Looks like the new $ 10 bills, on which a woman, Viola Desmond

COURTESY / Bank of Canada

Frédéric Guindon

Thursday, 8 march 2018 15:57

UPDATE
Thursday, 8 march 2018 15:57

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The activist against racial segregation Viola Desmond becomes the only woman, with the exception of queen Elizabeth II, to appear on the banknotes in current circulation in Canada.

Unveiled today in Halifax, on the occasion of the international Day of the rights of women, the new notes of ten dollars will pay tribute to the town nicknamed the “Rosa Parks of canada”.

AFP

Since Viola Desmond died in February 1965, this is his sister, Wanda Robson, that is income the honour to discover first the appearance of the new banknotes.

Who was Viola Desmond?

Business woman scotian black, she has challenged racial segregation at a cinema in New Glasgow, in 1946, by refusing to leave a bench in the section reserved for Whites.

As a black person, he was instead asked to take a seat at the mezzanine.

Not accepting such a division, Desmond braved the manager of the cinema, settling down on the floor. He then took the intervention of the forces of law and order to her to leave her seat, not without clashes.

Arrested and thrown in prison, she was never informed of his right to contact a lawyer.

This arrest and prosecution to which it had given place are often cited as having stimulated the movement for racial equality in Canada.

Many special features

In addition to the historical representation of a black woman, this new version of the ticket of $ 10 that includes many distinctive elements.

There are, among others:

• A plan of the North End neighborhood of Halifax, where lived and worked Desmond;
• Metallic reflections in an illustration of the dome of the Library of Parliament;
• The canadian Museum for human rights in Winnipeg;
• An eagle feather, a symbol of values such as truth, power and freedom in the eyes of the First Nations;
• An excerpt from the canadian Charter of rights and freedoms;
• Laurel leaves, a symbol of justice in Antiquity.

COURTESY / Bank of Canada

COURTESY / Bank of Canada

The new notes of ten dollars will be put into circulation at the end of 2018.