Black Canadians is a designation used for people of Black African descent, who are citizens or permanent residents of Canada.[2] [3] The majority of Black Canadians are of Caribbean origin, though the population also consists of African American immigrants and their descendants (including Black Nova Scotians), as well as many African immigrants.[4] [5]

Black Canadians often draw a distinction between those of Afro-Caribbean ancestry and those of other African roots. The term African Canadian is sometimes used by Black Canadians who trace their heritage to the first slaves brought by British and French colonists to the North American mainland;[3] thousands of Black Loyalists and an estimated ten to thirty thousand fugitive slaves settled in Canada after the American Revolutionary War, such as Thomas Peters. Many Blacks of Caribbean origin in Canada reject the term African Canadian as an elision of the uniquely Caribbean aspects of their heritage,[6] and instead identify as Caribbean Canadian.[6] Unlike in the United States where African American has become a widely used term, due to controversies associated with proper designation of African or Caribbean heritage, the term Black Canadian is accepted in the Canadian context.[7]

Black Canadians have contributed to many areas of Canadian culture.[8] Many of the first visible minorities to hold high public offices have been Black, including Michaëlle Jean, Donald Oliver, Stanley G. Grizzle, Rosemary Brown and Lincoln Alexander, in turn opening the door for other minorities.[9] Black Canadians form the third-largest visible minority group in Canada, after South Asian and Chinese Canadians.[10]

According to the 2006 Census by Statistics Canada, 783,795 Canadians identified as black, constituting 2.5% of the entire Canadian population.[10] Of the black population, 11% identified as mixed-race of white and black.[11] The five most black-populated provinces in 2006 were Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, British Columbia, and Nova Scotia.[10] The ten most black-populated