Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes Memorial Game

On February 27, I gave the following members statement in the Nova Scotia Legislature:

On February 17th I was in the stands at the RBC Centre in Burnside for the annual Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes Memorial Game. The game featured two all-Black teams representing the historic Amherst Royals and the Hammonds Plains Mossbacks.

This year, the teams were coached by two hockey giants: Bill Riley, the first Black Nova Scotian to play in the NHL, and former Team Canada player and Hockey Hall of Famer - the first woman to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame - Angela James. James lent her considerable talents to a youth hockey clinic before the game. The annual game was organized by the Black Ice Society, a Nova Scotia-based non-profit that recognizes and showcases Black achievement in sport.

Founded in 1895 and playing off and on until 1930, the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes consisted of 400 players of African descent on teams throughout the region. The league's maiden team was in fact the Dartmouth Jubilees.

In these last few days of African Heritage Month, I ask the House to join me in thanking the Black Ice Society for their efforts to ensure that the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes is not lost to history and congratulate all involved.

John MacNeil Grade 5s African Nova Scotian History Challenge

On March 22 I was also able to recognize the Grade 5s and their teachers at John MacNeil Elementary School in Dartmouth North who felted and sewed a beautiful quilt for the Delmore "Buddy" Daye Learning Institute's African Nova Scotian History Challenge in February. Here is what I said:

Mr. Speaker, this past February the Grade 5s at John MacNeil Elementary School in Dartmouth found a truly special way to mark this year’s African Heritage Month. Throughout February, the students - taught by Matt Montgomery and Colleen Clarke - learned about the history of quilt-making in African Canadian culture. Quilters, they learned, used quilts to tell stories, but also to send messages through the Underground Railroad. Inspired by David Woods and Shauntay Grant, the students created a stunning needle felt quilt which they then submitted to the Delmore “Buddy” Daye Learning Institute’s African Heritage Month Challenge. The quilt consists of squares, each crafted by individual students, and the border represents the secret codes used for the Underground Railroad.

I ask that the House join me in congratulating the over 50 Grade 5 students at John MacNeil Elementary who wove and sewed this beautiful piece of art into existence.

John MacNeil Grade Twos African Nova Scotian History Challenge

On March 22 I recognized the Grade Twos at John MacNeil Elementary School in Dartmouth North for their incredible submission to the Delmore "Buddy" Daye Learning Institute's African Nova Scotian History Challenge. This is what I said:

"Mr. Speaker, I rise to congratulate the Grade 2 students at John MacNeil Elementary School who submitted to the Delmore Buddy Daye Learning Institute’s Awards for Excellence in African Nova Scotian history.

The students spent February learning about inspiring and influential people of African descent and turned those learnings into a beautiful art piece. Each student in Megan Douglas’s Grade 2 class created a puzzle piece decorated with African-inspired patterns and painted the puzzle pieces in the colours of the African-Nova Scotian flag. Then they pasted the pictures of change-makers, alongside words that best described them, to big puzzle pieces. The puzzle pieces came together to make a beautiful mural. The process was captured in a stop-motion video where the students say or sign the names and affirming words.

I am so happy to live in a community where these young leaders and artists are growing up. I ask the House to join me in congratulating them on their inspiring entry into the African Nova Scotian History Challenge.