Jean Augustine was born in Happy Hill, Grenada. When she was a year old, her father had died, and she and her mother moved in with an older woman in their village that encouraged Augustine to excel in school. After graduating high school, she worked as a teacher for several years.
At 23, Augustine immigrated by herself to Canada on the Canada-Caribbean Domestic Program, which required her to work as a domestic servant on her arrival. The family she worked for recognized she was overqualified for the job and found her a clerical position at a billing firm. After taking evening classes at the Toronto Teacher’s College, she became an elementary school teacher at the Metropolitan Separate School Board in Toronto while furthering her education at the University of Toronto, earning a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Education. When she got promoted to principal, she became one of the first black school principals in the country.
Upon her arrival in Toronto, she became active in various educational and social organizations, such as the Urban Alliance on Race Relations and the National Black Coalition of Canada, and served as a board member of many of them, including The Hospital for Sick Children, York University, the Stephen Lewis Foundation. Her community work led her into politics, and she became associated with the local branch of the Liberal Party. In 1985, at the age of 48, Augustine was appointed to the transition team for new Ontario premier David Peterson, which named her chair of the Metro Toronto Housing Authority in 1988. During the six years she held the position, she became more involved with the national Liberal Party leadership.
In 1993, at 56, Augustine was the Liberal Party candidate for a seat in the House of Commons from the Etobicoke-Lakeshore section of Toronto. When she won the federal elections, she became the first Black woman elected to the Parliament of Canada. During her 13 years in parliament, she chaired numerous committees, including the Human Rights Committee, the Foreign Affairs and International Trade committee, and the National Women’s Caucus.
In 2002, she was appointed Secretary of State for Multiculturalism and the Status of Women in Canada, making history as the first Black woman appointed to the federal cabinet. Two years later, Augustine was appointed Assistant Deputy Chair of Committees of the Whole, the first Black person to occupy the Speaker’s Chair in the Canadian House of Commons. In 2007, 70 years old Augustine left the parliament to become the first Fairness Commissioner. In this position, she established new regulatory standards for ensuring access to employment for Canadians with foreign professional credentials.
At the age of 78, she retired from her official role and continued working and advocating for many social causes, mainly through the Jean Augustine Centre for Young Women’s Empowerment she established in 2014.
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