Testing

Bromley Armstrong and Ruth Lor Malloy

Bromley Armstrong immigrated to Canada in 1947 to pursue education and employment opportunities not available in Jamaica. Armstrong eventually became a leader in the Canadian trade union movement. Through the labour movement, Armstrong joined the Toronto Joint Labour Committee to Combat Racial Intolerance.

Ruth Lor was a young Chinese Canadian who recently graduated from the University of Toronto. She was passionate about social justice and a member of Student Christian Movement.

In October 1954, Armstrong and Lor joined Burnett to test two restaurants in Dresden. Lor and Armstrong brought two white journalists along with them: Gordon Donaldson of the Telegram and Pat McNenly of the Toronto Star.

Lor and Armstrong entered the café of Morley McKay and sat down in a booth to wait for service. After waiting some time to be acknowledged, Armstrong approached the back of the kitchen where he could see McKay “standing beside a beef block with cleaver in his hand.” However, there was nothing to be cut on the block. Armstrong inquired if he was the manager, but the man just slowly chopped away on the empty block. “Are you the manager?” Armstrong asked again, “I’ve just come from Toronto and I would like to get some service.” He noticed that McKay “was getting angry by the minute,” and that his demeanor was changing. “He was chopping faster and faster,” Armstrong later recalled. Armstrong and Lor left the restaurant without receiving service.

These tests in Dresden were recorded in newspapers across Ontario and initiated a province-wide conversation on how the government should enforce the new laws.

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