Porter talk: Episode 4 trailer

• Transcript of Porter Talk episode 4 trailer

  Coming up in the fourth episode of “Porter Talk,” we’ll explore sleeping car porters’ long fight to gain rights and respect on the job and how their collective efforts created the conditions for a unionized workforce.

  Stanley G. Grizzle: I think that one of the best lessons that can be learned from the-the presence of sleeping car porters, uh, all Black men, is that um, they can do it themselves. We organized a union, without a government grant. On our paltry income, we were able to do for ourselves, organize a union … So the lessons that the porters can give to the community, and it’s important that the-the history of the porters be documented, is that uh— you have the ability if you wish, to-to throw off the shackles of uh, of-of slavery and uh, free yourself.

  Stay tuned for the next episode of “Porter Talk”: “The Long Fight for Porters’ Rights.” You can subscribe for free to Discover Library and Archives Canada wherever you get your podcasts!

Host: Richard Provencher, Chief, Media Relations, Communications and Policy Branch

Featuring: Stanley G. Grizzle

Voiceover for the French version of this podcast trailer: Lerntz Joseph

Narrator biographies

Narrator

Stanley G. Grizzle , the eldest of seven children, was born in Toronto in 1918. His parents, both of whom immigrated from Jamaica in 1911, worked in the service sector: his mother as a domestic servant and his father as a chef for the Grand Trunk Railway. Poverty and a lack of opportunities led Grizzle to the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) in 1940, where he began a 20-year career as a sleeping car porter. In 1942, he was conscripted by the Canadian Government, attaining corporal status while he served as a medic in Holland. In 1962, Grizzle left the CPR and became the first Black Canadian to be employed by the Ontario Ministry of Labour. He ran unsuccessfully for the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation before being appointed by Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau as a judge in the court of Canadian citizenship in 1978. A devoted activist, Grizzle campaigned tirelessly for reforms in Canadian labour, immigration, and human rights policies. He was also an avid historian dedicated to documenting and preserving Black History in Canada. His collection is held at Library and Archives Canada. (Source: 402546)

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