Emancipation Day subject of TV special

Canada’s first official Emancipation Day will be recognized with a two-hour television special.

The show, scheduled to air Aug. 1 at 8 p.m. on CBC and CBC Gem, will include a film produced by actor and writer Ngozi Paul, who created the Global TV series “Da Kink in My Hair.”

It will feature four original songs from several Black Canadian artists, including R&B singer Jully Black, soprano Measha Brueggergosman, and Iraqi actor and musician Ahmed Moneka. It was shot at St. Lawrence Hall, site of the 1851 North American Convention of coloured Freemen and also a former terminus of the Underground Railroad.

Emancipation Day, commemorating the day slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire in 1834, has long been celebrated by Black Cana- dians but was officially recog- nized by the House of Com- mons last year.