The holiday celebrated on the first Monday of August — giving many, but not all Canadians a mid-summer, long weekend — is known by many names.
It's British Columbia Day in Canada's western-most province and Natal Day in Nova Scotia.
But in Ontario, the holiday Monday is known by more than one name. Ottawa celebrates Colonel By Day and it's Joseph Brant Day in Burlington.
In Toronto, however, it's known as Simcoe Day in honour of John Graves Simcoe, Upper Canada's first lieutenant governor and the man who initiated the abolishment of slavery in Canada.
Toronto City Council established the civic holiday in honour of Simcoe in 1869.
It's no coincidence that, in of all places, Simcoe's name still resonates in southern Ontario.
Simcoe was a known supporter of abolition.
Simcoe introduced his ill because of an incident — the Chloe Clooey incident.
Simcoe received word of a slave owner violently abusing his slave, a girl by the name of Chloe Clooey, on his way across the Niagara River where he went to sell her into the United States. It was said that her screams were heard by many and the matter was brought to Simcoe's attention by Peter Martin, a former slave.
It was his impetus to introduce the bill, but it was then met by objection from a number of the members of his government.
Many members of the legislative assembly at the time owned slaves of their own and so resisted Simcoe's urge to abolish slavery in Canada.
The resulting law was a compromise that would gradually lead to the end of enslavement.
The act allowed slave owners to maintain the workforce they already had — who would remain enslaved until their death.
Owners were not allowed to purchase new slaves from the United States and any children of female slaves that were born after the act was passed would become free at the age of 25.
Simcoe's anti-slavery act was the first to pass in a British colony and remained in effect until August 24, 1833, when Britain's Slavery Abolition Act put an end to slavery in most of the empire.
Emancipation Day is celebrated across the former British colonies. Countries in the Caribbean as well as Canada and some parts of the United States mainly observe these days in August because of the Slavery Abolition Act.
Although the name is still only cemented in Toronto, the entire province of Ontario has dedicated the civic holiday to Emancipation Day since 2008.
Comments