Viola Desmond

In November 2022, the Toronto International Film Festival announced that the largest screening room at the TIFF Bell Lightbox will be named the Viola Desmond Theatre in 2023.

In April 2021, the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board announced a new elementary school named after Desmond. The Viola Desmond Elementary School educates 682 students in kindergarten through to Grade 8 and opened in September 2021.

In 2021, prompted by a request from Ontario high school student Varishini Deochand, the Government of Nova Scotia offered a symbolic repayment of Desmond’s original court fees to her only surviving family member, Robson. When Robson said she would use the money to make a one-time donation for a scholarship at Cape Breton University, the Province increased the repayment from the current valuation of $368.29 to $1,000. The province also issued a commemorative cheque to display in its legislature. Original court costs were $26.

Desmond’s life and broader issues of racial discrimination in Canada are the subject of a play developed by Toronto playwright Andrea Scott. Controlled Damage was produced by Halifax’s Neptune Theatre in association with b current productions of Toronto. The play premiered at Neptune on 4 February 2020 with Halifax actress Deborah Castrilli in the role of Viola Desmond.

On 28 January 2019, Temma Frecker, a Nova Scotia teacher at The Booker School, was awarded the Governor General’s History Award for her class’ proposal to build a statue of Desmond in Cornwallis Park. Her proposal was to include the existing Edward Cornwallis statue among three other statues of Acadian Noël Doiron, Black Nova Scotian Viola Desmond and Mi’kmaq Chief John Denny Jr. The four statutes would be positioned as if in a conversation with each other, discussing their accomplishments and struggles.

In February 2019, Royal Canadian Mint announced the release of first Black History Month coin, a pure silver coin featuring Viola Desmond.

In April 2019, the International Bank Note Society (IBNS) selected Canadian ten-dollar note featuring Viola Desmond to receive Bank Note of the Year Award for 2018.

In late 2018, Desmond became the first Canadian woman to appear alone on a Canadian bank note—a $10 bill which was unveiled by Finance Minister Bill Morneau and Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz during a ceremony at the Halifax Central Library on March 8, 2018. Desmond was also named a National Historic Person in 2018.

Desmond was named a National Historic Person on January 12, 2018.

In June 2018, Canada’s Walk of Fame star was unveiled at the Halifax Ferry Terminal.

In June 2018, at the request of a local city councillor, Scarborough community council approved the renaming of Hupfield Park as Viola Desmond Park. The park is located in the Malvern neighbourhood of Scarborough within Toronto

In July 2018, a short stretch of Forbes Street in New Glasgow outside of the former Roseland Theatre was renamed Viola’s Way.

Google’s July 6, 2018 Doodle, created by Google artist Sophie Diao, celebrates the life and legacy of Viola Desmond, and was distributed across Canada.

On July 7, 2016, a Halifax harbour ferry was launched bearing her name.

On December 8, 2016, Viola Desmond was chosen as the first Canadian woman to appear on her own on the Canadian ten-dollar note after being on a shortlist of five. Viola was first black person and a non royal to feature on $10 bill. On November 26, 2018, the Bank of Canada released a new design of the $10 bill, celebrating Viola Desmond’s achievements in the civil rights movement. The back of Canadian-ten-dollar note featured a map of Halifax historic north end along with Canadian museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg. While Agnes Macphail appeared on a note in 2017 with three men, Desmond was the first non-royal woman to appear alone on a regularly circulated note.

On February 2, 2016, Historica Canada featured Desmond in a Heritage Minute, filmed in High River, Alberta, in June 2015. The video features Kandyse McClure as Viola Desmond. She became the first historical woman of colour to feature in a Heritage Minute.

The Government of Nova Scotia also apologized. Desmond’s younger sister Wanda Robson and Graham Reynolds, a professor of Cape Breton University, worked with the Government of Nova Scotia to ensure that Desmond’s name was cleared, there was a public acknowledgement of the injustice and Nova Scotia reaffirmed its commitment to Human Rights. The provincial government declared the first Nova Scotia Heritage Day in her honour in February 2015. Desmond’s portrait also hangs in Government House in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

In 2012, Desmond was portrayed on a commemorative stamp issued by Canada Post.

In 2010, Desmond was granted a posthumous free pardon, the first to be granted in Canada. A free pardon deems the person granted the pardon to have never committed the offence and cancels any consequence resulting from the conviction, such as fines, prohibitions or forfeitures. However, it was not until 2021 that the government repaid the $26 fine to her estate in the form of a $1,000 scholarship that adjusted the amount to reflect the time value of money. The Crown-in-Right-of-Nova Scotia also apologized for prosecuting her for tax evasion and acknowledged she was rightfully resisting racial discrimination. In 2016, the Bank of Canada inaccurately announced that Desmond would be the first Canadian woman to be featured on the front of a Canadian banknote, but that honour went to Agnes Macphail, who appeared along with three men on a small print run commemorative note issued in 2017 to mark the 150th anniversary of Confederation.

In 2010, Mayann E. Francis Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia unveiled a portrait of Desmond which is on permanent display in the Ballroom at Government House (Nova Scotia).

On April 14, 2010, the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, Mayann Francis, on the advice of Premier Darrell Dexter, invoked the Royal Prerogative and granted Desmond a posthumous free pardon, the first to be granted in Canada. The free pardon, an extraordinary remedy granted under the Royal Prerogative of Mercy only in the rarest of circumstances and the first one granted posthumously, differs from a simple pardon in that it is based on innocence and recognizes that a conviction was in error. Francis, herself a Black Canadian, remarked: “Here I am, 64 years later – a black woman giving freedom to another black woman”, about her signing of the pardon.

In 2000, Desmond and other Canadian civil rights activists were the subject of a National Film Board of Canada documentary Journey to Justice. A documentary film was made about her, entitled Long Road to Justice: The Viola Desmond Story.

After the trial and encounter with the legal system of Nova Scotia, her marriage ended. Desmond closed her business and moved to Montreal where she could enroll in a business college. She eventually settled in New York City, where she died from gastrointestinal bleeding on February 7, 1965, at the age of 50. She is buried at Camp Hill Cemetery in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Viola Desmond joined her husband Jack Desmond in a combined barbershop and hairdressing salon on Gottingen Street. On November 8, 1946 while on a business trip to Sydney to sell her beauty products, Viola Desmond’s car broke down in New Glasgow. She was told that she would have to wait a day before the parts to fix it became available. To pass the time while waiting, she went to see The Dark Mirror starring Olivia de Havilland at the Roseland Film Theatre.

Her sister, Wanda Robson (1926-2022), wrote a book about activism in her family and her experiences with her sister, titled Sister to Courage. Desmond was also the subject of a children’s book Viola Desmond Won’t Be Budged by Jody Nyasha Warner.

Viola Irene Desmond (July 6, 1914 – February 7, 1965) was a Canadian civil and women’s rights activist and businesswoman of Black Nova Scotian descent. In 1946, she challenged racial segregation at a cinema in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia by refusing to leave a whites-only area of the Roseland Theatre. For this, she was convicted of a minor tax violation for the one-cent tax difference between the seat that she had paid for and the seat that she used, which was more expensive. Desmond’s case is one of the most publicized incidents of racial discrimination in Canadian history and helped start the modern civil rights movement in Canada.

Viola Desmond was born on July 6, 1914, one of ten children of James Albert and Gwendolin Irene (née Johnson) Davis. Viola was raised by her father and mother in Halifax. Viola’s father worked as a stevedore for number of years before he became a barber.