TORONTO — Jamaican-born Chris Campbell learned the colour of his skin could bring out the worst in some people shortly after he took his first construction job in Toronto in the late 1980s.
Campbell was in his first week as a journeyperson carpenter, working at the nuclear generating station in Pickering, Ont. As he walked into the lunchroom packed with building trades workers to sit down for a sandwich, Campbell passed a table where one worker shouted, “Why are we letting these negro monkeys in here?”
It was a sinking feeling but Campbell says it didn’t stop there.
“There were over 100 workers in the lunchroom and I could hear some of them laughing about it,” he recalls.
As Campbell dropped his lunch pail to the ground to confront the worker, one man came to his aid, James Morris, a colleague and journeyperson, who put his hand on Campbell’s shoulder to calm him and walk him out of the lunchroom.
“Over the span of my 30-year career I have been called racist, derogatory names on the job as an apprentice, journeyman and even as a representative of the union (Carpenters’ Local 27) but hearing that in a room full of construction tradespeople, with only one person stepping forward to assist me, had more impact than any other,” says Campbell, a business representative for Local 27 for the past 15 years.
Times have changed for the better but racism and discrimination based on the colour of one’s skin can still rear its ugly head in construction in Toronto, says Campbell, who has never let anger get the better of him.
In the past three decades he has taken on many volunteer posts, helping to guide underprivileged young people to careers in the trades.
It’s garnered Campbell several notable community awards, establishing him as a role model for young black people joining the Carpenters’ Union
“I’ve done well for myself and my family,” he says. “For me, every chance I get to help others is my way of saying, thank you.”
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