Saint-Firmin (S. F.) Monestime (December 16, 1909 – October 27, 1977) was a

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...

an-

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

and

medical doctor A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

, who was the first

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 t ...

elected

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

of a Canadian municipality."Mattawa's Dr. Firmin Monestime Remembered"
''

North Bay Nugget The ''North Bay Nugget'' is a newspaper published in North Bay, Ontario, Canada. The paper is currently owned by Postmedia. The paper was launched in 1907 as the ''Cobalt Nugget'', during the silver boom at Cobalt, Ontario. It was acquired by bus ...

'', October 26, 2007.

Background

Born in

Cap-Haïtien Cap-Haïtien (; ht, Kap Ayisyen; "Haitian Cape"), typically spelled Cape Haitien in English and often locally referred to as or , is a commune of about 190,000 people on the north coast of Haiti and capital of the department of Nord. Previousl ...

in 1909,"Visite de l’Ambassadeur à Mattawa"
Embassy of Haiti in Canada. Monestime was one of seven children. His father was a successful tanner. He moved to

Quebec City Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Communauté métrop ...

in 1945. Before departing, he separated from his wife at the time, with whom he had two children — Monestime continued to support them from abroad. He later married Zena Petschersky, an immigrant from Danzig, whom he met in

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

in 1953. Together, they had four children.

Medical career

Monestime studied rural medicine and wrote three books on the subject. He graduated from

University of Haiti The State University of Haiti (french: Université d'État d'Haïti (UEH)) is one of Haiti's most prestigious institutions of higher education. It is located in Port-au-Prince. Its origins date to the 1820s, when colleges of medicine and law wer ...

with a medical degree. In 1937, he was one of the only doctors on duty during the

Parsley Massacre The Parsley massacre (Spanish: ''el corte'' "the cutting"; Creole: ''kout kouto-a'' "the stabbing") (french: Massacre du Persil; es, Masacre del Perejil; ht, Masak nan Pèsil) was a mass killing of Haitians living in the Dominican Republic's nor ...

, and was subsequently awarded the Haitian Legion of Merit for his work during that crisis. After upgrading his medical training he planned a move to

Timmins Timmins ( ) is a city in northeastern Ontario, Canada, located on the Mattagami River. The city is the fourth-largest city in the Northeastern Ontario region with a population of 41,145 (2021). The city's economy is based on natural resource ext ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

to set up a medical practice, but when he stopped in

Mattawa, Ontario Mattawa is a town in northeastern Ontario, Canada on Algonquin Nation land at the confluence of the Mattawa and Ottawa Rivers in Nipissing District. Mattawa means "Meeting of the Waters" in the Algonquin language. The first Europeans to pass th ...

en route, he was convinced by a restaurant owner to stay in that town and set up practice there instead."How Saint-Firmin Monestime made history as Canada’s first Black mayor"

TVOntario TVO Media Education Group (often abbreviated as TVO and stylized on-air as tvo) is a publicly funded English-language educational television network and media organization serving the Canadian province of Ontario. It is operated by the Ontario ...

, February 13, 2019. Monestime practiced medicine in Mattawa until 1964, when he became mayor.

Politics

In 1962, Monestime ran for to be on the council of Mattawa and was elected. The next year, he was elected mayor of Mattawa in 1963. He was active with the

Progressive Conservative Party of Canada The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada (PC; french: Parti progressiste-conservateur du Canada) was a centre-right federal political party in Canada that existed from 1942 to 2003. From Canadian Confederation in 1867 until 1942, the ...

, and served as its national director. He considered running federally for the party, and in 1971 he ran and lost in a bid for the presidency of the party. A

Red Tory A Red Tory is an adherent of a centre to centre-right or paternalistic-conservative political philosophy derived from the Tory tradition, most predominantly in Canada but also in the United Kingdom and Australia. This philosophy tends to favour ...

, Monestime was attracted to the party because of Prime Minister

John Diefenbaker John George Diefenbaker ( ; September 18, 1895 – August 16, 1979) was the 13th prime minister of Canada, serving from 1957 to 1963. He was the only Progressive Conservative party leader between 1930 and 1979 to lead the party to an electio ...

Bill of Rights A bill of rights, sometimes called a declaration of rights or a charter of rights, is a list of the most important rights to the citizens of a country. The purpose is to protect those rights against infringement from public officials and pri ...

. In 1970, he became director of The Progressive Conservative Party and tried his hand at running for the President of Progressive Conservative Party for Nipissing, but was unsuccessful. In 1971, he was re-elected as mayor. Except for one year that he took off for personal reasons, he remained mayor until his death due to pancreatic cancer in 1977.

Death of son

On February 29, 1976, Monestime's 21-year-old son, Fedia, was shot and killed outside the Trans-Canada Hotel in Mattawa. He was in a group chasing a man who had fired his rifle into the wall after a bar fight, when the man fired on them, also injuring three others. Monestime treated three others wounded during the incident. Ralph Childerhose was charged with murder and acquitted, a decision Monestime considered unjust.

Legacy

Monestime and his wife opened the Algonquin Nursing Home in Mattawa in 1976. His daughter Vala Monestime Belter continued to run the

nursing home A nursing home is a facility for the residential care of elderly or disabled people. Nursing homes may also be referred to as skilled nursing facility (SNF) or long-term care facilities. Often, these terms have slightly different meanings to in ...

, and has served on the boards of

Ontario Northland The Ontario Northland Transportation Commission (ONTC), or simply Ontario Northland, is a Crown agency of the Government of Ontario responsible for providing transportation services for passengers and goods in northern Ontario. It reports to ...

and

. ''Where Rivers Meet: The Story of Dr. S. F. Monestime, Canada's First Black Mayor'', a biography by historian Doug Mackey, was published in 2009.Kate Adams
"Where Rivers Meet, a celebration of Canada's first black mayor"
'' Bay Today'', May 21, 2009. A permanent exhibit related to Monestime was put on display at the Mattawa Museum. In 2014, Frantz Liautaud, the current ambassador of Haiti to Canada, visited Mattawa for a gala celebration of the 50th anniversary of Monestime's first election as mayor.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Monestime, Firmin 1909 births 1977 deaths Black Canadian politicians Canadian general practitioners Franco-Ontarian people Haitian emigrants to Canada Haitian physicians Mayors of places in Ontario Naturalized citizens of Canada People from Cap-Haïtien People from Mattawa, Ontario Progressive Conservative Party of Canada politicians