Hundreds wait to board a TTC subway at Union Station for the Underground Freedom Train Ride in this 2016 Toronto Star file photo. ( J.P. MOCZULSKI / The Toronto Star )

By Laura HowellsStaff Reporter

Mon., July 31, 2017

The TTC was jubilant Monday night as crowds packed into Union Station and later on to a subway train to celebrate Emancipation Day the day slavery was abolished in the British Empire.

Now in its fifth year, the Underground Freedom Train Ride is a symbolic subway ride commemorating the experience of escaping slaves who made the harrowing journey to Canada along the Underground Railroad.

It is recognition of a historic date, Emancipation Day, and it is a celebration of the power and potential of people of African descent, said organizer Itah Sadu, who called the ride a way of connecting the past and the present.

Drums played as the crowd gathered at Union Station for the opening ceremonies Monday night before a subway train traveled to Sheppard West, arriving in the early hours of Emancipation Day on August 1.

The ceremonies included drumming, dancing, songs, speeches and spoken word, all in the spirit of liberation and celebration through a difficult time in our history, said Louis March, one of the organizers.

Mayor John Tory spoke at the ceremony, but was interrupted by journalist and activist Desmond Cole, who spoke out about how Cole was treated at a July 27 police board meeting. That meeting was temporarily halted when Cole demanded to speak about the Defonte Miller case. Cole was then escorted from the building where the police board meeting was held, fined and warned not to return.

I dont think that anybody here should be stopped from riding the liberation train, not even you, he said at the Monday event. But if youre going to be here tonight you have to hear and see what black liberation actually means.

Tory responded that he agreed there are many people in our society who are not fully free, and said he is committed to eradicating anti-Black racism.

The crowd briefly erupted into a chant of Black lives matter, before the ceremony continued.

The event is presented by A Different Booklist bookstore, and is the brainchild of Sadu. It is supported by the TTC and drew a crowd of all ages and ethnicities.

Each year organizers select a conductor for the train, and choose a woman leader in the community who represents the spirit of renowned Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman. This years conductor was Zanana Akande, the first black woman elected to Ontarios legislative assembly and the first black woman to serve as a cabinet minister. Akande called the event an opportunity to look back and remember the issues that we have been able to overcome.

You say, well weve come this far, we can certainly go further, she said. We can achieve those things which we still need to achieve.

A plaque commemorating the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters was presented at the opening ceremony. A permanent Heritage Toronto plaque, sponsored by the Coalition of Black Trade Unions, will be mounted at Union Station once renovations are complete.

Beyond celebration, the ride is also an opportunity for education, said March.

The history books have not really done justice to the full scope of the African Canadian experience. Everybody talks about the Underground Railroad, but its not personalized, its not humanized, he said.

There was courage, there was conviction. There was still family. There were still emotions. All of this stuff has been sort of left out.

The TTC provided the subway car for the train ride. Tory and TTC Chair Josh Colle joined in after the opening ceremony.

Emancipation Day gives us an opportunity to explore and celebrate the rich African-Canadian history that has helped build our city, said Tory in a press release. It is also a day to recognize their struggle for human rights.

The Slavery Abolition Act took effect on August 1, 1834, and abolished enslavement in most British colonies.

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Crowds gather at Union Station for annual Underground Freedom Train Ride - Toronto Star