Howard Joel Munroe was an African Guyanese young man who was only twenty years old when he was murdered by a group of white supremacist youth on May21, 2001 in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. Many people believe the myth of Canada as a non-racist country. The murder of Howard Joel Munroe is one of many incidents that put the lie to that myth!!

1. MURPHY BROWNE (Abena Agbetu)
Howard Joel Munroe was 20 years old when he was stabbed to death on Monday, May
21, 2001 while attending a Victoria Day celebration in Kitchener, Ontario.
Munroe was brutally slain at Victoria Park in Kitchener where members of the
Kitchener community had gathered to celebrate the highlight of the long weekend.
He was targeted by a group of White supremacists because of the colour of his
skin. Munroe would now be 34 years old if his life had not been cut short by a
gang of White supremacist cowards. The gang of reportedly 50 White men attacked
Munroe without provocation, beat and stabbed him to death. The police refused to
acknowledge that it was a hate crime and instead classified the murder of a
young African Guyanese man by a gang of White supremacist youth as “gang
violence.“ Admittedly there was a gang of White youth involved but this was not
a case of two gangs at war; instead a mob of White youth had “ganged up“ on an
African youth and viciously beat and stabbed him to death. On May 27, 2001, by
which time police had not made any arrests, the Black Action Defence Committee
(BADC) was invited to speak to members of the African Canadian community in
Kitchener. BADC support was sought to bring attention to the seeming lack of
police action. Dudley Laws who at the time was Executive Director of BADC
addressed a gathering in the Kitchener Church of God church. BADC and a group of
organizations and activists concerned about racism in Kitchener and the seeming
lack of police action organized a protest rally for Saturday, June 2, 2001.
“Charge the killers with murder“ was one of the chants as we marched since it
seemed the police were dragging their feet although many people had identified
the members of a White supremacist group as the murderers of Munroe. Eventually
almost 3 years after the brutal murder of Munroe the police in Kitchener
arrested 3 White men and they were charged with the murder of the 20 year old
Munroe. The information from “Kitchener Court File No.5212/03 Citation: R. v.
Young et al., 2004 ONCJ 421“ read in part: “Dirk William Young, Robert Thomas
Barges and David Edward Miller. All three accused are charged jointly with first
degree murder arising out of the death of Howard Joel Munroe on May 20, 2001 at
Victoria Park in the City of Kitchener.“ Even after they were arrested and
charged the trial of the 3 White men (of the 50 who swarmed, kicked and stabbed
Munroe to death) did not get underway until March 2006. Dirk Young was found
guilty of second-degree murder by a jury of 6 White men and 6 White women.
Robert Barges who admitted to stabbing Munroe in the chest and pled guilty to
second degree murder was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole
for 10 years. David Miller who pled guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to
5 years in prison and 3 years probation only spent 1 day in prison after the
trial because he had already spent 2 1/2 years in pre-trial custody which was
credited on a two-for-one basis. Barges and Miller are no longer in jail but
Munroe never got to celebrate his 21st birthday and will not celebrate another
birthday.
Every year at this time I remember Howard Joel Munroe and the abrupt end to his
life by a group of White supremacists who obviously did not think that “Black
lives matter!“ During the George Zimmerman trial I travelled to Florida and I
thought about Munroe. I found myself comparing the reaction of the African
American community to the murder of Trayvon Martin, to the reaction of the
African Canadian community to the brutal murder of Munroe. Maybe the memory of
the murder of Munroe has stayed with me because his family comes from the
Courtland/Fyrish/Gibraltar area of the Courentyne where generations of my
ancestors lived and where my father was born. This was the area to which the
body of the 20 year old Munroe was returned and laid to rest in 2001.
In June 2011 (10 years after Munroe was murdered) Statistics Canada released
data that identified Kitchener as having “the highest rate of police-reported
hate crimes in Canada, at just under 18 incidents for every 100,000 people.“
Although Canada has not recently experienced the spate of murders of racialized
people by White civilians and police as the USA when any such killing do occur
it is not as publicized. African Canadians have supported the actions of African
Americans as they protest the extrajudicial killing of African Americans in New
York, Ferguson and Baltimore. Almost 3 weeks ago on May 2 “Black Lives Matter
Toronto“ organized a protest in front of police headquarters in Toronto to
express solidarity with the people of Baltimore protesting police killings and

2. to demand an end to police brutality in Canada especially the Toronto police
practice of “carding“ which disproportionately targets African Canadian youth.
As quite as it is kept Canada has a history as brutal as America when it comes
to the treatment of Africans. While most of us know the horror stories of
slavery in the USA, Jim Crow, the oppression and lynching of African Americans
by White Americans, similar stories of brutal White Canadians are well hidden.
The hanging of enslaved African woman Marie Joseph Angelique in Quebec is one
such story. Marie Joseph Angelique who was accused of burning down half of
Montreal on April 10, 1734 was tortured and hanged even though the evidence was
hearsay and inconclusive. On May 26, 1734 Amable Lemoine Monière (5 year old
White child) the 23rd and last witness against Marie Joseph Angelique was
called. None of the witnesses had seen her light a fire yet on May 26, 1734
after the last witness testified the King“s attorney requested that the accused
should be tortured to obtain a confession. Marie Joseph Angelique was tortured
by having the bones in her lower leg and feet broken until she confessed to the
crime. She was hanged, her body burned and the ashes scattered in Montreal on
June 21, 1734.
In the USA the stories of Emmett Till, Trayvon Martin and others who were the
victims of racist murderers are well documented. In Canada the story of Howard
Joel Munroe has to be gleaned from old newspapers or from the memories of those
who attended the protest marches and meetings in Kitchener. Similarly the heroes
and sheroes who resisted their enslavement in the USA are well known but in
Canada the names of Marie Joseph Angelique, Peggy Pompadour, Chloe Cooley and
others are hardly ever heard. In Canada Black Lives are worth Remembering/Black
Lives Matter in Canada!!
tiakoma@hotmail.com