Woman described as Canada’s Rosa Parks to appear on banknote
Viola Desmond will grace the front of the $10 bill
GATINEAU, Quebec: A black woman often described as Canada’s Rosa Parks for her 1946 decision to sit in a whites-only section of a Nova Scotia movie theatre will be the first Canadian woman to be celebrated on the face of a Canadian banknote.
Finance Minister Bill Morneau said Thursday that Viola Desmond will grace the front of the $10 (Dh27.87) bill when the next series goes into circulation in 2018.
A businesswoman turned civil libertarian, Desmond built a business as a beautician and mentored young black women in Nova Scotia.
It was in 1946 when she rejected racial discrimination by sitting in a whites-only section of a New Glasgow movie theatre. She was arrested and fined. Her actions inspired later generations of black people in Nova Scotia and the rest of Canada.
