Dr. Clement Courtenay Ligoure’s story’s occurs during a very challenging time to be Black in North America. Hailing from Trinidad, he moved first to New York City, and then to Southern Ontario, where he attended Queen’s University, from 1916 which he obtained a Bachelor of Medicine. As racial tensions rose in Canada, Queens would soon ban Black students from the medical program. Though repealed in the 1960s, the law remained on the books until 2018. Other Canadian universities also banned Black medical students, including McGill, the University of Toronto, and Dalhousie.
Dr. Clement moved to Nova Scotia, possibly hoping to become the medical officer of the No. 2 Construction Battalion, which was actively recruiting Black soldiers from across Canada, the U.S., and the Caribbean. Not only was Dr. Ligoure passed over in favour of a White Doctor for the battalion, but he could not get a job as a physician in the city.
Undeterred, Dr. Ligoure contributed to Halifax’s Black social life and small group of Black intellectual elites, helping to start the Atlantic Advocate newspaper. He also opened his own hospital on North Street. These challenges ultimately put Dr. Ligoure in the right place at the right time. On December 6, 1917, the SS Imo collided with the munitions ship the SS Mont Blanc, causing the most enormous explosion until the U.S. dropped the first nuclear bomb on Japan.
Here at this location, Dr Ligoure ran the only medical station in the area for several days until the resources could be mobilised to assist him. Throughout December, Dr Ligoure treated hundreds of patients a day and visited others who were too ill to move.
Unfortunately, Dr Ligour’s health suffered, and he passed away at the early age of 34. His legacy lives on in the Dr. Clement Ligoure Award which is bestowed to physicians “for their excellence in guiding Nova Scotians through unprecedented times.”
Image Credits:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/dr-clement-ligoure-halifax-explosion-playwright-david-woods-edward-thomas-queens-1.5829241
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/dr-clement-ligoure-halifax-explosion-playwright-david-woods-edward-thomas-queens-1.5829241
https://db-archives.library.queensu.ca/index.php/ligoure-c-c
Video:
Historica Canada
