TMU welcomes the Honourable Jean Augustine for STEADFAST documentary screening

“I had to make my own path…I have always been able to speak truth to whoever is before me…I get my point across so that there is no mistake that you're talking to a Black woman, a proud Black woman,” said the Honourable Jean Augustine (external link)  during her visit to Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) on March 10, 2025.

The former member of the House of Commons of Canada attended a screening of STEADFAST: The Messenger and the Message (external link) , a documentary by Fahim Hamid Ali, recounting her remarkable life and the legacy of her social and political work. At the event, hosted by the Faculty of Arts, Augustine shared her journey, beginning from the tender care of her grandmother in St. George’s, Grenada to Parliament Hill in Ottawa.

An unmistakable trailblazer, Augustine was Canada’s first African-Canadian female Member of Parliament. During her extensive career, Augustine chaired the Metro Toronto Housing Authority, the Foreign Affairs and International Trade Committee, the Human Rights Committee and the National Women’s Caucus, served as Parliamentary Secretary and the Minister of Multiculturalism and was appointed the first-ever Fairness Commissioner for the Province of Ontario. Augustine has received numerous honours, including the Order of Canada and Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Her advocacy work continues to advance education and social justice in various sectors. 

Following the screening of STEADFAST, Augustine participated in a Q&A session moderated by Creative School alumna Chelsi Campbell, during which she reflected on the pivotal moments that shaped and compelled her grassroots efforts.

A young Jean Augustine was teaching social sciences in Toronto—after immigrating from Grenada through the West Indian Domestic Scheme (external link) —when she was confronted with a striking historical absence. Black Canadian History was not an incomplete chapter in the curriculum, it was a complete erasure marked only by fragments of African American history tucked into the margins of textbooks. Not only were Black diasporic communities missing from the narrative, Augustine recalled an absence of Indigenous histories from the pages she read and taught in the classroom. “I came here as an immigrant,” Augustine reflected, “and did not know anything about treaties and rights, the Crown and the arrangements with the Indigenous people or residential schools.”

The absence of Black and Indigenous histories in the school curriculum echoed their absence in politics and positions of authority. Augustine recalled being one of the few, if not the first, to occupy many of the positions she held. While confronted with the complex challenges that arose out of being the ‘first,’ Augustine remembered her efforts did not only reflect personal strides but were an opportunity to transform the spaces she was in, reverberating change from within the Chambers out to communities.

Through her resilience and determination, Augustine made historic changes, including securing unanimous legislative support in designating February as Black History Month in Canada and erecting the only statue featuring women on Parliament Hill, the Famous Five Monument. The legacy of her labour lives on in the Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community & Diaspora, supporting the education, wellbeing, and advancement of Black youth, among numerous other initiatives supporting diverse communities across Canada. 

While sharing stories about her formative beginnings, Augustine frequently recalled the encouragement of other women in her community back home in Grenada and the support of colleagues and friends around her, including a former teacher colleague who was in attendance at the event. Reflecting on the figures who influenced her journey, Augustine remarked, “I take inspiration from the life of Harriet Tubman, that commitment, tenacity, but also fearlessness and courage to…continue going back again and again, and again.”  

Augustine’s persistence shattered the expectations of who she, a young daughter of the Caribbean, was to become. Her unwavering determination, whether advocating for her seat at the table or championing the inclusion of others in her community, has garnered national and international recognition and impact.

A young Augustine, once told she was unqualified to pursue higher education in Canada, received numerous honourary doctorates for her life’s work, including from TMU 2019. Her steadfastness—in the face of skepticism and scorn—bore new possibilities, a present in which TMU can proudly proclaim, “Black Studies Lives Here.” Augustine’s presence and powerful words were testaments of  transformational leadership and community-driven change. Importantly, Augustine reminds us, the work is not yet finished.