BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY : AFRO-CANADIAN " JEAN AUGUSTINE " IS A FORMER CANADIAN POLITICIAN WAS A LIBERAL MEMBER OF THE CANADIAN HOUSE OF COMMONS : GOES INTO THE " HALL OF BLACK GENIUS "

                         BLACK                 SOCIAL                HISTORY                                                                                                                                                                                                   Jean Augustine, PC CM (born September 9, 1937 in St. George's, Grenada) is a former Canadian politician.

From 1993 to 2005, Augustine was a Liberal member of the Canadian House of Commons, representing the riding of Etobicoke—Lakeshore. She is a former member of Cabinet, and a former school principal. Augustine served as the Parliamentary Secretary toPrime Minister Jean Chrétien from 1994 to 1996, and was the Minister of State for multiculturalism, and the status of women until 2004.

Background

Augustine was born in Grenada. She studied at the University of Toronto where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Education. Later on she received a Honorary Doctor of Laws from the same institution. After university she was an elementary school principal with the Metropolitan Separate School Board in Toronto.

She has served on numerous organizations and Boards including the National Black Coalition of Canada, the Board of Governors ofYork University, the Board of Trustees for The Hospital for Sick Children, the Board of Directors of the Donwood Institute, the Board of Harbourfront and Chair of the Metro Toronto Housing Authority. She was also National President of the Congress of Black Women of Canada.

Through fund-raising efforts, Augustine supports the Jean Augustine Scholarship Fund, which assists single mothers to undertake post-secondary study at George Brown College.

Federal politics

In the 1993 federal election, Augustine became the first African Canadian woman elected to the Parliament of Canada and subsequently the first black woman in a federal Cabinet. She also served three terms as Chair of the National Liberal Women's Caucus.

In February 2002, Augustine was elected Chair of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade. On May 26, 2002, Augustine was appointed Secretary of State (Multiculturalism) (Status of Women). In December 2003, she was re-appointed to the new Cabinet as Minister of State (Multiculturalism and Status of Women). In 2004, she was appointed to the position of Assistant Deputy Chair of Committees of the Whole, making her the first African Canadian to occupy the Speaker's Chair in the Canadian House of Commons.

Augustine was the Founding Chair of the Canadian Association of Parliamentarians on Population & Development, Chair of the National Sugar Caucus, Chair of the Micro-credit Summit Council of Canadian Parliamentarians, Chair of the Canada-Slovenia Parliamentary Group and Chair of the Canada-Africa Parliamentary Group.

On November 28, 2005, Augustine announced her intention to retire and that she would not be a candidate in the 2006 Canadian election. She endorsed Liberal Michael Ignatieffto succeed her.

Later life

In 2007, Augustine was nominated by the Government of Ontario to become the first Fairness Commissioner, a position created to advocate for Canadians with foreign professional credentials.^[1]

Awards

She is the recipient of the YWCA Woman of Distinction Award, the Kaye Livingstone Award, the Ontario Volunteer Award, the Pride Newspaper Achievement Award, the Rubena Willis Special Recognition Award and the Toronto Lions' Club Onyx Award.

In 2009, she was made a Member of the Order of Canada "for her distinguished career as an educator, politician and advocate for social justice in Canada".^[2]