LLoyd McKell was passionate about educational equity

June 21, 2023

Very few did more to advance educational equity in the city’s public school system than Lloyd McKell in his 35 years with the Toronto District School Board (TDSB).

He died of cancer on June 11 at age 78.

McKell was diagnosed in December 2021.

“Even though he knew it could be terminal, he never feared,” said Queen’s Royal College (QRC) classmate Ian Jones at a celebration of McKell’s life on June 17. “He fought like the warrior he was. When advised a few months ago there was no further medical intervention, he was disappointed, but he did not dwell on the bad news. He said, ‘Sam, I have lost it and it is on to the next stage’. He had one request for us and it is that we mourn for him as we wish, but do not dwell on it because he lived a full and beautiful life.”

In a distinguished career with Canada’s largest school board, McKell helped kickstart many initiatives involving parents from diverse communities in the school system and assisted with the development of the Race Relations, International Languages and the Black Cultural Heritage Advisory Committees set up to advise the Board on programs and strategies to meet the needs of racial and cultural minorities.

TDSB Director of Education Colleen Russell-Rawlins said McKell was an absolute titan who opened doors in a time where there were many forces working to keep them shut.

“He was a passionate advocate of community, ensuring equitable outcomes for all families, and in particular confronting anti-Black racism before other people were ready to have the conversations that we are having today,” she said. “His inspiration was the great Nelson Mandela and he modelled himself on the virtues of Mandela, always willing to work with those with opposing viewpoints to find mutual solutions and ensure a better path forward for everybody.  He will be greatly missed and his legacy will live on.”

McKell graduated from Queen’s Royal College in Trinidad where he captained the cricket team.

The off-spinner also represented Maple and taught Latin and Spanish for three years at St. George’s College in Barataria before coming to Canada in 1967 as a Foreign Student.

At the University of Toronto Scarborough campus where he completed undergraduate studies in Economics, McKell met former Ontario Lieutenant Governor David Onley who was running for Student Council President at the time. McKell was the Scarborough Campus International Student Association President.

“That was the beginning of a great friendship,” the late Vice-Regal once said.

After university, McKell was a Program Director with the defunct Harriet Tubman Centre started by high schoolmate Ken Jeffers.

“I asked him to come and be part of the organization and he did,” Jeffers recounted. “That was one of the best experiences I have had in terms of support for the things I have done in the community. I remember having lunch in the city with Isaac Hayes who expressed an interest in coming to the Centre. I called Lloyd who, within a two-hour span, had hundreds of young people waiting to greet Isaac. He was a true friend who was well liked and loved.”

McKell was the first Chair of the Scarborough Black Community Education Committee before joining the city’s school Board in 1976 as a Community Relations Officer.

A decade later, he was elevated to co-ordinate the Community Relations program, a position he held for two years before assuming the role of Community Services Central Co-ordinator.

McKell provided system leadership for parent and community involvement and formulated the Board’s Equity Foundation statement that provides the basis for ensuring fairness, equity and inclusion are essential principles of the public school system and are integrated into the policies, programs, operations and practices.

He also advocated for an Africentric Alternative School long before parents Angela Wilson and Donna Harrow approached the Board in the summer of 2007, requesting they consider the establishment of the school for Black students who were not doing well in the mainstream system.

Lloyd McKell (l) with then school trustee James Pasternak (r), who supported the establishment of the Africentric School, and retired TDSB Superintendent Glenford Duffus (Photo by Ron Fanfair)

The school opened in September 2009.

McKell was the TDSB’s first Executive Officer for Student & Community Equity for nearly five years before his appointment as Senior Advisor to then Education Officer Chris Spence.

With him relentlessly pushing the equity agenda, a non-profit social body in Germany took note and recognized the TDSB in 2008 with the prestigious Bertelsmann Award for its commitment to equity.

As Co-Founder of the Organization of Parents of Black Children (OPBC), Keren Brathwaite and other parents met in November 1995 with the city’s Associate Director of Education to voice their concerns about the high school dropout rate of Black students, the paucity of Black teachers and low expectations for Black students among other things.

That meeting resulted in the formation of a Consultative Committee on the Education of Black Children with McKell serving as the bridge between the community and the school board to ensure that parents and students voices were heard.

Lloyd McKell and Keren Brathwaite who died on June 20 (Photo by Ron Fanfair)

“His gift of communication and empathy made the parent accept him as one of us even though he was representing a Board of Education against which we were pushing for change,” said Brathwaite in 2011.

The co-founder of the University of Toronto’s highly successful Transitional Year Program passed away on June 20.

Former Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne held McKell in high esteem.

They met in the mid-1980s when the mother of three was a parent activist.

Former Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne made a presentation to Lloyd McKell on behalf of the provincial government at his retirement party in 2011 (Photo by Ron Fanfair)

“Lloyd understood the central role of parents in both the education of their own children and then in the life of a healthy functional school board,” she said at his retirement celebration in 2011. “He understood that the best interests of kids were served when the school system and parents were able to consolidate their roles as natural allies because that wasn’t always the case. To do that, he helped us understand that all parents had to have access…He treated all parents and community members as valued and valuable members of the education community and he provided opportunities for us to bring out our talent in the neighbourhood in the broader context of the Board.”

In university, McKell became active in the anti-apartheid movement after meeting exiled South African students.

He chaired the Toronto Arts Against Apartheid Foundation that organized a one-week festival in 1986 featuring late South African Bishop Desmond Tutu on his first visit to the city and Harry Belafonte who was the Festival’s Honourary Chair.

Gordon Cressy, then head of United Way, helped organize the ‘Arts Against Apartheid’ event with members of United Way’s Black Development Committee led by McKell.

“I knew Lloyd for over 50 years,” he said. “He was the guy who got things done while working behind the scene. Remembering his life and how we choose to live will decide its meaning. He has passed on the torch to us. Let us plant more seeds, let us nurture them. We are all the better for knowing him. He always said Nelson Mandela was his hero, but he was mine.”

McKell was a member of the organizing committee that hosted Mandela’s first visit to Canada in June 1990 just four months after the former South African President was released from prison.

He also organized an event at Central Technical High School for TDSB students and teachers to listen to an address by Mandela, co-ordinated the participation of 45,000 students to attend the Mandela & the Children event at SkyDome (now Rogers Centre) in September 1998 and spearheaded the renaming of Park Public School in Regent Park to Nelson Mandela Park Public School.

Mandela attended the renaming ceremony in November 2001, the last of his three visits to Canada.

In 2013, event organizer Joan Pierre took a group of 30 Canadians, including McKell, to South Africa.

They visited Mandela’s house in Soweto where he lived before he was imprisoned, his Johannesburg residence, the prison cell on Robben Island in which he was held for 18 of 27 years and the Groot Drakenstein correctional facility where he spent the final months of his lengthy prison term.

“Lloyd was an invaluable member of the team because he had been to the country before,” Pierre recalled. “Because of his depth of knowledge of South Africa, he was able to put so many things in context for the first-time visitors. He was a kind, caring and respectful human being.”

Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund Canada (NMCFC) co-founder Zeib Jeeva met McKell during the ‘Arts Against Apartheid’ festival.

“I was with Lloyd a few days before his passing and he was in great spirits,” said the International Development & Relief Foundation Board of Directors past chair. “We sat together looking through his photo album of the pictures of his visit to South Africa. I will always remember this. He leaves a profound legacy of equity and inclusion.”

Mark Beckles, a former NMCFC President & Chief Executive Officer, said McKell will be missed.

“Lloyd was fiercely dedicated to social justice issues and fairness in all forms,” said the RBC Vice-President. “He worked across the political spectrum and prioritized others over himself.”

As Co-Chair of the Nelson Mandela Legacy Committee for Canada, McKell was instrumental in a portion of University Ave. between Front St. W. and College St. bearing Mandela’s name.

Always willing to share knowledge and advice, he mentored hundreds of young people, including lawyer Cornell Wright who is the President of Wittington Investments Ltd.

They met in 1990 when Wright was in Grade 11 at North Toronto Collegiate Institute.

More than just a mentor, the former Torys partner for more than a decade said McKell was his role model and sounding board.

“He was all of those things that great teachers should be,” said Wright. “He encouraged students to think, he taught me to give respect to others, he set high standards for me, he instilled in me the value of learning and to speak for those who don’t have a voice and, most of all, he helped me see how much I had to learn. To Lloyd, it didn’t matter who you were. What was important to him was that you had something to say and you had a right to be heard.”

Lloyd McKell (l), Natasha Burford, Karl Subban, Jamea Zuberi, Kurt McIntosh & Yvette Blackburn at an African Heritage Educators' Network community meeting in January 2012 to discuss the crisis with Black boys in the education system (Photo by Ron Fanfair)

Retired educator Lennox Borel and McKell were neighbours in Belmont located at the foot of Laventille Hills.

“I am a bit older than him, but we really connected in Toronto,” he pointed out. “Lloyd was bright, quiet, unassuming and someone who cared about people and the education of Black children.”

After retirement 12 years ago, McKell joined the ROMEO (Retired Old Men Eating Out) club comprising mainly Trinidad & Tobago nationals who graduated from Canadian universities and excelled in various professions.

“The only requirement to join the club is that you have to be retired,” added Borel. “We get together once a month at a restaurant and would reminisce over lunch. Lloyd was an integral part of that club and we will miss him.”

McKell – who loved cooking, bird watching and spending time in Silhouettes pan yard -- is survived by his wife, Charlotte Smith, and five children.

He also leaves to mourn five siblings, including elder brother Elliot ‘Ducky’ McKell who came from Trinidad for the funeral.

“You may not be able to build a statue for him or name a street after him,” he said. “But try your best to get that book into the library and the Africentric School.”

McKell’s autobiography was self-published last year.