Editor’s note: This Email to the Editor is in response to a city budget document citing Bob Turner as “the first Black person hired as a recreation director in Canada.”
The City of Cornwall is planning to mark the significant contribution Bob Turner, as the City’s first Black employee and Recreation Director made to the Cornwall.
Before they proceed, more research will show that Cornwall was not the first municipality to hire Mr. Turner. That honour resides with the Town of Colborne, where Mr. Turner was hired as Canada’s first Black Recreation Director in 1954.
Prejudice, however, led Mr. Turner to leave Colborne in favour of Cornwall to run this City’s Recreation program.Arriving in the late 1950s with his family, Mr. Turner’s tragic early death caused the community to mourn his loss.
Mayor Nick Kaneb said “…that as a result of his work, Cornwall had developed one of the best recreation programs for any city its size and even larger centres in Canada.”
Ian Bowering
Cornwall