Protesters hit the streets of Toronto, Ont., on Saturday to commemorate Emancipation Day, which marks the day in 1834 that more than 800,000 people of African descent across the British Empire were freed from slavery.

Demonstrators said Saturday they were marching not only to honour their ancestors but to call attention to the discrimination and racism that exists in Canadian institutions.

“Until we look at those frameworks and look at the different tentacles and how they’re impacting our society, we will never really be free,” Yvette Blackburn with the Global Jamaica Diaspora Council explained to Global News.

The Act for the Abolition of Slavery received Royal Assent throughout the British colonies on Aug. 28, 1833 and came into force nearly a year later, on Aug. 1, 1834.

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