Montreal family’s lineage is older than Canada
Posted June 26, 2025 5:43 pm.
Last Updated June 27, 2025 12:28 pm.
Stephen Brown is a fifth-generation Canadian. His family came to Canada via the Underground Railroad. His bloodlines are English Irish Mohawk Cherokee and African American.
He says, “We can trace it [their roots] back to coming out of West Africa, up the coast to Guinea-Bissau, there’s a tribe called the Balanta that had an exact match with our DNA. And that tribe actually comes from Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan. And a tribe’s called the Balanta, which means the ones who resist. I think that kind of describes our background.”
Brown’s family came to the British territory that was to become Canada in 1793. He says his father arrived in what later became Canada, “in the 1850s via the Underground Railroad and following the North Star Cross in the Detroit area. Canada was formed in 1867.”
His mother’s family actually came out of the Texas area, coming North, they were sharecroppers and settled in Saskatchewan, Alberta, and again in the 1850s.
Brown sheds light on some of the issues that he feels affect Canadians.
He says, “Prejudice and discrimination, yeah, that’s the likes and dislikes. But we have the opportunity to overcome them. And we have enough people in this country who can hear the truth.
“Racism is a systemic approach to, I would describe as a division of the world’s wealth based on race. And it’s nothing personal, it’s just business. And the people that do that have the means and the intelligence to run that system into manufactured concerns.”
Throughout his career, Brown had the opportunity to travel to every province in the country, except Prince Edward Island.
He says, “When you go to the breadth of this country, there are still pockets of people that don’t like immigrants, don’t like people of different religious persuasions, whatever else, but there are people that do. And there will always be, for those that resist, the opportunity to continue to transform this country, even in this province, Quebec.”
As for what factor helps determine your success, Brown had this to say, “Your economic position determines schooling, your healthcare on and on it goes. And if you have the opportunity to create economic wealth, you have the opportunity to survive in a country that will allow you to do that. And that’s what Canada represents to me.”
Brown knows there are many challenges Canadians face today.
He says, “I’d say it’s a fight for our identity. You know, that encompasses everything from the 51st State talk to the challenges that we face in encompassing other ethnic groups and religious practices.
“I think our biggest challenge is sorting out who we are so that we can have life, have liberty, and we can pursue happiness.”
