When Sara Ghebremusse arrived at the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia in 2017, she was the only Black female professor in the faculty. She had been working toward the position for several years. Her family is from Eritrea, where mining companies are accused of forced labour and other human rights violations, and Ghebremusse pursued law with an interest in economic and environmental justice. At Allard, one of the most prestigious law schools in Canada, she wanted to be an activist academic, researching and teaching about the devastating effects of resource extraction in African countries.
She knew she was stepping into a space that wasn’t designed for Black voices. Only about 4 percent of students enrolled in the country’s twenty-four law schools are Black, according to the Black Law Students’ Association of Canada. Systemic, financial, and cultural hurdles can make it difficult or impossible for Black students to be accepted into these programs, let alone to pursue the profession. As part of her activism, Ghebremusse wanted to help reform the admissions process at Allard.
