It’s been called a defining moment in race relations in Montreal.
Fifty years ago, a group of students staged a protest at Concordia University, then known as Sir George Williams University.
Black students, claiming discrimination, organized what became the largest student occupation in Canadian history – ending with 97 arrests, and for one protest organizer – jail.
Now lauded for being a cultural mecca, there are very few students at Concordia who can relate to – or even know about – this difficult chapter in the school’s history.
The beginning
It all began in January 1969, when students alleged a professor marked non-white students more harshly than whites – claims they say, at the time, went ignored by the university.
As a result, they staged an anti-racism demonstration occupying the computer lab on the 9th floor of the Hall Building.
In the United States, Martin Luther King had been assassinated the year prior. At Sir George, black students were tired of being treated as second class citizens.
Philippe Fils-Ame was a community activist at the time.
“The scientific community had their stamp on it, and said this is how blacks are inferior,” he explained. “It took them a long time to say ‘well, it’s not exactly like that.’”
Rodney John was also there, and felt that change – perhaps – could begin at the university level.
“Racism was part and parcel of the experience living in Montreal,” John said. “There were various movements, all which addressed the question of the place of blacks in the larger society.”
The breakdown
The protest was peaceful while student leaders negotiated with the faculty about creating a panel to discuss racism allegations.
The black students were supported by many other groups at the university, but the talks suddenly broke down.
“We were stunned – like totally destabilized,” Fils-Ame explained. “Suddenly we see the police walk in, and we knew that was the end.”
Riot police moved in to remove the protestors occupying the computer centre, and things escalated quickly.
Ninety seven protestors were arrested, damage to the computer lab added up to millions, and Rosie Douglas was charged with mischief after police labelled him the ringleader.
Douglas would go on to serve 18 months in prison before he was deported, in shackles, to his native Dominica.
Meanwhile the professor accused of marking black students more harshly than whites, Perry Anderson, was ultimately exonerated.
“It was sobering to recognize the idealism that supposedly surrounded the institution and the members of the institution was flawed,” John added.
Lessons learned
Today, many students at Concordia feel it’s shameful that so many young people have not heard of the Sir George riot.
“If we think back to that moment, that might have been Canada’s first meaningful test of what it is to be a multicultural society,” explained Nalini Mohabir, an assistant professor at the university.
As much as things have improved, many people who were at the Sir George riot say there’s still work to be done.
“The lesson is that we make progress in small increments, and sometimes we go backwards,” John said. “But always, the fight has to be engaged.”
