Order of Ontario for Elise Harding-Davis, Armand LaBarge, Dr. Angela Cooper Brathwaite & George Chuvalo
December 22, 2022
Invited to participate in an interview for a Windsor Art Gallery project, historian Elise Harding-Davis showed up with a suitcase full of photos, files, documents and news clippings.
“They contained not only Essex County Black history material, but also Ontario and Canadian Black history,” remembered Donna Paris who conducted the interview for the 2017 video installation, ‘The Windsor Project’, which chronicles the history and experiences of African Canadians in the southwestern Ontario city.
The film is now part of the gallery’s permanent collection.
That first meeting left a lasting impression on Paris who nominated Harding-Davis for the Order of Ontario.
“Elise has a wealth of information and she has made it her life’s mission to ensure that all Canadians, not just Black Canadians, know about the history, experiences, struggles and triumphs of Black Canadians,” said the co-producer of ‘I am Black History’. “She often says ‘I will talk to one person, I will talk to a thousand people in order to get our stories and our voices out into the world’. She is well respected for the work she has done and continues to do.”
Harding-Davis received the province’s highest award on November 21 at the Royal Ontario Museum.
“I am honoured,” the mother of three daughters who was born and raised in Windsor said. “I have put in many years of hard work to uplift and dignify African-Canadians and our history. This recognition provides me the impetus to keep going, as I do not intend to rest on my laurels. There was a time when Blackness meant subservient or even invisibility. Things have changed, but there is still more to be done.”
Harding-Davis has every reason to be proud of her heritage.
Her family has been in Canada since 1798 and her great great-grandfather was a slave in Missouri where he was born in 1823.
In 1961, her father – Morris Harding was a Master Electrical contractor who passed away in 1989 – did installations at Parliament Building in Ottawa. He also trained his daughter, Shelley-Lynne Harding-Smith, who was Canada’s first Black female master electrician.
She passed away three years ago at age 64.
“Our parents were mentors in the community, they held us to a high standard and they always reinforced that our Blackness is important,” said Harding-Davis who was the recipient of the Ontario Historical Society Carnochan Award in 2016. “I was allowed to be who I am and my father always told me, ‘I don’t care a damn what you do, but you better be the best at it’. If he were alive today, he would say the Order of Ontario is no more than you should have gotten as you have worked hard, but you still have much more to do. When I was about 11, I got 110 per cent (the extra 10 per cent was a bonus) and I was so excited when I got home. Mom was very pleased, but dad said ‘that is what you should have gotten’.”
Morris Harding was also a Golden Gloves Boxing champion who served with the Royal Regiment of Canada. He and his wife Ruth, who died in 1991, operated an electrical business for nearly four decades.
Last year, the House of Commons voted unanimously to officially designate August 1 Emancipation Day.
While acknowledging this is a step in the right direction, Harding-Davis said the gesture is lacking.
Elise Harding-Davis (Photo contributed)
She has written four letters to Canadian Prime Ministers seeking an apology for slavery in Canada, the last in June 2020 to Justin Trudeau being the only one that the office has acknowledged receiving.
Harding-Davis, who this year was among 100 Black Canadian women celebrated for changing their communities, plans send a fifth letter soon.
“I am very persistent because the Black thread in Canada’s tapestry built this country,” she pointed out. “Through slavery, we gave free access to other cultures to come here and become comfortable as Canadians. We are owed that.”
The author of ‘The Black Presence in the War of 1812’ that uncovers incredible stories of Black military volunteers in North America, Harding-Davis said the absence of Blacks involvement in promotions to mark the 200th anniversary in 2012 was the impetus for writing the book.
Comprising free and enslaved Black men, the Coloured Corps was established in Upper Canada where enslavement had been limited in 1793.
The Curator/Administrator of the North American Black Historical Museum for 32 years until 2004, Harding-Davis taught the first Black Studies course at St. Clair College in 1993 and served as Executive Administrator at Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital in Windsor for six years.
Granted membership to the Order of Ontario also are Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario Immediate Past President Dr. Angela Cooper Brathwaite, retired York Regional Police Service (YRPS) Chief Armand LaBarge and five-time Canadian heavyweight boxing champion George Chuvalo.
LaBarge said the investment into the Order is very humbling.
“I owe a debt of gratitude to a lot of people, particularly my wife of 39 years, Denise,” he said. “Anything and everything that I have accomplished in my life is because of her.”
Meeting when he was a Detective and she a Cadet working in Richmond Hill, they were the first YRPS married couple.
Armand & Denise LaBarge (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
The former Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police President embraces equity and diversity and was a major catalyst for change as Chief before retirement in 2011, ensuring that the Service reflects the diverse community it serves.
Under his watch, Robertson Rouse was elevated to Superintendent in 2008, making him YRPS’s highest ranking Black officer (he is now a Deputy Chief), Keith Merith, Chris Bullen, Andre Crawford (all retired) and Ricky Veerappan (he is a Superintendent) were promoted to Inspectors and Joan Randle (retired) became the Service’s first Black female Staff Sergeant.
While at York University pursuing Canadian and Multicultural Studies in the late 1980s, LaBarge was introduced to the late Dr. Varpu Lindstrom who was considered an expert in Canadian Immigration History.
“She was a big influence on my life in terms of me appreciating diversity and inclusion,” said the recipient of a Jamaica Canadian Association Community Service Award in 2010 and a Harry Jerome Award for Diversity two years later.
“I took five courses in the then Multiculturalism Studies program and was the first recipient of the Multicultural Studies Certificate. That program really gave me an appreciation of how important immigration and diversity are to Canada. Then I had the opportunity to work in a community where I got to experience the changing face of Canada every day. I got to work with groups that, initially, were reluctant to work with the police. Once we showed them we were interested in working with them to keep the community safe, they embraced us as a partner.”
Leaving Trinidad & Tobago in 1975, Cooper Brathwaite was the only racialized woman and midwife delivering babies in isolated communities across northeast Newfoundland & Labrador between 1979 and 1981.
She persevered, moved to Ontario and dedicated her life to improving healthcare.
The Ontario Tech University Associate Graduate Faculty member and nursing education leader co-chairs the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario Black Nurses Task Force to address anti-Black racism in the nursing profession.
Dr. Angela Cooper Brathwaite (Photo contributed)
Cooper Brathwaite also helped launched the Healthy Babies Healthy Children program, a collaboration between hospital maternity units and public health to promote nursing education and improve women and children’s health.
Chuvalo, Canada’s greatest heavyweight boxer, was as tough as they come.
The 85-year-old was never knocked down in an illustrious 22-year professional career in which he won 73 – 64 by knockout -- of his 93 fights and went the distance twice with the late Muhammad Ali, considered the greatest fighter of all-time.
Chuvalo, who is suffering from dementia, endured a lot of pain outside the ring.
George Chuvalo (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
The two-time world heavyweight title challenger and 1998 Order of Canada inductee lost two sons to drug overdoses and his first wife and another son committed suicide.
The Order of Ontario recognizes exceptional leaders from diverse fields of endeavour whose impact and lasting legacy have played an important role in building a stronger province, country and world.
Ontario’s Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Dowdeswell, who is also the Chancellor of the Order, said the appointees have made a difference in many ways.
“Your stories are inspirational,” she said. “You have discovered and created opportunities for yourselves and others and you have found positive and effective ways of giving back.”
Since its establishment in 1986, a total of 822 Ontarians have been appointed to the Order.
