Montreal’s 2025 Black History Month calendar: February to April, honouring laureates
Posted February 14, 2025 2:45 pm.
Last Updated February 17, 2025 8:09 pm.
“All That We Carry” – that’s the theme of a free calendar that is released annually as part of The Round Table on Black History Month.
It features 12 Quebec laureates, each representing a month of the year.
February: Nancy Oliver
Independent writer, amateur archivist, and former teacher, Nancy Oliver is featured in the calendar, representing the month of February.
Oliver told CityNews about how she has been working with the archives of Union United Church. She says she saw a great gap in the information that was available, and was curious to know more details about the history of the church.
“I couldn’t find it written anywhere, so I started to dig myself. I went through the microfilms of the newspapers, going back to 1907, of course, when the church began, and I found little snippets there. From there, it just grew. When the 100th anniversary of the church came around, I suggested that, you know, it’s about time that the Black community, especially Union United Church, would showcase some of the important people and events that have happened through the church,” she said.
Oliver had an exhibition at Montreal City Hall, showing photographs of some of the accomplishments of people of Union United Church, as well as what goes on today in terms of outreach, music, sports, and personalities who found solace in the church.
“My impetus was wanting to know myself. That’s what spurred me to start searching for the history of the church, and it’s been so rewarding because there have been so many interesting and exciting personalities who have been through the church that people don’t know about. I feel that it’s about time the whole community realizes that the Black community has been part of the history of Montreal as well; it just has not been showcased the way I feel it should be,” she said.
Oliver showing that this is a true passion of hers.
“I just love it. I could do it 25 hours a day. I really do. It really is a passion for me, and I love it. I will never stop doing it, as long as I can,” she said.
Part of her work as a former teacher, inspired her to do what she is doing today.
“I realized, especially when I was teaching in Africa, that there’s a whole other way of looking at the world, and of experiencing the world, and of sharing your knowledge, from we have in North America and the way I was brought up,” she said.
“I was brought up here in Canada, and there’s a whole different perspective that we really need to take into account. In fact, what we call it today is that diversity is the key to progress, really. You know, the more different points of view you have, the richer your experience will be,” she added.
She says feels privileged to have such a wealth of support around her.
“I’ve met so many young Black women who are students from Concordia who have been interested in what I’ve been doing, who’ve helped me in so many different ways. I really appreciated meeting them, and I hope for the future because of them.”
March: Patrice Vilcéus
Patrice Vilcéus is featured in the calendar for March.
He joined the Montreal police department (SPVM) in 1994 and later rose to detective sergeant – overseeing investigations involving organized crime.
Vilcéus is actively involved in recruiting police officers from minority communities.
In 2004, he established the celebration of Black History Month within the SPVM, and, in 2006, organized a tribute to Édouard Anglade, the City of Montreal’s first Black police officer.
April: Régine Tardieu-Bertheau
April highlights the work of Régine Tardieu-Bertheau, founder of Centre Professionnel Alter-Natives, an organization putting mental health at the forefront by trying to make services accessible to a wider range of people using a cross-cultural approach.
“Culture is the lens through which people see the world, express emotions. And too often, I see that it is overlooked. It’s overlooked in therapies, for example. So for us, it’s really important to put culture, ethnicity in the process of therapy, because it really makes people comfortable because they can be themselves and not cut off part of themselves just to fit to the ‘normal’ client,” she said.
As for working with clients indirectly, Tardieu-Bertheau says they are also training professionals, health and mental health professionals, professors, and students who are going to be working with clients.
It is meant to teach them, “How to learn about how to be aware of culture and how it can translate into their work so that they can provide better services to their multicultural clientele,” she said.
Although she is the one who is featured in the calendar, she says she has a dynamic team behind her who help make a positive difference in other people’s lives.
“I’m very happy that our work is recognized. And I must say I have a wonderful team working at Alter-Natives, and they are highly skilled. They have, you know, the heart at the right place. They are culturally skilled to work with our diverse ethnic clientele. So, I’m very happy that our work is recognized, and putting the transcultural approach forefront is, you know, being seen as something positive.”
