Montreal's first Black bus driver honoured by transit corporation
CBC
Like many Montrealers, Rachel Guénin has fond memories of her father dropping her and her sister off at the mall when they were young.
The only difference is, unlike most dads, their father, Jean-Baptiste Jean, was driving the 161 bus.
"That route would start at Rosemont and then it would go to Cavendish Mall and then he would just leave us there for the next trip," said Guénin.
At their father's side, the girls picked up their father's routine.
"He would…teach us about the bus. I knew how to open the door, start the bus, just his whole process," said Bernadette Jean, Guénin's sister.
Jean, a Haitian Montrealer, was the city's first Black bus driver in the 1970s and early 80s. He was recently honoured in the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) newsletter.
"It's truly special…It's something we always, growing up, knew about: the fact that he was one of the first Black bus drivers. We always had a lot of pride because of that," said Bernadette Jean.
WATCH | Jean-Baptiste Jean's family looks back on his barrier-breaking career:
Born in 1935 in Pilate, Haiti, Jean-Baptiste Jean first moved to New York, where he worked as a taxi driver and as a receptionist at the United Nations. He then moved to Montreal in 1969, and began his bus driving career with the local school board, according to the STM.
The corporation's newsletter highlights his work during the 1976 Olympic Games, when he "transported athletes from all over the world."
Baptiste spent nine years as a city bus driver, until 1982 when he went on medical leave following a heart attack. He passed away in 1987.
And while the city's public transit agency is honouring Jean's legacy, his wife Nicole Vigne Jean said, in breaking barriers, her husband also faced abuse from some customers.
"There was surprise, when they would see a Black bus driver," she said. "Some of them were nasty. They were cursing."
While it angered him to endure this treatment, Vigne Jean said her husband continued to treat customers with kindness and respect, and took pride in his work.
This story is a collaboration between the Investigative Journalism Foundation and CBC Saskatchewan.
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