3 Black leaders in Sask. share their brushes with racism and how they're fighting against it

From the abolition of slavery to the modern civil rights and Black Lives Matter movements, Black leaders have long fought against systemic injustice.

The 2025 theme for Black History Month is Black legacy and leadership. CBC Saskatchewan is profiling local leaders whose work not only honours the legacy of past Black activists, but also reinvents the spirit of resistance for a new generation.

Jayna Amadasun, a leader in business

When Jayna Amadasun came to Canada more than a decade ago, her path to employment was strewn with challenges.

Amadasun did her nursing degree in the Bahamas, starting her career as a registered nurse, but went on to earn further degrees, including a doctor of medicine degree in the Dominican Republic and a master's in medical law and ethics in Scotland. 

But when she arrived in Canada, those qualifications didn't seem to matter.

"Coming to Canada 11 years ago, doors were constantly closing," she said. "There were people you'd meet who were driving taxis, with medical degrees."

She took an entry level administrative job, thinking she'd build her career from the ground up, but was surprised to find herself dealing with derogatory comments and inappropriate emails from her co-workers.

"Racism and discrimination in the workplace will break you down emotionally," she said.

She resigned from that job and began looking to transition into a new career. She's since become an author and a business coach, and took on volunteer roles, including chair of Black Canadian Women in Action, the Multicultural Council of Saskatchewan, and the Rotary Club of Regina Eastview.

She said it's important for her to speak up for people in industries like health care who are subject to discrimination, but feel they can't advocate for themselves.

"It's being a voice for someone who, at that moment, may not have the knowledge, education or courage to speak up for themselves," she explains.

Regina and Saskatchewan are home to her now. She said it's important she uses her skills and knowledge to encourage people to push past barriers like racism and discrimination that threatens to hold them back. 

"It doesn't have to be us against them, or them against us. We're here to build a community."

Petrice Dyer pushes for grassroots activism

Petrice Dyer knows what it takes up to stand up against racism in the workplace.

She first came to Canada as an international student in 2011 before taking up a job in Yorkton, Sask., and working her way up to financial manager.

She shared a story about a day at work where she was using a broom to sweep up a necklace that had broken, spilling beads on the ground. She said a co-worker made a blatantly racist remark about her Jamaican heritage.

"You should be sweeping the floor because you're from Jamaica," the co-worker said. "[Instead], you're sitting in the office, collecting the big bucks."

She said that moment showed her that despite her professional experience, she was still seen through the lens of her skin colour.

"That for me was a shock. I didn't expect to experience that level of racism, especially in a corporate setting."

She escalated the matter to management and received an official apology, but her bigger goal was to see people in the workplace get educated about racism.

The co-worker had been in the job for around 30 years. Dyer acknowledged that ignorance may have played a role in their racist outlook.

"Racism is a learned behaviour," she said. "If we can learn it, we can also unlearn it."

She's since left Yorkton to work in Saskatoon's banking and finance sector, while also managing her own event planning and decor business.

She's also a board member of the Truly Alive Youth and Family Foundation, a non-profit that serves Black and minority communities in Saskatoon.

The group holds monthly meetings with people in industries like policing, health, justice and education to talk about systemic oppression.

"People sometimes are afraid to raise the issue [of racism], for fear of judgment or that they might get in trouble."

She wants people to know they don't have to remain quiet about injustice and, even if they can not speak for themselves, they can come to her or others willing to help amplify those concerns.

"My personal mission is to see that everybody is united as one, and [Black people] are not judged or doubted for occupying space that we have rightfully earned." 

Ibukun-Oluwa Fasunhan, amplifying Black voices in art

Writing gives Ibukun-Oluwa Fasunhan a way to channel his frustration, and challenge the racism and discrimination he sees in the world around him.

"The awareness of my skin colour and preconceptions about Black people happened when I relocated to Canada," said Fasunhan, who's originally from Nigeria and came to Canada in 2022 to study as a Ph.D student at the University of Regina.   

He began a mini social experiment, watching people's behaviour closely and seeing how people of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds reacted to different situations.

That observation led him to write his first play staged in Regina. Rites of Passage delves into the complexities of racial bias within Canada's immigration system by portraying the experiences of a Black immigrant compared with those of a mixed-race Canadian.

He said he pours his frustrations out into his first drafts. One of his first readers of Rites of Passage commented, "If people see this, they're going to beat you up."

In the follow-up and the edits, he said he tries to think more objectively about why things are the way they are and bring that understanding to audiences.

His follow-up work, Off Guard, draws from real-life accounts of Black international students facing discrimination, bringing academic research to life on the stage.

Fasunhan said he feels lucky that he's employed as the southern artistic director at Common Weal Community Arts, as it allows him to focus his work on advocacy and find ways to amplify Black and minority voices.

"I look forward to a society where racial divides no longer dictate opportunities," he said.

"It may seem far off, but I hope that day comes."

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.