While white settlers brough along the Black people held as slaves when they came to Canada, by 1767 there were 104 free Black persons living in such geographic areas of Canada as Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. The future American War of Independence of 1775-1783 came with the British promise of freedom to enslaved Africans who enlisted to join the military effort, thus advancing the granting of freedoms to people of color. Besides, in 1793 in Ontario, introduction of new slaves became limited based on John Graves Simcoe’s Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada’s legal action. An Act to Prevent the further Introduction of Slaves and to limit the Term of Contracts for Servitude Statutes of Upper Canada ¹ appeared to limit new slaves while retaining the status for existent slaves who did not receive any advancement or reinterpretation to their political and legal position in Canada. Regardless of the persistent complexity Canada became a destination for slaves in search of freedom and space for abolitionist movement.

Simultaneously, racial discrimination and oppression made Canada – United States border significant for Black North American migrants who searched to better their conditions. The human rights as they are known today and upheld by the United Nations, while came into action in Europe, were not obligatory to the advancement of the rights of women, Jews and the Blacks in the United States of America. Rights could not have been dictated by the European discourse on human rights that originated much prior to their adoption in 1948. In its own spirit of determination United States of America introduced its constitutional framework in 1789, formally began abolishment of slavery in 1864 through ratification of the 13^th Amendment of the United States Constitution, however legally abolishment of slavery is contested by the regulation of the rights of the African Americans that are as recent as in 1960s introduction of Civil Rights Act of 1964. United States has been and remains free to decide on their interpretation of social, political and legal realities without obligation to accept and ratify in accordance with other’s propositions while common relations are upheld and debates are ongoing.

Changes in demographic and social constructions of North America accompanied the important decisions made in history across Canadian and United States of America boarders. In 1962 the Immigration Act reform has been initiated by the Canada’s first female cabinet minister, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Ellen Fairclough and in 1982 people were to see Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom ² to make its way into Canada’s Constitution and to set path to constitutional guarantee of protection against discrimination for all Canadians, thus addressing the matters of race, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, sex, age, mental or physical disability.

Needless to mention, complexity is the very essence of historical processes, reforms and advancement of societies throughout human history. Socio-political reshaping of mentality and one of overall important political technologies of contemporary times became the notion of ‘multiculturalism’. The very underpinning of mentality is social. ³ Regulated are not the thoughts, but the behaviors, person’s relations with the surrounding as contested those structures could be. Multiculturalism became seen as an introduction of a factor of sustainable development. A significant role became given to cultural minorities in the life of society and the recognition of value of their cultural and lived experience congruence. However not only as such, but also as a political technology wrong usage of which can cause destabilization of society and occurrence of political disbalance.

United States’ 1961 adoption of ‘affirmative action’ contained in executive order 10925 initiated by President John F. Kennedy and further 1965 orders 11246 and 11375 that reinforced the significance of affirmative action as a legal principle to sufficiently ⁴ uphold freedom of African Americans initiated by President Lindon Johnson meant nondiscrimination during employment process due to irrelevance of racial, national, religious belongings or color of the applicant’s skin. Over the course of history American Blacks became a separated nation due to lack of freedom and hope and otherwise participants in the disbalance of the citizen’s rights whereby government became required to seek correction of overarching past and present discrimination.

Attempted quota systems in education and employment, advancement of participatory and economic distribution keenly aware of racial and ethnic minorities and women that would not consequence in disruptions to retention of experience and qualification, merit-based systems have varied in their success. Further concerns of elite circulation or maintenance of status quo among middle- and upper- class African Americans and Hispanic Americans at the cost of lower-class European Americans and Asian Americans lacking advantage meant the problem of leaving the less privileged and socialized into equitable participation overall outside of representative participation. Thus, concluding in, not all members of the same group were further able to access the freedoms that were extended to otherwise people with shared lived history.

Not only education and employment, but legal sentencing raises ⁵ the question of a holistic approach since for example Canadian experience of racism as experienced by African Nova Scotians could differ from Black people’s experience in other parts of the country or across the boarder in North America and would require thorough interpretation and reinterpretation for common conception of justice and the public good that demonstrates itself as not as some abstract, but rather receives meaning in relation to its context. As might be expected, additional limitations and constructs are overall posed by differences between foreign and American born Black person. ⁶   

Meritocracy and elite circulation leave to question acknowledgement of need for not only inclusion, but diversification and representation, as well as achievement of such encompassing knowledge systems. Provision of access and reach to opportunities for a very diversified range of people is a complex process, but necessary advancement. Records of biased and stereotypical incidents note that names can already be a barrier to interview success rate, therefore leaving interviewers and all involved unable to negate the need for aware and attentive decision making that is quite often ridden with typical behaviors or mental shortcuts. ⁷ Differentiation and stratification that acknowledge social unevenness represented by material inequality and unequal privilege and access to privilege, as well as historic complexities conclude in tensions that inevitably exist once multiple groups become involved. ⁸ People have complex historic and biographic lived experiences that inform their interactions with others and general understanding and perception of already complex and layered circumstances. Whereby this is not a matter of false promise or handout equity reductive to the very essence of human dignity, rather this is a matter of ability of freedom of thought, choice of particular profession and participation. The ability to excel in those activities of choice and scientific participation should not be denied by politics due to structural, layered complexities, power dynamics and non-acknowledgements that partially arise from lack of holistically informed perspective. In this pursuit, some of the notable Black lawyers ⁹ include Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative that litigates on behalf of condemned prisoners, juvenile offenders, people who are wrongly convicted or charged, poor people denied effective representation and those whose trial is marked by racial bias or prosecutorial misconduct and Mariam Wright Edelman founder of the Children’s Defense Fund, as well as many others. In 2012 Canada seen the first Black judge in the Court of Appeal, among other achievements Justice Michael Tulloch made significant contributions to Canadian legal practices and legislative reform, as well as became a founding member of the Second Chance Scholarship Foundation to help youth from at-risk background to pursue a post-secondary education after experience of encounter with criminal justice system. Additional significant efforts are a part of addressing the issue of over-representation of Black girls when it comes to suspensions, expulsions and arrests among youth population. ¹⁰ Assessment of overrepresentation of black girls and their criminalization, as well as their experience of being understudied along criminalization and pathologization of black males ¹¹ adds to analysis of complexities of race and gender experiences.

Politics of ‘affirmative action’ in United States of America raised clear and distinct to American political technological contribution questions of equal rights of people of different race and skin color, men and women, people without health limitations and people with limited abilities, religious and atheists, representatives of various religious confessions, people of different age and sexual orientation, people with disabilities and veterans. Such created tangible career and income opportunities for earlier disadvantaged groups of people and increased abilities to contribute to the wealth of social capital participatory in construction of interlaced future. Nonetheless, there is still a lot of work to be done to achieve peace among citizenship holders, reduce inter-ethnic, social, political and spiritual tension. Historic complexity in mind, social justice is a consistent discussion centered around citizen’s society, citizen and government.