Canada’s sugar industry is a central part of Canadian history. But it’s also a violent history built on a foundation of enslaved and indentured labour.

Today in The Conversation Canada, Donica Belisle from the University of Regina shines a light on this industry by tracing the history of Canadian sugar from past to present.

Belisle explains how Europeans, in what is now Canada, played a role in the transatlantic sugar and slave trades. She also writes about how Canadian sugar companies sourced cane sugar from plantations that employed indentured workers and were rife with horrendous living and working conditions.

Belisle explains that by reflecting on the origins of the sugar industry, we can “work toward greater recognition for those who have laboured in the local and global Canadian sugar industry.”

Also today:

Regards,

Eleni Vlahiotis

Assistant Editor, Business + Economy
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