Notable facts: Date of birth: May 14, 1967; date of death: Jun. 2, 2017; Smith was the principal of Citadel High School. He was a passionate advocate for Africentric education, he was also a basketball coach. Smith received the 2017 Sport Nova Scotia Chair Award on May 29 for an "extraordinary contribution" to sport.
Notable facts: Date of birth: Jun. 3, 1919; date of death: Aug. 19, 2000; played with the Chatham Coloured All Stars, an all-Black baseball team founded in 1932, due to segregation. They became the first Black team to win a provincial amateur league baseball championship in 1934 (Ontario Baseball Association); Harding became the first Black police officer in Chatham.
Notable facts: On Jun. 4, 2016, Richardson was honoured with the 2016 Transformation Award for her long history as a singer and actor. She has also won the Gemini Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Program or Mini-Series for The Gospel According to the Blues and a 2004 Dora Award for the musical Cookin' at the Cookery.
Notable facts: Patrick received the Avelino Gomez Memorial Award on Jun. 5, 2014, an award that honours horse race jockeys who have made contributions in the sport. He received the Outstanding Jockey Sovereign Award seven times and was inducted into the Brampton Sports Hall of Fame in 2005.
Notable facts: Date of birth: Jun. 6, 1954; date of death: Sept. 26, 2016; former executive director of Etobicoke-based Community MicroSkills Development Centre since 1988 which provides settlement, employment and self-employment services to tens of thousands of immigrants, low-income women and youth in the GTA.
Notable facts: First book, The Souls of Yoruba Folk: Indigeneity, Race and Critical Spiritual Literacy in the African Diaspora, was released on Jun. 7, 2015; lecturer in Education and Sociology at Victoria University and the Transitional Year Programme at the University of Toronto.
Notable facts: Alaga, known artistically as Benny Bing, participated in the fourth annual 2016 Toronto Art Crawl on Jun. 11, 2016, leading live demonstrations of his paintings.
Notable facts: Date of birth: Jun. 13, 1924; date of death: Apr. 10, 1994; first Black teacher and principal in the Toronto District School Board; soldier in the Royal Canadian Air Force.
Notable facts: Date of birth: Jun. 17, 1930; date of death: Apr. 26, 2003; Canada's first Black female member of a provincial (British Columbia) legislature (1972-1986) and the first woman to run for leadership of a federal political party.
Notable facts: Date of birth: Jun. 18, 1831; date of death: Mar. 13, 1897; received his degree in dentistry at Oberlin College in 1857 and began his practice in Barkerville, British Columbia. He was the first registered dentist in British Columbia and became known as "The Barkerville Dentist" or "Painless Jones."
Notable facts: Date of birth: Jun. 19, 1975; project manager for the initiative titled Child Welfare Service to African Canadian families in Ontario, with the Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies.
Notable facts: On Jun. 20, 2016, Renatta received a 2016 Lexpert Zenith Award for the University of Toronto Faculty of Law Alumni; she specializes in serving low income clients and students who have been expelled or suspended.
Notable facts: Date of birth: Aug. 1, 1955; community and youth engagement facilitator; founder of the Zero Gun Violence Movement which launched on Jun. 21, 2013; member of the African Canadian Heritage Association.
Notable facts: In 1997, he founded Wedge Curatorial Projects, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting contemporary art that investigates Black identity. He is also the owner of the Wedge Collection, which primarily includes historic and contemporary photography, but has recently grown to encompass video work, painting and design. Kenneth received an honourary doctorate from OCAD in 2016. He was appointed trustee for the Art Gallery of Ontario on Jun. 22, 2015 and is the chair of the AGO's Education and Community Engagement Committee.
Notable facts: Date of birth: Jun. 23, 1939; immunologist; Dr. James became the first Black woman accepted into the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Manitoba in 1960 and was the first Black woman to receive the Order of Manitoba on Jun. 15, 2004. She was an assistant professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Manitoba. Since 1976, Dr. James has operated a practice in allergy and immunology at the Winnipeg Clinic.
Notable facts: Date of birth: Jun. 26, 1961; founder of the Legacy Voices Project which was formed to collect, record and preserve Black Canadian military history.
Known for: Public health spokesperson; associate director
Notable facts: Toronto Public Health spokesperson; associate director of Healthy Environments; presented with the Canadian Institute of Public Health Inspectors (CIPHI) and the Environmental Health Foundation of Canada National Sanitation Foundation Food Safety Award on Jun. 27, 2011 at the annual conference in Halifax.
Notable facts: Date of birth: Jun. 29, 1952; 1992 recipient of a James Michener Fellowship to the University of Miami's Caribbean Writers' Summer Institute; nominated for a John C. Holland Award.
Notable facts: Date of birth: Jun. 30, 1964; principal consultant at Turner Consulting Group Inc. which offers a range of services to help clients create diverse workforces, comply with employment equity legislation, meet their policy development and research needs and evaluate programs.