Remembering, Honouring, and Committing to Justice

Video still credit: The United Church of Canada

~ from a post published on July 28, 2026 on The United Church of Canada’s website

August 1 is Emancipation Day in Canada.

It is a day to remember, to reflect, and to honour the resilience, strength, and contributions of people of African descent whose lives and communities were forever shaped by centuries of enslavement.

For more than 400 years, millions of African peoples were captured, forced to migrate, and subjected to horrific treatment under the transatlantic slave trade system. Families were separated. Languages, cultures, and identities were targeted for erasure. More than 15 million people of African descent were affected. This horrific system resulted in the deaths, torture, and abuse of Black peoples, and has had intergenerational effects.

The impacts of enslavement were not limited to distant places or distant history.

People were enslaved in what is now Canada. While enslavement was legally abolished across the British Empire on August 1, 1834, its legacy did not end there. The legacies of enslavement are directly linked to anti-Black racism today.

Emancipation Day invites truth-telling about that history and the current realities of racial injustices.

As a church, we are called not only to remember the past but also to respond in the present.

At the most recent General Council, the United Church also took an important action by committing to a process that may lead to a formal apology for the church’s historic connections to enslavement. A working group has begun this work and will bring recommendations to the next General Council in 2028. This reflects a growing understanding that truth-telling, accountability, and repair are essential parts of reconciliation and justice. An apology is not the end of the story. But it is part of a process of repair and healing.

View Moderator Kimberly Heath’s Emancipation Day Message here.