Louis March, a community leader and advocate against gun violence in the GTA, was remembered by the people whose lives he touched in a public celebration of his life in downtown Toronto Sunday.
March passed away last month at the age of 68 after a brief illness. He was best remembered as the founder of the Zero Gun Violence Movement, a volunteer community worker and advocate in the African Canadian community for over 30 years.
About a hundred people showed up to the Aseda celebration — a traditional African ceremony of thanks — which featured performances of music, dance and poetry at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts downtown.
Organized by March’s family, the event was a chance for the local community to come together and honour his memory, Louis’s son Troy March said.
“It’s a good day for the community,” Troy March said. “I didn’t imagine this many people.”
Others weren’t so surprised by the turnout.
Lindis Collins Bacchus, who worked with March at the African Canadian Heritage Association, said March once told her he was involved with 45 organizations over the years in one way or another.
Near the end of his life, March, who did not drive, told Collins Bacchus he had limited his schedule to three events a day, she said.
“Louis was everywhere,” she said. “I’m sure he’s here today because he would not miss this.”
She said March would be remembered as a “larger than life” person who worked to promote the culture, heritage and self-esteem of Toronto’s African Canadian community.
Adrian Aitcheson spoke with CBC’s Dwight Drummond about his brother, Louis March, who died Saturday. March campaigned tirelessly for years to eradicate gun violence and provide support for youth in the Greater Toronto Area.
Danny Stone, who worked with the Zero Gun Violence Movement, said March worked tirelessly to end gun violence. Stone said he would remember him as a mentor and a friend with a drive to help others.
“He was the type of person that had a kind word for everybody,” Stone said. “If he saw you struggling, he would uplift you. And I think all these people here, it just shows all the lives that he’s touched in his 40 years of activism.”
The movement March founded collaborated with different community organizations and levels of government to address the structural and socio-economic conditions that contribute to gun violence, according to the ZGVM website.
Stone said the movement’s continuing advocacy against gun violence is one of the great legacies March leaves behind.