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Military Lecture: The No. 2 Construction Battalion – Keeping History and their Legacy Alive

October 21, 2021

This month we welcome Sergeant Craig Marshall Smith, M.O.M to present The No. 2 Construction Battalion – Keeping History and their Legacy Alive.

This lecture will speak to the history of the No. 2 Construction Battalion and the work that has been done to keep their history alive, including the work of the late Senator Calvin Ruck and The Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia over the past 38 years. The lecture will include the call for an official apology from the Canadian Military and Government. We will also discuss the efforts of the late Capt. George Borden who wrote the open letter to the Government that helped provide the nudge needed to make this become a reality.


Did you miss the live event? Watch the recording of Military Lecture: The No.2 Construction Battalion below:


About Sergeant Craig Marshall Smith, M.O.M.:

Craig Smith is standing to the camera in his military attire and his uniform is decorated with ribbons.

CRAIG SMITH is a Halifax based author, former president / board chair of the Black Cultural Society for Nova Scotia, who is in his 25thyear with the RCMP.

Craig’s working career includes; Halifax North Branch Library – Library Youth Worker, Director of the Community YMCA and the Metropolitan Authority as a Transit Operator, before beginning his RCMP career.

Craig has written extensively on African-Canadian achievement and he has lectured and conducted presentations on Black Canadian history, race relations and policing from a Black perspective across Canada and in the United States. In Boston and Detroit in 1999. Gainesville, Florida 2003, Ottawa, Saint John, Charlottetown and Vancouver 2012, Washington, DC and Ottawa 2015, Montreal 2017, Indianapolis, Indiana 2018 and Louisville, Kentucky 2018.

In 2009, Craig developed and rolled the African-Nova Scotian Cultural Competency one-day Workshop for employees in H Division and in 2018, Craig and a group of four others came together and transformed the one-day course into the nationally recognized, week-long African-Canadian Experience Course.

Craig has written and published five books, including two on the Black experience in the RCMP;. You Had Better Be White By Six A.M. – The African Canadian Experience in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police(2006) Educational edition released in (2017) and HerStory – Black Women Making A Difference in Canadian Law Enforcement (2020). He has also appeared in a number of historical video documentaries which include: The Long Road to Justice: The Viola Desmond Story; Soul on Ice ESPN video on the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes.

Craig has received a number of awards and in recognition of his work in the area of diversity, inclusion and race-relations including: Harry Jerome Award 2012; Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal 2012, the Dr. Burnley A. Jones Nova Scotia Scotia Human Rights Award in 2014. In March 2015, Craig was appointed to the Police Order of Merit of Police Forces by His Excellency, The Honourable David Johnston, Governor-General of Canada. He is the first African-Nova Scotian police officer and first African-Canadian RCMP member to receive his honour.

Offered in partnership with the Laurier Centre for Military, Strategic and Disarmament Studies.

Details

Date:
October 21, 2021
Event Categories:
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Organizer

Guelph Museums

Venue

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