North America owes its wealth to brutality of slavery: Canadian expert

The residual influence of slavery remains in North America today, said a Canadian racism expert on the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition, which fell on Friday.

June Francis, chair of Anti-Racism Data Committee of British Columbia, director of the Institute for Black and African Diaspora Research and Engagement and a professor at Simon Fraser University (SFU), said that the trauma of the slave trade left a mark of injustice in Canada that is difficult to clear.

"Much of the wealth that we see in all of North America can be traced back to this forced bondage that allowed all that labor to be subjugated to and given to the white masters. So Canada benefited from that initially because Canada was part of that," Francis said in an interview with China Central Television (CCTV).

The professor underscored that African people who were enslaved in North America endured brutal exploitation and oppression. They lost their freedom, received no protection, and were subjected to abuse, torture, exclusion, coercion, and apartheid. Even after the abolition of slavery, individuals of African descent continue to live in fear.

She also noted that many Canadians remain unaware of the history of the slave trade, slavery, and apartheid in Canada, with much of this history having been obscured.

"In the same way that indigenous history is wiped and is taken out, it's a way that a society that wants to hide its shame and is victorious and hold all of the levers of power, including who writes the curriculum, who writes history," she said.

Francis noted that while the Canadian government has implemented some corrective measures in recent years, these efforts remain insufficient. She emphasized that addressing the historical trauma of the slave trade, slavery, and racism, and eliminating racism for the future should begin with a formal apology from the government.