Balarama Holness, a law student and community organizer who once played professional Canadian football, is becoming a leading voice against systemic racism in Canada. He has grabbed Canadian headlines after mobilizing a grass-roots movement over the past two years that pushed Montreal’s City Hall to hold hearings on systemic racism. Holness observes that while Canada has sought to portray itself as a progressive, liberal bastion, the reality is far more sinister, with Indigenous people subjugated, Black residents in Toronto 20 times as likely to be killed by the police than white residents, and historical amnesia.