Zanana Akande

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Zanana L. Akande (born 1937 in Toronto, Ontario) is a former Canadian politician. She was the first black woman elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, and the first black woman to serve as a cabinet minister in Canada.

Before entering politics Akande was a teacher and school principal, and she returned to being a principal after leaving politics. She holds Bachelor of Arts and Master of Education degrees from the University of Toronto, and was also educated at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. She has long been a member of the Federation of Women Teachers Associations of Ontario.

Akande was also the co-founder of Tiger Lily, a newspaper for visible minority women, and once co-hosted a Toronto Arts Against Apartheid Festival. She was a member of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation in her youth and was friends with future NDP leader Stephen Lewis and his siblings, and was a longtime member of its successor, the New Democratic Party.

Akande was elected for the Ontario New Democratic Party in the Toronto riding of St. Andrew—St. Patrick in the 1990 election. The NDP unexpectedly won a majority government in this election, and Akande was named Minister of Community and Social Services in Bob Rae's first cabinet on October 1, 1990.

As minister, Akande presided over an increase in welfare benefits to Ontarians at the lowest income level. Her government initially planned to phase out the province's food banks as part of an anti-poverty strategy, but was forced to accept their continued existence.

Akande's time in cabinet was brief, however. She was caught in a conflict of interest controversy involving unsold real estate, and was also accused of rent-gouging in properties she operated in a low-income region of Toronto. Akande's husband also died in late 1991, after which she was dropped from cabinet to became parliamentary assistant to the premier.

Akande remained in that position until August 31, 1994, when she resigned from the Legislature in protest against Rae's handling of the Carlton Masters controversy. A by-election for the riding was subsequently called, but was superseded by the 1995 election.

She is now the president of Toronto's Urban Alliance on Race Relations, and was an investor and member of the founding board of directors of Milestone Radio, owners of Canada's first urban music radio station, Flow 93.5 in Toronto. She has also served on the board of directors of the Harbourfront Centre.

In 2003, Akande was involved in a public controversy with Progressive Conservative cabinet minister Bob Runciman, who had attributed some of the city's increasing black-on-black crime rate to poor leadership within the community. She has also been extremely critical of racism within the Ontario Provincial Police and the Toronto Police.