The Black Community Resource Centre (BCRC) is a Montreal-based organization established in 1992 that provides professional support to English-Speaking public organizations, families, and individuals within the city’s Black communities. The BCRC is a member of the Black Community Forum that aims to develop, plan, and support effective partnerships within the Black Community. Dr. Clarence Bayne holds the position of president of the BCRC, and Jamar Scott the position of Vice-president and chair of Finance Committee. The BCRC is located in 6767 chemin de la Côte des Neiges, and offers information and referral services, support to schools, workshops, and a documentation center. The Black Community Resource Centre has partnered with several organizations such as the Quebec Community Groups Network, the English Montreal School Board, Volunteer Bureau of Montreal, Centraide du Grand Montreal, and the Batshaw Youth and Family Centres, among others, to facilitate workshops, training and programs on health, social services, education, anti-racism, self-esteem, community building, conflict resolution, socio-culture and community development for the integration and empowerment of Montreal minority groups including Black Youth. Dedicated to empowering the Black-Anglo community of Montreal, the centre has developed the Book Project, a historical account of the evolution of the English-speaking black community and Black in Quebec, an in-depth research study into the English-Speaking Black Community in Quebec that aims to provide Black Community Organizations with accurate information, data and sources on their communities.
Patricia Cambridge was born on November 18, 1939, in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. She migrated to Canada in the 60s and obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies from Concordia University and a master’s degree in Urban Planning from McGill. Cambridge was involved in several community organizations and for several years she was the coordinator of the St. Vincent and Grenadines Association of Montreal’s annual Pageant and Dance. She was also involved with Project Genesis, a community organization that assists individuals affected by social inequalities. Cambridge worked as an Urban Planner for the Quebec Human Rights Commission, the City of Châteauguay, and the government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. She also worked as a freelance for the Afro-Canada Citizens Enhancement Society and the Black Community Council of Quebec.
Patricia Cambridge and Alfie Roberts had a daughter and two sons.
Canada Weekend Post was a monthly Black community newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, from October 1986 until February 1990. The founder and managing director of the newspaper, Neville "Nato" Brown, started the project to provide a platform for sharing relevant information and news related to Africa and the Caribbean. The paper had many contributors, including Caldwell Taylor, Anne Farray, Egbert Gaye, and Gemma Raeburn-Baynes. The office of Canada Weekend Post was first located at 2425 Grand Boulevard, and later relocated to 958 Girouard Avenue, Montreal.
Canada Weekend Post documented topics of interest to the English-Speaking Black communities of Montreal. Among other issues and topics, it covered politics, health, fitness, sports, arts and entertainment, community events and business announcements. Canada Weekend Post also included book reviews, letters from readers, and photographs. The publication aimed to share Caribbean and African perspectives and self-expression. It developed and supported the writing skills of young community members by including contributions written by children on its children page and a column written by and for teenagers titled “Speak Up.”
In 1990, due to personal financial challenges, the newspaper ceased production.
Alphonso (Alfie) Theodore Roberts was born in St. Vincent and the Grenadines on September 18, 1937. He attended St. George’s Anglican School and St. Vincent Boy’s Grammar School. Roberts was awarded a scholarship to study at Queen’s Royal College in Trinidad and Tobago where he was selected to play cricket internationally for the West Indies cricket team. He later stopped playing cricket as his interests in politics and education grew over sports. He worked as a civil servant in St. Lucia between the years 1958 and 1962 and moved to Canada at the age of 23 to study at Sir George Williams University in Montreal (Quebec), where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Political Sciences. He later obtained a graduate diploma in Public Administration from Carleton University.
Roberts was involved in several community organizations in Montreal. Significantly, he was a founding member of the St. Vincent and Grenadines Association of Montreal. He also helped establish the International Caribbean Service Bureau and was a member of the Emancipation 150 Committee, which organized the Emancipation 150 Conference. After working for 20 years at the administration department of SIDBEC, a steelworks company in Montreal, Roberts decided to return to his studies and registered at Dawson College as a full-time mature student in the Political Science program.
Roberts was a political activist. Along with contemporaries like Franklyn Harvey and Rosie Douglas, Roberts organized conferences and events that supported several major political movements in the Caribbean. These events also brought renowned Caribbean thinkers and writers - including C.L.R. James and George Lamming - to Montreal.
During the independence of St. Vincent 1979, Roberts submitted a proposal to the government highlighting the importance of adding the smaller islands to the country’s name. His proposal was accepted by the government, renaming the country St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Alfie Roberts was Married to Patricia Cambridge with whom he had a daughter and two sons. He died in Montreal on July 24, 1996.
Velma Weeks Barker, born Velma Carmen Weeks, was born in Montreal in 1925. She graduated from Westmount High School and later studied at the Canadian Kindergarten Institute, graduating in 1945. In 1949 she graduated from Dr. Eliot's Nursery Training School of Boston, later known as the Eliot Pearson Department of Child Study of Tufts University. When she returned to Montreal she established a preschool program at the YMCA in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce.
Weeks Barker was Vice-President and Quebec representative to the Canadian Association for Young Children for several years and was a founder and lifetime member of the Nursery School Teachers of Greater Montreal. She is a highly regarded childhood educator and throughout her life, was a leader in the field of Early Childhood Education. In 1983, she received the Bothwell-Smith Award for Excellence in Early Childhood Education. In 1992, she received the Elks of Canada Academic Achievement Award. In 1993, she received an honorary doctorate from Concordia University for her contributions to the field (Doctor of Laws, honoris causa).
Weeks Barker attended the Negro Community Centre in Little Burgundy and Union United Church, where she married her husband Darnley Cecil Barker, with whom she had a son named Spencer. Velma Weeks Barker died in 2016.