Dorothy Abbott

Dorothy Abbott has served as a volunteer Director of three NFP organizations in Ontario; theOntario Black History Society; the Grey County Black Heritage Society, which was launched inMarch 2021; and the Owen Sound Emancipation Festival. She also acted as the Social Directorat the Etobicoke Yacht Club. Family ties have kept her firmly rooted to the Grey County community since birth and she will continue to support the study of the areas’ rich Black History despite the distance between Owen Sound and her hometown of Toronto. After adecades long career in the financial sector, she took on the role in 2018 as Producer of the North is Freedom photo exhibit by Yuri Dojc which features the photos and stories of descendants of former enslaved families who came north on the UGRR and settled in Ontarioand the east coast. She is a mother and grandmother who has performed BHM presentationsat her grandson’s schools to help educate young children about some of Canada’s missing History.

And what started out as a hobby, an interest in genealogy and her family origins, developedinto a passion to recognize and promote Black Canadian history as it is influenced and affectedby our original African roots right through to the slave trade in the US, Caribbean and Centraland South America. This has resulted in several exploratory trips to the southern USA and onward to islands such as St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Grenada and others to trace her family tree. Most recently in 2026, she had the opportunity to travel to Tanzania and Zanzibar to witness some of the many programs and partnerships that have been developed and flourished therewith the assistance of the Government of Canada and other agencies around the world.