City of Toronto honours Canada’s largest all-Black military battalion unit

Dignitaries have unveiled a new plaque in Toronto as part of a broader effort to ensure Canada knows the contributions the No. 2 Construction Battalion made during the First World War.

Chris Parris was among those in attendance during Thursday’s ceremony. The 76-year-old served in the Canadian Armed Forces for 32 years, but his grandfather Seldon was a member of what was also known as the Black Battalion. It was founded in 1916 and solely comprised of Black men who wanted to volunteer with the war effort.

When asked to describe the unit, Parris said it was “probably Canada’s deepest and darkest secret about Black people.”

“Canadians decided they would volunteer and fight for king and for country. Black men stepped forward and said, ‘I also want to volunteer and fight for king and country’, but they were told, ‘It’s a white man’s world’,” Kevin Junor, a retired sergeant-major with the Canadian Armed Forces, told the audience.

“They went home and decided they needed to do something. Now if it was me, I’d go home, I would relax, have coffee, have dinner, but not these men.”

Two years after the war began, the military moved to start accepting Black men. It opened recruiting offices across Canada, and the one in Toronto was located on King Street West near University Avenue. Fifteen men in Toronto joined the No. 2 Construction Battalion. There were other ones throughout Ontario: Hamilton, St. Catharines, Fort Erie, Windsor, Chatham, London and Owen Sound.

“Enlist today and prove your gratitude for the precious heritage of freedom found only in the British Empire and under the British Flag. Fight for that flag, maintain it in the future as it has been maintained in the past,” an ad signed by a lieutenant colonel in Nova Scotia and published during the war said.

The ad specifically stated the battalion was for racialized men and involved construction work at the front. However, anti-Black racism meant those who enlisted to help didn’t see action.

Officials said those who enlisted were at first tasked with taking off rails from railway sidings in New Brunswick to ship to France. They eventually were sent to England and France to cut and transport timber. It was used for building and reinforcing trenches. Maintaining certain roads and operating utilities also fell to them.

Despite their efforts, they were subjected to segregation and anti-Black racism.

As the oldest surviving member of his family, Parris recalled sitting with his grandfather and hearing about the battalion.

“He told me that Black people could not be trusted with a gun therefore the No. 2 Construction Battalion never had any weapons,” he said.

“All they had was shovels, axes and picks, and all they were used for were building roads and digging ditches and getting everything ready.”

A plaque was installed at Queen’s Park in 1920 as the unit disbanded to recognize the battalion’s service, but it would take until 2022 for the federal government to formally apologize to descendants of the men who served for the racism they experienced. Since then, the federal government has invested $500,000 toward various projects to commemorate the battalion.

The City of Toronto and Heritage Toronto created a plaque that was unveiled by Ontario’s Lieutenant Governor Edith Dumont, Mayor Olivia Chow and federal Veterans Affairs Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor. It will eventually be installed at the northwest corner of University Avenue and King Street West.

“[The plaque] will serve as a permanent and stark reminder of the resilience it took for these men … to serve our country,” Petitpas Taylor said.

The ceremony also served as a call to action to address ongoing injustices Black people face to this day.

“Allow us to recommit ourselves to say no to anti-Black racism,” Chow implored.

It’s a sentiment Parris echoed while encouraging greater education about the battalion.

“As long as we have hate and as long as we have distrust in the world, people are going to be that way. However, we can just correct when we see it happening, correct the individuals who are doing it, and remember that racism is inherited. Kids aren’t born with it, it’s taught, so let’s get educating the older people and get them on the right board as well,” Parris added.

“All politicians from Toronto going east are to acknowledge that the No. 2 Construction Battalion did exist, and the reason why it existed, and that the men of the No. 2 Construction Battalion were also honourable and brave and heroes, nonetheless, the same as all the whites.”