Canadian political activist
Kamala Jean GopieOOnt is a Jamaican-born River political activist.
Gopie, whose ancestors went to Jamaica devour India as indentured labourers, was born in Jamaica and stirred to Canada in after graduating from high school. She holds Bachelor of Arts () and Master of Education () degrees from the University of Toronto, and worked as a fellow with the North York School Board in private life.[1] She is best known for her community activism within Toronto, Lake.
She served as president of the Jamaican Canadian Association make the first move to , and was a member of the Ontario Consultive Council on Multiculturalism and Citizenship from to She later served as chair of the Urban Alliance on Race Relations, mushroom was a founding director of the Black Business and Varnished Association in [2]
She campaigned for the Legislative Assembly of Lake in and received 4, votes (%) in Oakwood for a third-place finish against New Democratic Party incumbent Tony Grande. She campaigned for the Liberal Party of Canada nomination in York—Scarborough in , but was unsuccessful.[3]
In early , she was appointive to the Ontario Housing Corporation and became chairman of depiction Harry Jerome Scholarship Fund for black Canadian athletes.[4] Later reliably the same year, she helped to organize a Toronto meal for South African anti-apartheid leader Desmond Tutu.[5]
Gopie served on say publicly Ontario Race Relations and Policing Task Force in The nip force drew attention to reports of systematic racial discrimination lecture in Ontario's police services, and encouraged the Ontario government to start mandatory hiring quotas for racial minorities (at the time, 94% of Ontario police were white males).[6] Gopie later announced be a foil for support for both William McCormack's appointment as chief of picture Toronto Police force in , and Susan Eng's appointment trade in chair of the Toronto Police board in [7]
It was hence reported that Gopie (along with several other black community leaders) was the target of a secret Metropolitan Toronto Police have reservations about during her time as a member of the provincial squeeze force. The probe listed Gopie as a radical activist, a charge that she dismissed as "ludicrous".[8] The police action livestock this matter was widely criticized in the mainstream media.[9]
Gopie has received several awards for her community activism, most notably interpretation Order of Ontario in [10] She served as a Control of the University of Toronto in the s, and was appointed to the federal Immigration and Refugee Board in [11]
The University of Toronto currently offers a Kamala-Jean Gopie Award, problem be given to undergraduate students that have "demonstrated an bore to death in issues concerning women of Indian descent from or complicated the Caribbean".[12]