a much better place.”
In her 18 years with SWC, Myrie administered government-funded programs at the regional level with a budget of over $1.5 million, provided strategic and technical advice to equity-seeking groups and developed and supported action and innovation to advance women’s equality in Canadian communities.
The first Black woman to chair Hamilton’s Status of Women sub-committee also successfully lobbied City Hall to create a non-sexist language policy that triggered the change from aldermen to councillors and led the effort to successfully conduct Hamilton’s first women’s safety audit which resulted in the city’s adoption of policies and processes to improve designs to enhance women's safety in public spaces.
Deborah Barfknecht nominated Evelyn Myrie for the Order of Hamilton
The John Holland Awards, which is Hamilton’s Black community gift to celebrate the city’s 150th anniversary in 1996, was conceptualized in Myrie’s living room.
Born on Christmas Day 1882 to a runaway slave who came to Ontario through the Underground Railroad in 1860, Holland was a railway porter for 33 years, the pastor at the historic Stewart Memorial Church and the first Black Canadian to be honoured for humanitarian service with Hamilton’s Citizen of the Year Award in 1953. He died a year later.
“While a small group of us were putting together the event to acknowledge and recognize the Black community’s contribution to Hamilton, Ray Johnson brought up the name John Holland, saying he was a tremendous leader,” said Myrie who chaired the defunct African Canadian Legal Aid Clinic in Toronto. “Never hearing the name before, we did our research and discovered that Holland was a gem in our community that needed to be recognized.”
Johnson was a retired university professor, former Edmonton Eskimos linebacker, McMaster University wrestling and football coach, Western and McMaster Universities Hall of Fame inductee and the 2005 Hamilton Citizen of the Year. He died in October 2006 at age 73.
Hamiltonians and other Ontarians who have made significant contributions in the arts, business, community service and youth engagement have been annually recognized with awards bearing Holland’s name.
As the Director of Peel Newcomer Strategy Group for three years, Myrie led the creation of an immigrant settlement strategy for the region and developed strategic partnerships with stakeholders that resulted in the establishment of a new settlement delivery model.
She also was the Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion Executive Director for 41 months. In that role, she and her team designed and implemented a series of public education anti-oppression campaigns, created interactive diversity and inclusion sessions and organized Hamilton’s first Diversity Conference in 2013.
A Hamilton Spectator newspaper columnist since 2000 and one of the catalysts behind the formation of the African Canadian Action Congress, Myrie launched EMpower Strategy Group seven years ago. The privately-owned business provides leadership and capacity building consulting services to government, community-based organizations and individuals that help translate their vision into action.
“Evelyn immediately embarked upon community building work in her new home when she came to Hamilton 31 years ago and she continues to play a leadership role in social development, arts and culture with a strong focus on improving the well-being of newcomers, racialized Hamiltonians and women in the city,” Barfknecht added.
Basil Rodney said Myrie, who was his neighbour in Martha Brae located in Trelawany on Jamaica’s north coast, has a heart of gold.
“I have known Evelyn for over 50 years and she has always been a giving person,” the financial adviser noted.
Longtime friends Evelyn Myrie & Basil Rodney
They graduated from William Knibb Memorial High School which is Usain Bolt’s alma mater.
Event planner and storyteller Sandra Whiting and Myrie have been friends for several years.
Evelyn Myrie (l) & Sandra Whiting
“Evelyn is a mover and shaker and it’s good she’s getting this recognition,” added Whiting.
