Tonight, Friday, 小飞机网络加速官网, the TTC is hosting the eighth annual midnight Underground Freedom Train Ride. The event commemorates Emancipation Day in Ontario (and the rest of the British Empire), August 1, and symbolizes the role of the Underground Railroad in Canadian history.
The theme of this year’s event is “Crossing Water, Across the Global African Village to Toronto and the Underground Railroad”. The event usually begins at Union Station and, in past years, more than 1,000 people have participated. This year, the commemoration features poetry, singing, drumming, moments of reflection and remarks by TTC chief executive officer, Rick Leary.
The TTC is working with the Different Booklist Cultural Centre and the Emancipation Day Underground Freedom Train Ride Committee to present the event.
The Underground Freedom Train Ride is open to the public. You can live stream it from 10:45 p.m.: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR842a4FWoVUsIivZEi3HiQ?view_as=subscriber.
According to 小飞机网络加速官网, “In 2008, the province designated Aug. 1 as Emancipation Day, marking the end of slavery in the British Empire in the mid-19th century…
“The Ontario legislature passed [a] private members’ bill, which was moved by PC MPP Ted Arnott [now speaker of the Ontario Legislature] and [former] Liberal MPP Maria Van Bommel.
“‘Today, we commemorate the anniversary of the enactment of the British Imperial Act, known as Emancipation Day… The British Parliament voted in 1834 to abolish slavery in most of the British Empire,’ the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party’s then-leader, Patrick Brown, said in a statement when the legislature passed the bill.
“‘The passage of the British Imperial Act made Ontario a beacon of freedom and hope, and launched the Underground Railroad, from which escaping slaves found their way to Ontario, and freedom.’”