Emancipation Day

Ontario has been the only province to have marked Emancipation Day, but now it is officially a federal day in Canada, after members of parliament in the House of Commons voted unanimously in March 2021 to designate it nationwide for August 1st — denoting the day in 1834 that the Act came into effect.

History of Emancipation Day
The British, like other colonial powers, had allowed the widespread practice of slavery to take place during the time of expansion to the new world. In 1772, the ruling in the case of Somerset v Stewart determined that slavery was unsupported by the common law in England and Wales. While the ruling was not clear on the situation in other parts of the Empire, this case was seen as a key turning point in the change towards emancipation.

Slavery was finally abolished throughout the British Empire by the Slavery Abolition Act 1833, which came into effect on August 1, 1834. The territories controlled at that time by the East India Company, Ceylon (modern-day Sri Lanka) and St. Helen's were excluded. Slavery was not abolished in these regions until 1843.