On December 8, the Federal government announced Canadian civil rights icon Viola Desmond will be replacing Sir John A. MacDonald as the face on the new $10 bill starting in 2018.

We asked Airdronians what they knew about the civil rights icon.

Most people we talked to knew very little, having only recently heard about Desmond with the currency announcement.

"She's gonna be on the new ten dollar bill. Didn't she do something for black rights?" said one gentleman.

"Um, no. No, I do. She was a pioneer for something, I heard on the radio today. She's gonna be on the front of the $10 bill," said another lady.

In 1946 Desmond became a civil rights icon after being arrested and charged for sitting in the wrong section of a segregated theatre in Nova Scotia.

At the time of Desmond's passing in 1965, she had not received a pardon or any acknowledgment of racial discrimination with her charge.

 

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