Yusra Khogali stood in line with the mayor of the city and raised her fist straight up in the air.

Standing at a microphone in the council chamber at city hall moments later, she called for a response: “Black lives, they matter here!” Those who came to support her seated in the public gallery shouted it back again and again.

Khogali, an artist who helped found the Black Lives Matter Toronto chapter was one of two of the first recipients of the Pam McConnell Award for Young Women in Leadership Thursday night. In accepting the honour, she demanded the city do better to recognize “we are still living in an anti-Black city.”

“I’m really grateful and there’s an abundance of joy and thankfulness in my heart,” she said at the podium as Tory and other city officials listened. “But I’m also recognizing that I’m getting this award on the premise that there’s work to be done. Because Black people are dying multiple deaths trying to survive in this city.”

The city is still consulting on carding, Khogali noted. “Street checks”, as police call them, have been found by data analyzed by the Star to have disproportionately targeted Black people.

“Black people are being brutalized for not being able to afford the TTC,” she said, referencing an incident where witnesses and video footage saw a teen grabbed and then restrained by both TTC and police officers near St. Clair Ave. W. and Bathurst St.

Black Lives Matter has pushed for justice in the case of the police shooting of Andrew Loku; camped outside police headquarters in 2016; and has recently been fighting to stop the deportation of former child refugee Abdoul Abdi, who the government has admitted to failing.

Much was made of an old tweet Khogali sent that said, “Plz Allah give me strength not to cuss/kill these men and white folks out here today.” Hatred continues to be directed at her today.

Following that backlash, she wrote in the Star: “I put my rage and trauma into words, not action, not threat. Faced with hate, I sought restraint from god and support from my online community.”

She noted at the time, Mayor John Tory was quick to respond to reports of the tweet but had yet to comment on the protest outside police headquarters. After calling a meeting of Black community leaders, but not inviting Black Lives Matter representatives, Tory was eventually forced to include the young activists.

Tory prefaced the awards Thursday by giving a short speech, acknowledging both Khogali and winner Talisha Ramsaroop, who were selected by a panel that included McConnell’s daughter Heather Ann. Tory said he hoped both would run for public office and follow in McConnell’s footsteps by “advancing the interests in women in Toronto.”

“These were things that she did out of love as well as out of passion and commitment.”

Councillor Wong-Tam, who handed out the awards, thanked the winners for “making us uncomfortable.”

“They like to push the boundaries. They’re going to be persistent. and they’re going to advocate and agitate for change. And sometimes it’s going to be uncomfortable and I think that’s actually OK because that’s how things get done,” Wong-Tam said.

Khogali noted in her speech how difficult it is to be a Black woman taking a leadership role.

“As I continue to do this work for my people, I want to ask this question to the people who make decisions in this very room: What are you doing meaningfully to change the lives of Black people in this city?” she said.

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“Because when you raise issues of anti-Black racism, instead of the government responding meaningfully to these critical interventions, they choose to pacify, ignore and silence Black women who are the front lines making these interventions.”

She said she doesn’t dream of one day ending up back in the council chamber.

“I’m not interested in running for public office,” she said. “What my goals are, are Black liberation.”