Premieres Monday, July 6, 2026 at 10 p.m. on KPBS TV / Stream with KPBS+
Revealing the largely untold history of anti-Black racism in Canada, “True North: Canadian Myths and Black Power” will premiere on PBS’s INDEPENDENT LENS. Through historic archives and the voices of those who lived through 1960s Montreal, “True North” explores pivotal events that impacted the global movement for Black liberation.
In 1968, the war in Vietnam was escalating, African nation-states were decolonizing, and revolutionary activity was increasing in the Caribbean. Civil unrest reverberated throughout the Western Hemisphere. In Montreal, protests were led by taxi drivers, teachers, and police officers. During this politically charged climate, a group of students converged, hailing from Jamaica, Haiti, Trinidad, and elsewhere in Canada. Their anti-colonial ideas merged with Montreal's Black communities’ long-standing spirit of social change. As student protests ignited the Sir George Williams Affair at one of the city’s anglophone universities, Black youth faced violent repression, unfolding a powerful chapter of the global Black Power era.
Featuring never-before-seen footage and centering the voices of Black students and activists who lived through these events, “True North” weaves intimate personal accounts with historical analysis. The film illuminates a pivotal chapter in the Black Power movement and its lasting impact on the global struggle for Black liberation.
“True North” also revisits the convergence of Black liberation movements at the Congress of Black Writers, held at McGill University in October 1968. Widely regarded as the largest Black Power conference held outside the United States, it featured speakers including Stokely Carmichael (a.k.a. Kwame Ture), Alvin Poussaint, James Forman, and C.L.R. James. These titans of thought and politics discussed the meaning of Black Power and the challenges faced by communities across the Black diaspora.
Montreal’s Congress of Black Writers later fed into and influenced the Black student leaders of the Sir George Williams Affair. In 1969, incensed by a racial incident involving a white faculty member, over 400 students and activists occupied the school’s computer labs in protest. What ensued was a violent reaction by the Canadian government and Montreal's police against Black youth seeking justice.
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Credits: Director Michèle Stephenson. Producer: Leslie Norville.
