In another first, the Canadian Finance Minister has announced that activist Viola Desmond will be replacing John Macdonald, the nation’s first prime minister, on the $10 bill. Viola Desmond will be the first black woman to ever be put on the nation’s currency.
In a nomination held earlier this year by the Bank of Canada, citizens were asked to nominate an iconic woman to be placed on the new banknote. After receiving over 26,000 submissions, they narrowed it down to 461 names, then chose the top five; Desmond was the lead choice over hundreds of names.
Viola Desmond fought for equality, and against racism for people of color in Canada in the 1940’s. Prime Minister Trudeau described her as a, “business woman, community leader, and a courageous fighter against racism.” As a successful business woman coming from a middle-class family, her most monumental moment in the fight for justice was when she refused to give up her seat in the “whites only” section of a movie theatre in Nova Scotia in 1946. According to reports from Aljazeera, she was arrested and fought the charge in a court of law. Viola Desmond was the first black woman to legally challenge segregation laws in Canada. Even though she passed in 1965, she was not pardoned for her ‘crime’ until 2010.
Wanda Robinson, the sister of Viola Desmond, was able to attend able to attend the ceremony for the announcement, stated that the country’s acknowledgement of her sister almost brought her to tears, “Viola inspires us today as she inspired people years ago. I’m so proud, I’m almost in tears.”
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