Bromley Lloyd Armstrong, (February 9, 1926 – August 17, 2018) was a

Canadian Canadians () 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 their being ''C ...

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...

leader. He was active in the nascent civil rights era in Canada, beginning with his arrival in 1947. Armstrong was a committed union activist who worked to improve conditions for workers in industry. He was also active in promoting equal rights for

African-Canadian Black Canadians () are Canadians of full or partial Afro-Caribbean or sub-Saharan African descent. Black Canadian settlement and immigration patterns can be categorized into two distinct groups. The majority of Black Canadians are descendants ...

s and was involved with the National Unity Association (NUA) in sit-ins in

Dresden, Ontario Dresden is an agricultural community in the municipality of Chatham-Kent, Ontario, Chatham-Kent in southwestern Ontario, Canada. Located on the Sydenham River, it is named after Dresden, Germany. The main field crops in the area are dent corn, g ...

restaurants that refused to serve blacks. Armstrong travelled to Dresden following the activities of

Hugh Burnett Hugh Burnett (July 14, 1918 – September 29, 1991) was an African-Canadian carpenter and civil rights leader. A descendant of slaves, Hugh Burnett was a carpenter in the rural Canadian town of Dresden, Ontario, Dresden, Ontario. He was active in ...

and the NUA—the NUA had been urging the local town council (unsuccessfully) to create laws that would put an end to discrimination against blacks in the town. In response to delegations to the Ontario Legislature at Queen's Park in the provincial capital of

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, in the early 1950s Ontario Premier

Leslie Frost Leslie Miscampbell Frost (September 20, 1895 – May 4, 1973) was a politician in Ontario, Canada, who served as the province's 16th premier from May 4, 1949, to November 8, 1961. Due to his lengthy tenure, he gained the nickname "Old Man O ...

brought two laws into place, the ''Fair Employment Practices Act'' and the ''Fair Accommodation Practices Act''. The first outlawed discrimination in the workplace, the second outlawed it in businesses that served the public. Enacted in April 1954, the ''Fair Accommodation Practices Act'' stated: "No one can deny to any person or class of persons the accommodation, services or facilities usually available to members of the public." The Act triggered the repeal of the largely ineffective Racial Discrimination Act of 1944, which outlawed "the publication or display, on lands, premises, by newspaper or radio, of any notice, sign, symbol, emblem or other representation indicating racial discrimination." After local Dresden businesses refused to comply with the ''Fair Accommodation Practices Act'' the same year it was enacted, Armstrong and other activists from the Toronto-based Joint Labour Committee for Human Rights conducted sit-ins in Dresden restaurants, testing the owners' non-compliance with the law, and then using that information to urge Premier Frost to eventually press charges against the restaurant owners. The owners were taken to court and the law upheld; and was Canada's first successful test of a modern anti-discrimination law. Armstrong figured in the sit-ins, on one occasion calmly demanding service of a bigoted restaurant owner, who was angrily wielding a meat cleaver in his restaurant kitchen. In 1994, he was made a Member of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada () is a Canadian state order, national order and the second-highest Award, honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the Canadian Centennial, ce ...

. Armstrong's story is told in his autobiography: ''Bromley: Tireless Fighter for Just Causes''.

References

*Armstrong, Bromley and Taylor, Sheldon.(2000). Bromley: Tireless Fighter for Just Causes. Pickering: Vitabu Publishing. *Cooper, John. (2005). Season of Rage. Toronto: Tundra Books. *Human Rights in Canada: A Historical Perspective, https://web.archive.org/web/20131005010143/http://www.chrc-ccdp.ca/en/timePortals/milestones/67mile.asp *Kidd, Kenneth. Amid sweeping change, a pivotal anniversary goes unremarked. Toronto Star, July 6, 2008. {{DEFAULTSORT:Armstrong, Bromley 1926 births 2018 deaths Black Canadian activists Canadian civil rights activists Jamaican emigrants to Canada Members of the Order of Canada Members of the Order of Ontario People from Kingston, Jamaica