Beverley Noel Salmon is an activist and former municipal politician in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Salmon was a

North York North York is one of the six administrative districts of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located directly north of York, Old Toronto and East York, between Etobicoke to the west and Scarborough to the east. As of the 2016 Census, it had a popu ...

city and then

Metro Toronto The Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto was an upper-tier level of municipal government in Ontario, Canada, from 1953 to 1998. It was made up of the old city of Toronto and numerous townships, towns and villages that surrounded Toronto, which ...

Councillor from 1985-1997. Salmon was awarded the

Order of Ontario The Order of Ontario () is the most prestigious official honour in the Canadian province of Ontario. Instituted in 1986 by Lieutenant Governor Lincoln Alexander, on the advice of the Cabinet under Premier David Peterson, the civilian order is adm ...

in 2016 and the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the ...

in 2017.

Early life and education

Born in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

in the 1930s, Salmon was the daughter of Herbert Bell, a Jamaican immigrant, and Violet Bryan, a fifth generation Canadian of Scottish descent. Salmon began her Registered Nursing training at

Wellesley Hospital The Wellesley Hospital was a teaching hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada affiliated with the University of Toronto. It was founded by Dr. Herbert Bruce as a private hospital, but became publicly operated in 1942. History The Wellesley Hospita ...

in 1950 and finished a certificate in Public Health Nursing at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

in 1954. She was a Victorian Order Nurse (VON) in Toronto from 1954-1956. Salmon married Dr.(John) Douglas Salmon in 1956 and the couple had four children.

Community work

Salmon was a founding member of the Toronto Urban Alliance on Race Relations (UARR) which was established in 1975, among the rise of racial tensions in Toronto. She worked closely with other UARR members, including Dr. Wilson A. Head and

Jean Augustine Jean Augustine (born September 9, 1937) is a Grenada-born Canadian politician. She was the first Black Canadian woman to serve as a federal Minister of the Crown and Member of Parliament. From 1993 to 2006, Jean Augustine was a Liberal member ...

, and served on the Media Committee and the Board of Directors.

Career

After completing her training, Salmon started her nursing career in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

, Michigan, in 1956. While in the city she had the opportunity to hear leaders of the

civil rights movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...

such as

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

, and was inspired on her return to Toronto to become involved in civil rights activism. Salmon was the founding chair of the Toronto Board of Education's Black Liaison Committee, where she worked to institute anti-racism training for teachers and increase coverage of Black history in the curriculum. She was a co-founder of the Urban Alliance on Race Relations and was the

Ontario Human Rights Commission The Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) was established in the Canadian province of Ontario on March 29, 1961, to administer the Ontario Human Rights Code. The OHRC is an arm's length agency of government accountable to the legislature through ...

's first Black female commissioner. Salmon first ran for elected office in the 1976 municipal election as alderman for Ward 8 on North York Council losing to

Alan Milliken Heisey Sr. Alan Milliken Heisey Sr. (May 20, 1928 – 2 November 2014) was a Canadian publisher, author, activist, political columnist and politician from Toronto who wrote the book ''The Great Canadian Stampede - The Rush to Economic Nationalism - Right or ...

Salmon ran again as councillor for Ward 8 in the 1985 municipal election defeating Andy Borins. Borins had been removed from office as Ward 8 councillor during the previous term by a court order due to a court application made by

Barbara Greene Barbara Greene (born 1 September 1945) is a former Canadians, Canadian politician. She served in the House of Commons of Canada from 1988 to 1993 as a member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, Progressive Conservative Party. She ...

. She was Toronto's first female black City councillor. She served as a

Toronto Transit Commission The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is the public transport agency that operates bus, subway, streetcar, and paratransit services in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, some of which run into the Peel Region and York Region. It is the oldest and largest ...

Board member for the years 1989-1994 and was Vice Chair of the Board in the years 1991-1994. Salmon continued as a

councillor until her retirement in 1997.

Awards and honours

In 1995, Salmon won the Excellence in Politics award at the 1995 African Canadian Achievement Awards. In 1999, Salmon was on the

Federation of Canadian Municipalities The Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM, ''Fédération canadienne des municipalités'') is an advocacy group representing over 2000 Canadian municipalities. It is an organization with no formal power but significant ability to influence d ...

's honour roll. Salmon was also awarded Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012, the

in 2016 and became a member of the

in 2017.

External links

Beverley Salmon's archives
are held at the

Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections Clara Thomas (née McCandless; May 22, 1919 – September 26, 2013) was a Canadian academic. A longtime professor of English at York University, she was one of the first academics to devote her work specifically to the study of Canadian literatur ...

York University Libraries York University Libraries (YUL) is the library system of York University in Toronto, Ontario. The four main libraries and one archives contain more than 2,500,000 volumes. History The first York library opened in 1961 at Glendon College and ...

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Salmon, Beverley 1930s births Living people Black Canadian politicians Black Canadian women Canadian people of Jamaican descent Canadian nurses Canadian women nurses Members of the Order of Ontario Members of the Order of Canada Metropolitan Toronto councillors University of Toronto alumni