LOZANO o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2007-10-04 published
Inspired to overcome racism, he became Canada's first black high
commissioner
In Nova Scotia, he started an influential newspaper. In Ottawa,
he became an important player in the civil service
By Allison
LAWLOR,
Special to The Globe and Mail, Page S9
Halifax -- A career public servant who broke race barriers on
his way to becoming Canada's first black high commissioner, James
Calbert BEST didn't see himself as an activist.
The only son of a spirited human-rights defender and a quiet
railway porter, Mr.
BEST, who was best known as Cal, entered
the civil service as a young man in the late 1940s after he and
his mother started Nova Scotia's first black newspaper.
In 1946, while still a university student in Halifax, he and
his mother Carrie
BEST, began publishing The Clarion. Aside from
covering local news, sports and social happenings, the paper
took on deeper racial issues facing black people in Nova Scotia
and across North America.
"The town [New Glasgow] has a daily and weekly newspaper, but
the publication that creates the most talk on the street is The
Clarion, that has grown from a church bulletin to the most powerful
Negro newspaper in Canada today," Will R. Bird wrote in his 1950
book, This is Nova Scotia.
Mr. BEST and his mother used their newspaper to publicize the
case of a black Nova Scotian named Viola Desmond. In 1946, Ms. Desmond,
who has been referred to as a Canadian Rosa Parks, was arrested
and fined for sitting in the "whites only" section of the Roseland
Theatre in New Glasgow.
"We do have many of the privileges which are denied our southern
brothers, but we often wonder if the kind of segregation we receive
here is not more cruel in the very subtlety of its nature. Nowhere
do we encounter signs that read 'No Colored' or the more diplomatic
little paste boards which say 'Select Clientele,' but at times
it might be better. At least much consequent embarrassment might
be saved for all concerned," Mr.
BEST wrote after Ms. Desmond's
arrest. The Clarion ceased publication in 1956.
Years before Ms. Desmond's case, Mr.
BEST and his mother experienced
a similar incident in a New Glasgow movie theatre. While sitting
downstairs in the whites-only section, as they often did, management
told them to go to the balcony. They were told that someone had
complained. After refusing to move, they were evicted and the
police were called. They were charged with disturbing the peace
and eventually convicted and fined. They sued for loss of dignity,
but lost.
"I wouldn't want this [experience] to be seen as colouring his
life. I heard about this incident once in my life," said his
daughter, Christene
BEST. "It inspired him more than anything
else. To get out of New Glasgow and to thumb his nose at anyone
who thought he wasn't deserving of 'loss of dignity.' "
Born in 1926, Mr.
BEST grew up on South Washington Street in
what was considered an integrated part of New Glasgow. While
the legal segregation of Nova Scotia's schools didn't end until
1954, long after he completed his education, Mr.
BEST never spoke
about the racism he must have faced growing up in a small, industrial
town.
"My grandmother considered herself an activist; my father didn't,"
his daughter said.
While his mother was busy organizing protests or holding poetry
readings to raise money to help pay a black family's taxes, Mr.
BEST
spent his time as a child playing baseball or hockey on the pond
behind their house.
He identified more with his father Albert, a man he called "the
kindest, gentlest man I've ever known." As a child, he loved
to run down to the railway station when he knew his father was
returning home after days away.
After high school, Mr.
BEST headed to the bustling wartime city
of Halifax. Having a thyroid condition, he was unable to serve
in the military. In 1948, he graduated with a degree in political
science and a diploma in journalism from the University of King's
College and went on to postgraduate work in public administration.
He initially believed that the only careers open to a young black
man in Nova Scotia were in teaching or on the railway, but his
mind changed when he saw an advertisement for junior positions
in the public service. In 1949, he boarded the train with his
father and headed to Ottawa to begin what would become a 49-year
career as a senior public servant and, eventually, high commissioner
to Trinidad and Tobago.
"It was exceedingly difficult to get into the public service
if you were a person of colour" in the 1940s, said Senator Don
Oliver, a former Halifax lawyer. "At a time when racism was rampant
in the public service, he was able to virtually move to the top.
Soon, people forgot to look at his colour."
When Mr. BEST arrived in Ottawa, he found few people who looked
like him. In the Department of Labour, he may have been the only
black person. It wasn't much different on the street. While riding
the bus, he was occasionally asked how the Ottawa Rough Riders
were doing that season - the assumption being that because he
was black, he played football.
Nevertheless, he found postwar Ottawa exciting. The civil service
was growing rapidly and Mr.
BEST quickly became an important
player in its development.
The same year he arrived in Ottawa, Mr.
BEST met his future wife
at a party and declared that "she was the prettiest girl I've
ever met." In 1957, he and Doreen
PHILLS married in Montreal
and later had four children.
At the Department of Labour, Mr.
BEST co-founded the Civil Service
Association of Canada, which evolved into the Public Service
Alliance of Canada, and served as its first president, from 1957 to
1966. "He played a huge role in bringing collective bargaining
to the public service," said Patty Ducharme, Public Service Alliance
of Canada's national executive vice-president.
In creating the organization, Mr.
BEST used his diplomacy and
strong negotiating skills to bring together two existing associations
representing civil servants and to defuse the power struggles
that threatened the new organization.
"He was such a dynamic person; such an intellectual," said Daryl
Bean, a former Public Service Alliance of Canada president. "His
influence and calming approach allowed for good debate. He seemed
to be three steps ahead of most people."
After leaving the labour department, Mr.
BEST served as a director
in both the Office of the Comptroller of Treasury and the Department
of Supply and Services before becoming assistant deputy minister
in the Department of Manpower and Immigration in 1970. In 1978,
he became executive director of immigration and demographic policy,
holding that position until 1985.
In late 1978, he worked closely with minister Bud Cullen to relax
immigration laws to bring about 600 Vietnamese refugees, who
were stranded in Malaysian water aboard the tiny freighter Hai
Hong, to Canada. Mr.
BEST travelled to Asia to help process the
boat people. One of the refugees painted a picture of him arriving
on a boat with a Canadian flag.
In 1985, Mr.
BEST was appointed Canadian high commissioner to
Trinidad and Tobago. He retired after returning to Canada in
1988, but his public service continued. "He was incredibly proud
to serve. He would always say, 'The Canadian people pay my salary,'
Ms. BEST said. He was such a scrupulous civil servant that
his daughter never knew how her father voted politically until
after he retired.
Mr. BEST was appointed chair of a federal task force to look
into the future of sports in Canada after the Ben Johnson steroid
scandal. In 1992, the three-person task force produced the report
"Sport - the Way Ahead." The report, which cost a reported $1-million
to produce, was intended to be a guideline for the future development
of sport in Canada. Among the recommendations were that Ottawa
fund fewer sport agencies.
"He was the tall, silent type," said Lyle Makosky, a former assistant
deputy minister of fitness and amateur sport, who recruited Mr.
BEST
for the task force. "He was an imposing man but he had a quiet
gentleness about him."
Mr. BEST later conducted an investigation into allegations of
racism involving the Canadian men's national basketball team.
head coach Ken Shields was alleged to have been prejudiced against
black players. Mr.
BEST's investigation absolved Mr. Shields.
In 1999, he served on another task force, this one looking into
the participation of visible minorities in the federal public
service.
"When he talked, you always knew he had something important to
say," Mr. Makosky said.
For his work, Mr.
BEST was awarded an honorary law degree from
the University of King's College, where he served on the board
of governors.
James Calbert
BEST was born July 12, 1926, in New Glasgow, Nova
Scotia He died of cancer in Ottawa on July 30, 2007. He was 81.
Predeceased by his wife Doreen, he leaves his children Christene,
Jamie, Stephen and Kevin; five grandchildren, close friend Suzanne
LOZANO and foster sisters Berma and Sharon
MARSHALL.
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