LCM Attorneys formally recognizes Black History Month. While we continue learning about Black History this month, here are a few additional suggestions to foster continued exchanges and discussions.

The month of February is an important opportunity to highlight the strength, resilience, and successes of the Black community. It is also an opportunity to acknowledge, denounce, and reflect upon the issues and inequalities that still disproportionately affect this community.

Mtre Extra Junior Laguerre, Bâtonnier of the Montreal Bar, has defined his mandate with the theme "Right to Diversity". We invite you to listen to his engaging speech. Also, the entrepreneur Habi Gerba, new President of the Montreal Young Chamber of Commerce, intends to increasingly promote entrepreneurs from diverse communities. We must be partners in these crucial endeavors.

We invite you to learn more and get involved throughout the month of February, and the years ahead, to support the Black community:

- Check out the programming offered by the Black History Month Roundtable under the theme "Honoring the Past, Inspire the Future"

- Support causes that promote and support the Black community, such as: Pour 3 points (an organization that trains coaches who in turn support underprivileged youth), La Maison d'Haïti (an organization supporting the Haitian community and community action in Quebec), and/or CABL-Quebec (Canadian Association of Black Lawyers, in which our colleagues Carle Jane Evans and Réginal Labonté are involved)

- (Re)Read books by Black authors, such as the Haitian-born Quebec writer Dany Laferrière (the first Quebecker and second Black man to be inducted into the French Academy), Maya Angelou (American pioneer, writer, and poet, and the first Black woman to be featured on an American coin), Toni Morrison (the first African-American author to win the Nobel Prize in Literature), Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigerian writer and feminist activist), and/or Ta-Nehisi Coates (author and journalist, including as a correspondent for The Atlantic).

- Learn more about becoming an ally and taking concrete action in this essay by American author and historian Ibram X. Kendi.

Encouraging you all to be agents of change and to "inspire the future" for the benefit of all.