Alphonso Theodore Roberts - Montreal and The Conference Committee

Montreal and The Conference Committee

In 1965, Roberts teamed up with Robert Hill, Hugh O'Neale, Alvin Johnson, Franklyn Harvey, Anne Cools, and Rosie Douglas, among others, to organize the first of a series of conferences and events that would bring a host of distinguished Caribbean thinkers and writers to Montreal, including novelist George Lamming and C.L.R. James, one of the great thinkers of the last century. These events nourished a number of important political movements across the Caribbean. Out of this Montreal-based group, the Conference Committee on West Indian Affairs, evolved several other groups based in Montreal, including the International Caribbean Service Bureau and the Emancipation 150 Committee. These groups played a major role in highlighting social and political issues facing communities of African and Caribbean descent locally and internationally.

As an advocate for the downtrodden and dispossessed, Alfie Roberts’ work brought him to various countries in Africa – Tanzania, Ghana, Uganda, Libya; to Cuba, Martinique, and many other countries across the Caribbean; and Europe and the former Soviet Union. He also helped to develop cricket, netball, carnival, and several foundational Black community institutions in Montreal, many of which continue to enrich the Montreal community.

Among the many groups and organizations that Roberts helped to establish during his thirty-four years in Canada is the St. Vincent and Grenadines Association of Montreal. In fact, despite his many international commitments, he remained committed to his native St. Vincent and the Grenadines and it was he who, on the eve of the country’s independence, submitted a detailed policy statement to the government of St. Vincent outlining why the Grenadines should be included as an integral part of the country’s name. The crux of his argument was that the Grenadines should not be seen as mere appendages of the island of St. Vincent, and that the integrity of all of the smaller islands should be respected. His submission was adopted by the government, hence the name St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

A voluminous reader who possessed a remarkably analytical mind, a vivid memory, and an insatiable appetite for learning, Roberts was also a teacher who served as an advisor and resource to many – including several prime ministers in the Caribbean.