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The Black Battalion
''The Black Battalion (1916-1920) Canada's best kept military secret'' refers to the 1987 book by Calvin W. Ruck CM about the No. 2 Construction Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force, the only all-black battalion to serve in World War I. The book's main theme is to chronicle the contributions of Black veterans of the Great War (1914-1918), whose military heritage had been forgotten. Ruck served on the Canadian Senate from 1998 to 2000, and has been honoured with the Order of Canada and the Governor General's award. Context Following the reunion of the Black Battalion on November 12–14, 1982 organized by The Society for the Protection and Preservation of Black Culture in Nova Scotia as its first public event, which brought together nine surviving black WWI veterans, Ruck was inspired to delve into their history. Their contributions to the war effort were largely unknown until the publication of this book. Content Ruck provided the context behind the establishment of the seg ...
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Calvin Ruck
Calvin Woodrow Ruck (September 4, 1925 – October 19, 2004) was a human rights activist and a member of the Senate of Canada. He was born in Sydney, Nova Scotia; his parents were immigrants to Canada from Barbados. Ruck's life has been documented in a book entitled ''Winds of Change: Life and Legacy of Calvin W. Ruck'', which was penned by his granddaughter, Lindsay Ruck. Associations and activism He held a number of positions within the Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Coloured People and was a member for most of his adult life. In the 1950s and 1960s, he organized campaigns against businesses in the Dartmouth area, including barber shops, which refused to serve black people. He worked with the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission from 1981 to 1986. He campaigned tirelessly for the Canadian Government to recognize the heroics of Jeremiah Jones during the Battle of Vimy Ridge. Awards *1979: Received diploma from the Maritime School of Social Work at Dalhous ...
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University Of King's College
The University of King's College, established in 1789, is in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.Roper, Henry. "Aspects of the History of a Loyalist College: King's College, Windsor, and Nova Scotian Higher Education in the Nineteenth Century." Anglican and Episcopal History 61 (1991). It is the oldest chartered university in Canada, and the oldest English-speaking university in the Commonwealth outside the United Kingdom. The university is regarded for its Foundation Year Program, a comprehensive and interdisciplinary examination of Western culture through great books, designed for first-year undergraduates. It is also known for its upper-year interdisciplinary programs – particularly its contemporary studies program, early modern studies program, and its history of science and technology program. In addition, the university has a journalism school that attracts students from across the world for its intensive Master of Journalism programs and its Master of Fine Arts in creative ...
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Military History Of Canada
The military history of Canada comprises hundreds of years of armed actions in the territory encompassing modern Canada, and interventions by the Canadian Forces, Canadian military in conflicts and peacekeeping worldwide. For thousands of years, the area that would become Canada was the site of sporadic intertribal conflicts among Aboriginal peoples in Canada, Aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the 17th and 18th centuries, Canada was the site of French and Indian Wars, four colonial wars and two additional wars in Nova Scotia and Acadia between New France and New England; the conflicts spanned almost seventy years, as each allied with various First Nation groups. In 1763, after the final colonial war—the Seven Years' War—the British emerged victorious and the French civilians, whom the British hoped to assimilate, were declared "British Subjects". After the passing of the Quebec Act in 1774, giving the Canadians, Canadians their first charter of rights under the new regime, the B ...
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Black Nova Scotians
Black Nova Scotians (also known as African Nova Scotians and Afro-Nova Scotians) are Black Canadians whose ancestors primarily date back to the Colonial United States as slaves or freemen, later arriving in Nova Scotia, Canada, during the 18th and early 19th centuries. As of the 2021 Census of Canada, 28,220 Black people live in Nova Scotia, most in Halifax. Since the 1950s, numerous Black Nova Scotians have migrated to Toronto for its larger range of opportunities. Before the immigration reforms of 1967, Black Nova Scotians formed 37% of the total Black Canadian population. The first Black person in Nova Scotia, Mathieu da Costa, a Mikmaq interpreter, was recorded among the founders of Port Royal in 1604. West Africans were brought as enslaved people both in early British and French Colonies in the 17th and 18th centuries. Many came as enslaved people, primarily from the French West Indies to Nova Scotia during the founding of Louisbourg. The second major migration of Bl ...
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Captain Runchey's Company Of Coloured Men
Captain Runchey's Company of Coloured Men was a Canadian militia company of free blacks and indentured black servants, raised in Upper Canada as a small Black corps under a white officer, Robert Reuben Runchey (1759–1819), a tavern keeper from Jordan, Upper Canada. The unit fought in several actions during the early part of the Anglo-American War of 1812. In 1813, Runchey's Company was converted into a unit of the Canadian Corps of Provincial Artificers, attached to the Royal Sappers and Miners, in which sappers and miners performed specialized military operations. They served on the Niagara River front during the war, and were disbanded a few months after the war ended. The Company of Coloured Men's military heritage is perpetuated in the modern Canadian Army by the Lincoln and Welland Regiment. Origin The company was formed at the instigation of a black settler in Upper Canada, Richard Pierpoint, who had served as part of Butler's Rangers during the American Revolutionary ...
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Victoria Rifles (Nova Scotia)
The Victoria Rifles was a military unit of black soldiers in Halifax, Nova Scotia, that was established in 1860 in the wake of the Crimean War and on the eve of the American Civil War. It was one of the oldest black units established in Canada. On January 30, 1860, at a meeting of the Victoria Rifles, George Anderson was elected Captain and John H. Symonds (First Lieutenant 2nd Halifax Queen's) elected First Lieutenant. On May 15, 1860, the volunteer companies met at Lieutenant Haliburton's residence to form the Halifax Volunteer Battalion, and a representative of the Victoria Rifles was present. Six companies were chosen for the distinction and five were rejected. The Victoria Rifles company was prevented from becoming part of the Halifax Volunteer Battalion. As an elite Haligonian later observed of the Rifles: “The other companies would not allow them to come near them, to mingle with them, in the event of any united movement rendering it desirable to equalize the companies t ...
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Military History Of Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia (also known as Mi'kma'ki and Acadia) is a Canadian province located in Canada's Maritimes. The region was initially occupied by Mi'kmaq. The colonial history of Nova Scotia includes the present-day Canadian Maritime provinces and the northern part of Maine ( Sunbury County, Nova Scotia), all of which were at one time part of Nova Scotia. In 1763 Cape Breton Island and St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became part of Nova Scotia. In 1769, St. John's Island became a separate colony. Nova Scotia included present-day New Brunswick until that province was established in 1784. (In 1765, the county of Sunbury was created, and included the territory of present-day New Brunswick and eastern Maine as far as the Penobscot River.) During the first 150 years of European settlement, the colony was primarily made up of Catholic Acadians, Maliseet and Mi'kmaq. During the latter seventy-five years of this time period, there were six colonial wars that took place in Nova Sc ...
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Black Canadian
Black Canadians (also known as Caribbean-Canadians or Afro-Canadians) are people of full or partial sub-Saharan African descent who are citizens or permanent residents of Canada. The majority of Black Canadians are of Caribbean origin, though the Black Canadian population also consists of African-American immigrants and their descendants (including Black Nova Scotians) and many native African immigrants. Black Canadians have contributed to many areas of Canadian culture. Many of the first visible minorities to hold high public offices have been Black, including Michaëlle Jean, Donald Oliver, Stanley G. Grizzle, Rosemary Brown, and Lincoln Alexander. Black Canadians form the third-largest visible minority group in Canada, after South Asian and Chinese Canadians. Population According to the 2006 Census by Statistics Canada, 783,795 Canadians identified as Black, constituting 2.5% of the entire Canadian population. Of the black population, 11 per cent identified as mixed-race o ...
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William A
William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of England in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era. It is sometimes abbreviated "Wm." Shortened familiar versions in English include Will, Wills, Willy, Willie, Bill, and Billy. A common Irish form is Liam. Scottish diminutives include Wull, Willie or Wullie (as in Oor Wullie or the play ''Douglas''). Female forms are Willa, Willemina, Wilma and Wilhelmina. Etymology William is related to the given name ''Wilhelm'' (cf. Proto-Germanic ᚹᛁᛚᛃᚨᚺᛖᛚᛗᚨᛉ, ''*Wiljahelmaz'' > German ''Wilhelm'' and Old Norse ᚢᛁᛚᛋᛅᚼᛅᛚᛘᛅᛋ, ''Vilhjálmr''). By regular sound changes, the native, inherited English form of the name shoul ...
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Halifax, Nova Scotia
Halifax is the capital and largest municipality of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of the 2021 Census, the municipal population was 439,819, with 348,634 people in its urban area. The regional municipality consists of four former municipalities that were amalgamated in 1996: Halifax, Dartmouth, Bedford, and Halifax County. Halifax is a major economic centre in Atlantic Canada, with a large concentration of government services and private sector companies. Major employers and economic generators include the Department of National Defence, Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia Health Authority, Saint Mary's University, the Halifax Shipyard, various levels of government, and the Port of Halifax. Agriculture, fishing, mining, forestry, and natural gas extraction are major resource industries found in the rural areas of the municipality. History Halifax is located within ''Miꞌkmaꞌki'' the traditional ancestral lands ...
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Canadian Military History
The military history of Canada comprises hundreds of years of armed actions in the territory encompassing modern Canada, and interventions by the Canadian Forces, Canadian military in conflicts and peacekeeping worldwide. For thousands of years, the area that would become Canada was the site of sporadic intertribal conflicts among Aboriginal peoples in Canada, Aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the 17th and 18th centuries, Canada was the site of French and Indian Wars, four colonial wars and two additional wars in Nova Scotia and Acadia between New France and New England; the conflicts spanned almost seventy years, as each allied with various First Nation groups. In 1763, after the final colonial war—the Seven Years' War—the British emerged victorious and the French civilians, whom the British hoped to assimilate, were declared "British Subjects". After the passing of the Quebec Act in 1774, giving the Canadians, Canadians their first charter of rights under the new regime, the B ...
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Black Cultural Centre For Nova Scotia
The Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia is located in Cherrybrook, Nova Scotia, in the Halifax Regional Municipality. The centre is a museum and a library resource centre that focuses on the history and culture of African Nova Scotians. The organization of the Black Cultural Society was incorporated as a charitable organization in 1977 and the centre opened its doors in 1983, with a goal to ''educate and inspire'' and to protect, preserve and promote Black culture in Nova Scotia. The centre is located on Trunk 7 at 1149 Main Street. The centre holds many events on a weekly basis and is open to the public. The centre also has a permanent display about the former community of Africville. Background The Black Cultural Centre was the "brainchild" of William Pearly Oliver (1934 – 1989). By 2007, the Cultural Centre had been successful in acquiring an Order of Canada medal and thirty Victory Medals from eBay. The Victory Medals had been originally awarded to Black soldiers w ...
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