The murder of Ângelo Nóbrega and the Portuguese-Canadian Congress | Congresso Luso-Canadiano, May 1969
The committee formed by a group of representatives of the community, called a press conference in the Clube da Nazaré, which drew two members of provincial parliament. In this conference, Rafael announced that a silent march would be held on May 17, going from Queen’s Park to Nathan Phillips Square. To advertise this protest, the organizers distributed “thousands" of pamphlets, including to forty-two ethnic newspapers in Toronto. This committee tried to mobilize all Torontonians beyond the Portuguese community since they considered the issue to be part of a larger problem of police discrimination of and lack of communication with the city’s immigrants. About 500 people participated in the protest march on that rainy day; a tenth of the expected 5,000. Leading the group were fifteen children holding a black banner with the inscription: “Justice Ignored! Protesting Violence”. At the start of the march Rafael curiously asked the participants to “Walk silently and in perfect order. It is only in this way we can protest the violence of the police. The only way we can show we do not need weapons pointed at us. We can obey and will obey."
Some of the most conservative leaders of the Portuguese community shunned this march, such as the influential Father Alberto Cunha of St. Mary’s Church, who considered it too “premature and emotional.” In his understanding, the community should wait for the results of the inquiry that was soon to begin. But the main reason behind this reluctance among the community's dominant right-wing was likely the fact that some of its organizers belonged to the Portuguese Canadian Democratic Association. This latter was made-up of political exiles and other left-wing "anti-fascists" who were active in the opposition to the regime of Salazar/Caetano, among whom were members of the Portuguese Communist Party. One of them was, Domingos da Costa Gomes, a lawyer representing political prisoners in Portugal, who self exiled in Canada in 1966.
The controversial inquiry into Ângelo Nóbrega's death, which ended in June of that year, cleared Det. Boyd of any wrongdoing. However, the coroner who worked on the case was suspended by the Attorney-General and placed under investigation for alleged irregularities during the inquiry. The rulling came as a great disappointment to the community and motivated some of its leaders to create the Portuguese Canadian Congress, the first umbrella organization representing Portuguese Canadians in Ontario on political matters. Domingos Gomes was its first president, which greatly displeased the community's conservative wing. Despite contributing to the Congress' founding, those right-wing individuals quickly distanced from this organization. In the following years, intense political battles between these self-appointed community leaders led to the Congress' disintegration in the mid-1970s. Since then there were other attempts at creating a lasting umbrella organization tasked with representing the various interests of the Portuguese in Canada at the government level, leading up to the Portuguese Canadian National Congress, founded in 1993.
*Ângelo Nóbrega migrated to Canada from Madeira in 1959 to join his father, who had arrived five years ealier. Him and his twin brother, José Nóbrega, worked as shippers in a lingerie factory.
Sources:¨“Metro Youth Killed by Shot from Detective’s Gun”, Toronto Daily Star, May 5, 1969; “300 Portuguese, 2 Police at Slain Youth’s Funeral”, Toronto Daily Star, May 7, 1969; Luso-Canadiano, May 15, 1969; “500 Portuguese in Silent March Protest Police Shooting of Youth”, Toronto Daily Star, May 17, 1969
