Nursing and the Nation: Gloria Baylis and Black Canadian Citizenship

Abstract: In September 1964, Gloria Clarke Baylis, a British-trained Barbadian nurse filed Canada’s first racial discrimination lawsuit. In response to an advertisement, Baylis, a bilingual nurse, inquired about a part-time position at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel and was told the position had been filled. Using court documents based on Her Majesty the Queen, Complainant vs. Hilton of Canada, Ltd and The Canadian Nurse “small scale investigation about discrimination in nursing” (April 1966), this presentation draws parallels between the Canadian nation and nursing. First, it foregrounds the exclusionary history of nursing and the state in relation to Blackness, while engaging with the specificities of Montreal. From there, the presentation focuses on Baylis’ testimony, and what it yields and inhibits about gender as a theoretical framework when other vectors of difference such as race, language, and sexuality are present. An examination of Her Majesty the Queen, Complainant vs Hilton of Canada and the Canadian Nurse brings to the fore how the nation and nursing might be reimagined. By wrestling with, and making obvious both the state’s and nursing less than pristine past, the objective is to legitimatized Black citizenship through Baylis actions.