New police SUV recognizes the Black Community

By Staff

August 28th, 2021

BURLINGTON, ON

Pride is breaking out everywhere; this time it is within the Black community that took part in the presentation of a police SUV that was decorated with images that came from the community.

The Regional Police have decorated another SUV – those colours are certainly West Indian.

Earlier today the Halton Regional Police Service (HRPS) Black Internal Support Network and community partners gathered at Police Headquarters to unveil the HRPS Black Heritage Police Cruiser.

Colours just burst from the cruiser.

The cruiser design was conceived by the Queen of Heaven Catholic Elementary School’s Inclusion, Diversity, Anti-Racism and Equity (iDARE) Committee, comprised of Bonnie Wiltshire, Valerie Nelson, Sokomba Effiong, Gabriella Ball, Margaret Keats, Andrea Domenico, Jane Thomas, and Amos Olujide. The group submitted the design as part of a design contest held in February 2021.

“This design concept seeks to lay a foundation for healing and a path forward for the Black Halton community and the HRPS working together with a common understanding and a common purpose,” says Bonnie Wiltshire, Chair of the iDARE Committee, the winning design team.

“The intertwined ribbon design on the cruiser weaves the narrative of enslavement of Black Peoples in North America to the resilience as they fled to safety, whose stories became footprints of success on the landscapes of both Halton and Canada. The words inscribed along the ribbon are just merely some of the ways the Black community in Halton and Canada have contributed to the very fabric of these communities and paved the way for others,” adds Wiltshire. “Further, the ribbon is symbolic of the strong threads that bind the Black community and their allies together as we create new paths to success and strengthen our community as a whole. The ribbon is composed of the colours that represent both Black History Month 2021 and the HRPS to further emphasize those symbolic connections.”

The cruiser also features a quote from Jean Augustine that resonated with the design team for its overarching message about the celebration of Black history. The quote reads, “Black History is not just for Black People. Black History is Canadian History.”
The vision for the HRPS Black Heritage Police Cruiser was created by members of the HRPS Black Internal Support Network and funded by African and Caribbean organizations, who have graciously provided a one-time $2,500 academic scholarship to the winning design team.

The iDARE Committee has presented St. Francis Xavier Catholic Secondary School graduates, Vanessa Broomfield-Bryce and Alisa Robinson, a Queen of Heaven High School Graduate Scholarship in the amount of $1250 each, with the funds from the contest. The two students will use this to help support their post-secondary studies.

The HRPS would like to thank the following community partners for their support:

• African Caribbean Council of Halton
• Black Mentorship Inc.
• Burlington Caribbean Connection
• Canadian Caribbean Association of Halton
• Caribbean and African Coalition of Canada
• Halton Black History Awareness Society
• Halton Regional Police Association
• I am. I can. I will.

These partnerships represent relationships both new and old for the HRPS, and we are eager for the opportunity to learn from their lived experience, not only through this initiative but also through future endeavours.

“I am so proud  says

Jean Augustine – first African Canadian Women to be elected to the House of Commons.

Dr. Jean Augustine, the first African-Canadian to be elected a Member of Parliament, who paved the way for Black History Month in Canada was proud   to “participate in the unveiling of the HRPS Black Heritage Cruiser where the message is around who we are as a community,”

“From police services, to community groups and educators, this work around diversity and inclusion is an important message for people to see. Black history is Canadian history and we all need to recognize that.”