You are invited by to a symposium commemorating the 80th anniversary of the battle Mr. Fred Christie fought for racial justice in Montreal, and examining the present-day situation of racism and the law in Canada.

In 1939, Mr. Fred Christie, a member of the African Canadian community of Montreal, brought his case to the Supreme Court of Canada to challenge lower courts’ decisions that upheld the Montreal tavern’s freedom of commerce and right to deny services to Black persons. His case is of particular significance to the McGill bicentenary, as it was championed by Union United Church members, through a Christie Defence Committee led by the second Black professor at McGill University, Dr. Kenneth Melville. Although the case was ultimately unsuccessful, the infamous pre-human rights Charter/ code decision, Christie v. York Corporation, [1940] SCR 139 has been widely taught in Canadian law schools, and remains a sobering reminder of law’s indeterminacy.

In order to commemorate this important chapter in Canadian legal history, to honour Mr. Christie and the Black community’s valiant battle for judicial recognition of their human rights and dignity, the McGill Faculty of Law and the Labour Law and Development Research Laboratory, the Centre for Research and Action on Race Relations, and the Union United Church will co-host, on the last day of Black History Month, an afternoon symposium on Mr. Christie’s case.

Le symposium comprendra deux panels (13h-16h45) : le premier portera sur la vie et l'activisme de M. Christie, et le second se concentrera sur le racisme et le droit au Canada.

Nous accueillerons des invités spéciaux tels que M. Terry Brazill, petit-fils de M. Christie, l'honorable Juanita Westmoreland-Traoré, première juge noire du Québec, M. Barrington Walker, historien spécialisé dans l'histoire des Noirs et du droit au Canada, Me Marie-Claude Landry, Ad.E., présidente de la Commission canadienne des droits de la personne, et le professeur Robert Leckey, doyen de la faculté de droit.

Une réception suivra (17h00-18h00) dans l'Atrium.