SYDNEY — When Isaac Phills (born Jan. 11, 1896, died March 9, 1985) was awarded the Order of Canada in Canada's centennial year of 1967, it was a significant honour for the man as well as his community.
Phills was born in dire poverty in the West Indies before coming to Canada. And while he may have a special place in Canadian history as the first black man to receive the prestigious honour, of equal significance was the role he played in showing his immigrant community of Whitney Pier — Cape Breton's historic "melting pot" — that any man, through hard work and determination, could overcome hardship and build a rich life for themselves and their families in a new land.
In short, Phills wasn't honoured for being a captain of industry or a well-known politician or athlete. He was recognized for the example he showed in building a good life for his family that saw his seven children all receive excellent educations and find their places in the world as ministers, doctors, teachers, chemists and nurses.
Isaac Phills' story began in St. Vincent, West Indies, where he and his wife, Alda, were born. He immigrated to Canada in 1916 as a trained, 20-year-old agriculturalist.
Unable to find an opening in his chosen field, he began working at the Sydney steel plant, where he would spend 45 productive years. But not before serving in the Armed Forces of his new country, as it supported Great Britain's cause in the First World War.
Not surprisingly, this was another historic endeavour. Phills spoke about his service with the No. 2 Construction Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, the only black battalion in Canadian military history, in Calvin Ruck's book, "The Black Battalion 1916-1920, Canada's Best Kept Military Secret," saying, "In Sydney after the war started, quite a few Blacks volunteered for active service and were told point blank, 'We don't want you. This is a white man's war.' However, in 1917, the Canadian Army was up against it. They had lost a lot of men in France. At that point, they were willing to take anyone. Conscription came in, and they took the Blacks and the Whites. You had no choice — you had to go."
Home from the war, Phills settled into his new community and put down deeps roots, enduring the Great Depression and the labour conflicts that came with establishing a union in those difficult days. All the while, Phills never took his eye off the ball when it came to determining his family's priorities, as shown in this excerpt from a 1961 Dosco industry publication, found in the Beaton Institute's files at Cape Breton University, that featured the Phills family:
"Depression, strikes, illness and other problems were taken in their stride. The great steel strike of 1946 was typical of the setbacks they faced. Isaac and two of his boys were out of work as a result of the strike, but both boys — with one year of university behind them — returned to school in the fall.'The sacrifice on the part of our parents,' one of them related recently, 'must have been very great.'"
Family may have come first, but community wasn't far behind.
Isaac and Alda Phills were members of Saint Alban's Anglican Church in Whitney Pier, with Alda also active in the home and school association, missionary societies at her church as well as Red Cross and the cancer society. For his part, Isaac was a vestryman at Saint Alban's, treasurer of the Ethiopian Community Club and secretary of the Court Washington Ancient Order of Foresters.
Readers of the Cape Breton Post from years gone by might have run across this tidbit from the women's page of the July 21, 1969, edition (again, from the files at the Beaton Institute) that shed some light on the high regard in which the Phills family was held in the community:
"Visitors of Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Phills, Franklin St., are Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Joshua and son Christopher of St. Vincent, West Indies. Mrs. Joshua is the sister of Mr. Phills and also of Mrs. Calvin Gibson, Mount Pleasant St. The Joshuas visited London, England, where Mr. Joshua took special courses relative to his work as Collector of Customs and Excise in St. Vincent."
Isaac Phills embodied all the best qualities of the immigrants that flocked to Cape Breton after the turn of the last century to find work in the island's coal mines and steel plant: a strong work ethic, determination and the ability to overcome every obstacle placed in his path.
Today, his name is largely forgotten except in Whitney Pier, where his example continues to inspire the young people of the community that their future is what they make it to be, not what others determine it to be.
Organizations: Beaton Institute, Canadian Army, Cape Breton University Anglican Church Red Cross Ethiopian Community Club Cape Breton Post
Geographic location: Canada, West Indies, Whitney Pier Cape Breton Sydney Great Britain France London England
