(Version française disponible ici.)
On May 28, 2026, France adopted a bill officially repealing the Code Noir, the 1685 law that had regulated enslavement in the French colonies. The vote came just days after the 25th anniversary of the Taubira Law, adopted in 2001, which made France the first country in the world to recognize the transatlantic slave trade and enslavement as crimes against humanity.
A few weeks earlier, Canada had chosen a different course. On March 25, 2026, Canada abstained from a historic vote at the United Nations General Assembly on a resolution introduced by Ghana and the African Union that described the transatlantic slave trade as the “gravest crime against humanity.”
Canada’s abstention cannot be reduced to a mere diplomatic detail. It reveals a persistent discomfort with Canada’s own history of enslavement and colonialism and he present-day consequences of that history for policies on memory, recognition, and public health. It disrupts the development of identity and sense of belonging among people of African descent living on this territory.
A past Canada still struggles to acknowledge
Canadian history is still too often presented through the myth of a country that served solely as a refuge for people fleeing enslavement in the United States through the Underground Railroad. This history is real, but it is incomplete.
Canada also practiced enslavement for more than two centuries. African and Indigenous people were enslaved in New France and later under British rule. In Quebec, the story of Marie Joseph Angélique – accused of setting fire to Montreal after learning that she was at risk of being sold – remains one of the best-known examples of this historical reality.
Universities, fortunes, and social structures also developed within a context shaped by this human exploitation. Yet this dimension of Canadian history remains largely absent from the collective memory.
In 2018, Canada officially recognized the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent. Many saw this as an opportunity to advance meaningful work on memory, justice, and reparations. But over time, political and institutional attention to the realities of communities of African descent appears to have lost momentum.
The fact remains there can be no genuine collective healing without historical recognition.
Historical silence has public health consequences
The legacy of enslavement does not belong only to the past. Its effects continue to run through families, institutions, and social trajectories.
For several years, efforts have been undertaken to encourage the opening of a national dialogue on the historical and contemporary consequences of enslavement in Canada. Among the demands were official recognition of this history, support for research, public education, the creation of memorial spaces, and greater consideration of the intergenerational consequences for the mental health of Black communities.
These issues are particularly important in the field of public health.
Some progress has been made: funding for community organizations, the development of culturally responsive research, and growing recognition of racism as a social determinant of health. Yet these advances remain fragile.
In the spring of 2026, the Public Health Agency of Canada ended an expert working group dedicated to these issues just days after Canada’s abstention at the United Nations vote. Such a decision illustrates the persistent difficulties in sustainably embedding these concerns within public policy.
Building transdisciplinary spaces capable of seriously reflecting on suicide prevention, mental health promotion, and the realities of African, Caribbean, and Black communities requires years of trust-building and collaboration. Dissolving such initiatives further weakens populations already facing persistent inequalities in healthcare, housing, employment, and social recognition.
How trauma and memory cross generations
For many years, researchers, clinicians, and community practitioners have examined the links between enslavement, colonization, racism, and mental health. Numerous studies have explored how historical trauma can be transmitted from one generation to the next, affecting self-esteem, sense of belonging, and health trajectories.
These reflections do not concern only the descendants of people who were enslaved. They question the ability of societies to acknowledge their own history, an essential condition for building genuine diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Turning recognition into real equity
Canada must move from recognition to repair
Is addressing anti-Black racism in Canada still a policy priority?
Frantz Fanon analyzed the profound psychological consequences of colonization, dehumanization, and historical violence. In The Wretched of the Earth, he demonstrated how the refusal to acknowledge certain forms of violence ultimately affects both oppressed people and the societies that seek to forget their historical responsibility.
A society that refuses to look honestly at its past compromises its ability to build equitable justice. A democracy that avoids certain historical truths sustains structural inequalities under the guise of neutrality. And a health-care system that ignores the historical and racial dimensions of trauma risks reproducing the same exclusions it claims to fight.
Recognition is the first step toward repair
Recognizing Canada’s history of enslavement does not mean blaming present generations. Rather, it means accepting that part of the country’s collective prosperity was built upon the exploitation and dehumanization of entire populations.
It also means understanding that present-day inequalities in mental health, poverty, discrimination, or overrepresentation in the prison system did not emerge spontaneously. They are rooted in a long history whose effects continue to be felt today.
Bioethics teaches us that no lasting healing is possible without truth. While the principle of beneficence can guide action, we must first have the courage to acknowledge the forms of maleficence that contributed to creating and perpetuating these wounds.
No patient can be adequately treated if we refuse to name the source of their wound. Why should it be any different for entire communities?
Historical silence does not erase wounds. It prolongs them. Canada must therefore begin a genuine dialogue about its history of enslavement, the contemporary forms of racism that are its legacy, and the policies necessary to repair the harms that persist.
Recognition is not the end of the process. But it is an essential first step toward reconciliation and repair.
