Race, Slavery and Justice: A Justice System Case Study

We do not have to look far today in Canada to see the legacies of slavery in their full effect. One of these legacies is the way in which we have chosen to forget slavery, or perhaps to deny it, and to create a different narrative. “Slavery is Canada’s best-kept secret, locked within the national closet,” asserts Afua Cooper. Ask many Canadians about the history of slavery in Canada and they will talk about the Underground Railroad. This is what many of us learned in school, that slavery existed in America, not in Canada, and that Canada’s heroic, romantic role in that slavery story was to welcome escaping “slaves” from America to freedom in Canada. While there was an “Underground Railroad,” and while it was used to help enslaved persons escape from the U.S. to Canada, that is only a part of our slavery story.