Harry Jerome Lifetime Achievement Award for Joe Halstead

May 4, 2022

Nothing in Joe Halstead’s early life suggested he would be exceptional, much less achieve a Lifetime Achievement Award.

He did not attend high school in Jamaica because his single mother, who was also raising two other sons, could not afford to pay tuition. Even if she was willing, her youngest child did not have the required grades.

Growing up in the challenging Jones Town community without a father he never met, Halstead looked up to Arthur Bethune who ran the boys’ club that was part of the YMCA.

He becomes very emotional when speaking about the role the ‘father figure’ played in his early upbringing before the family migrated.

“When I wasn’t doing well in school, he assured me I could do better,” Halstead, choking back tears, said after being honoured at the 40th annual Harry Jerome Awards (HJA) on April 30. “He rewarded me if I did something good and that really stuck with me. He just took a likeness to me. I guess it is that inspiration and having someone, beside my mother, who really cared that motivated me. When I told him my mom was taking me to England, his response was, ‘Good’, and then he told me about the opportunities I would be exposed to and I should make full use of them. I remember those things.”

Arriving in England as a 17-year-old at the end of the Windrush generation, he assumed he would get a job as he embarked on a new life.

Unable to work because he did not serve an apprenticeship, Halstead’s mom enrolled him in a technical college.

“For some reason, my life changed,” he noted. “I had no friends and was lonely, so I had no other option but to read and take my schoolwork seriously. When I turned 20, I got into UWE’s Bristol’s International College that offers pathway courses.”

After six years, Halstead and his wife of 51 years, Norma, who was a nurse practitioner, came to Canada in 1967.

Joe Halstead and his wife Norma with their daughter Tricia Banfield (l), son-in-law Michael Banfield and grand daughters Ava & Alicia Banfield (Photo by Ron Fanfair)

Starting out in Nova Scotia, Halstead proofread for a weekly newspaper in Kentville before moving to the Greater Toronto Area a year later.

“We did not have much of a social circle and I had become aware of friends in Toronto who encouraged me to come and join them,” he said. “I came and was seeking a job similar to the one I had in Nova Scotia.”

Fortunately, the Globe & Mail hired him as a junior proofreader to work the night shift. After two years, he wrote the Civil Service exam and was successful.

“Very early in my life, working in the Foreign Service was at the back of my mind,” said Halstead who completed a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science & Economics at York University. “I met a few of them who seemed to be living good lives. When I got to Toronto, I inquired about that and was told I had to take the Civil Service exam. A few weeks later, I got a call from the Ontario government to come in. They were just revamping the Queen’s Printer that holds Crown copyright in the province.”

Two weeks after beginning his new role, the Foreign Service offered him a job that he turned down.

In 24 years with the provincial government, Halstead worked in five Ministries and held several management roles, rising to the position of Assistant Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Culture, Tourism & Recreation.

As Ontario’s Director of Sport & Recreation, Halstead met Jerome in Ottawa at a Ministers’ of Sport & Recreation conference in 1981. In a room of about 40 national sports administrators, they were the only Blacks.

“Because of his profile, everybody wanted to meet Harry,” said the former North York Parks, Recreation & Culture Commissioner and first person to hold that role in the city when amalgamation took place in 1998. “He was a very up front guy who compelled an audience to listen to him. He was not shy about making his views known.”

In 1983, Halstead attended the inaugural HJA as an Ontario government representative.

He was also the province’s point man on three bids to bring the Olympic Games to Toronto and Vice-Chair of the of the bid committee that secured Toronto as the host city for the 2015 Pan Am Games.

Halstead also played a key role in helping Toronto land a National Basketball Association (NBA) franchise.

In 1993, John Bitove Jr. and Alain Slaight were awarded a franchise on condition that the province remove basketball wagering on the Pro-Line sports lottery. When Bitove spoke to the government about the NBA demand, then Premier Bob Rae reminded him that hoops netted about $20 million annually for Ontario’s taxpayers and the province wasn’t going to give that money up.

To find a compromise, Rae formed a committee comprising his New Democratic Party Special Adviser David Reville, Toronto lawyer Larry Bertuzzi and Halstead who was the province’s Assistant Deputy Minister to meet with then NBA Commissioner David Stern.

With a February 14, 1994 deadline looming, a compromise agreement with the NBA was struck four days earlier.

Halstead, who also spent a decade with the City of Toronto, serving as Commissioner of Economic Development, Culture & Tourism for eight years, was the Executive Lead for the World Youth Day Conference and the Pope’s visit in 2002 and former Chair of Ontario Place Corporation.

The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for four years of the Festival Management Committee created by the City of Toronto to run the annual Caribbean Carnival, he also served on the Premier’s Roundtable on Volunteerism, the Toronto Community Foundation, Canada Games Council, the Inter-Provincial Lottery Corporation, the Toronto Economic Development Corporation, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Team Up Foundation, Metrolinx Corporation and Regional Transportation Authority.

Joe Halstead with Duke Swaby (l), Keith Lyons and Tim Escoffery (r) at a golf fundraiser in September 2014 (Photo by Ron Fanfair)

An avid golfer, Halstead and his wife have a daughter and two grandchildren. They lost a daughter to leukemia at age 16.

Winning a Harry Jerome Award, he said, is special.

“The difference between the many other accolades I have received and the Harry Jerome Award is that this is granted by the community and recognizes the fact that you have done some worthy things,” he said. “That is distinctive and means a lot to me.”

Barbados PM Mia Mottley (Photo by Ron Fanfair)

Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley was presented with the first International Leader Award.

“The addition of this award is an exciting moment as it makes the Harry Jerome Awards a truly global endeavor,” said Black Business & Professional Association (BBPA) Interim President Ross Cadastre.

BBPA Interim President Ross Cadastre & his wife Effery Cadasse (Photo by Ron Fanfair)

Amaka Umeh, who in 2020 made history as the first Black woman to play Hamlet at Stratford, was the recipient of the President’s Award.

“There is nothing better than being uplifted by my community,” said the 2019 Dora Award winner. “To be celebrated with this year’s amazing group of winners is quite the honour. It is so important for us to take moments like this to nurture joy and celebrate our accomplishments.”

Amaka Umeh was the recipient of the President’s Award (Photo by Ron Fanfair)

The subject of the 2019 ‘Beyond Moving’ documentary that follows his journey from Zolani in South Africa to Canada’s National Ballet School as the company’s youngest principal, Siphe November is still trying to come to grips with the recognition.

Siphe November won the Harry Jerome Arts Award (Photo by Ron Fanfair)

“It has not fully sunk in yet,” he said. “It feels like a moment to celebrate and take responsibility with my life to inspire others.”

David Simmonds, the Global Chief Communications & Sustainability Officer at Canada Life Assurance Company, said the HJA is a cornerstone recognition.

David Simmonds was the Harry Jerome Leadership Award recipient (Photo by Ron Fanfair)

“It’s a real privilege when your community honours the work that you do as service and acknowledges it as something that helps to drive that community forward,” the 2007 Western University graduate said. “While I have been recognized in other parts of my life, this stands out.”

Receiving the HJA for Professional Excellence, noted Nova Scotia’s Eleanor Beaton, is equivalent to a lifetime honour.

Harry Jerome Professional Excellence Award winner Eleanor Beaton and her husband Len Beaton (Photo by Ron Fanfair)

“To be recognized by my community for decades of work feels extraordinary,” said the women’s business & leadership coach and former Yale School of Management Visiting Women’s Executive Exchange Program Chair. “I am incredibly proud of this award.”

Other HJA winners were Trent Out Loud, Mark Harrison, Navdeep Bains, Cynthia Appiah, David Mitchell and Jonah Chininga.

Trent Out Loud was presented with the Harry Jerome Young Entrepreneur Award (Photo by Ron Fanfair)

Nadine Spencer, the first Chief Executive Officer of the BBPA that administers the HJA, announced that the organization is committed to raising $40 million in the next five years to empower 10,000 Black businesses.

“Not only will the businesses they start help them set their careers in motion, but they will bring jobs, investments and opportunities to our communities and exponentially increase the Black business contribution to the overall Canadian economy,” she added.

BBPA Chief Executive Officer Nadine Spencer with 2021 Harry Jerome Award winner Al Ramsay (l) and his partner Michael Daniels (Photo contributed)

The HJA honour the memory of Jerome who set seven world records in track and field and helped create Canada’s sports ministry. He was slated to be the keynote speaker at a celebration to mark the record performances of Canada’s athletes at the 1982 Commonwealth Games when he died suddenly.

He passed away two days after the decision was made to have him speak.

“We never got the chance to contact Harry,” said BBPA co-founder Hamlin Grange. “After I met with Al (Hamilton) to decide what should be our next move, I suggested we still have the event and call it the Harry Jerome Awards.”

Since its inception, 483 HJA have been presented to individuals and three organizations – Eva’s Initiatives in 2005, Grace Foods Canada in 2019 and Little Jamaica in 2020 – for excellence in myriad fields.

Health administrator Dr. Dominick Shelton (1989 & 2019) and the late Bromley Armstrong (1990 & 2011) and Stan Grizzle (1987 & 2010), who were part of the 29-member delegation led by Donald Moore that went to Ottawa in 1954 to protest the federal government’s restrictive immigration policy that shut out Blacks and other visible minorities, are the only two-time winners.