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Nelson Mandela Visits Toronto

After a trip to the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa, Mandela or “Madiba” as he was affectionately called, visited our city from June 18-19, 1990. The visit was part of a six week, thirteen country tour where Mandela sought to bring awareness to apartheid and encourage world leaders and their Governments to place/uphold sanctions against South Africa, in a bid to pressure the Government to put an end to apartheid.

Mandela was scheduled to address a crowd at Nathan Phillips Square upon arrival, however, due to being tired from a busy schedule, opted to rest at his hotel before an appearance later that evening at Queen’s Park. Anti-apartheid activist Winnie Mandela, who was his wife at the time, greeted the crowd, which was an estimated 8,000 people.

After addressing the jubilant crowd and taking part in several ceremonies, which included receiving honorary citizenship and a ceremonial Ojibwe walking stick, Winnie led the crowd up University Avenue to Queen’s Park, where an estimated thirty thousand people awaited their beloved Madiba to address them.

Photo Credit: Rick McGinnis, 1990.

“We are confident that victory is in sight,” Mandela told the enthusiastic crowd “But as in a steeplechase race, the last hurdles are the most difficult to overcome. As we enter the last lap, we call on the people of Canada to gather and redouble their efforts and endeavors in support of our struggle.” Throughout the thirty minute speech people cheered and raised fists in solidarity. Following the event the Mandela’s ended their day among dignitaries with a dinner at the Westin Harbour Castle.

Mandela, whose on-going mission was to engage with and educate young minds, spent his last day in Toronto  with 1,500 students at Central Technical High School . He used this as an opportunity to explain to them the dire situation for Black youth in South Africa, the overall dangers of division and the importance of empathy.

Nelson Mandela’s Toronto visit in June 1990 had a lasting impact on Torontonians.

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Hundreds took to the streets downtown Saturday to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s first visit to Canada.

The walk began at Armoury St. and made its way north on Nelson Mandela Boulevard — the honorary name of University Ave., which was dedicated in May to the late South African leader — and finished at Queen’s Park, where there were musical performances and speeches.

Premier Kathleen Wynne and Mayor John Tory were among the speakers who paid tribute to Mandela.

Mandela spoke to about 15,000 people on the steps of Queen’s Park in June 1990, four months after being released from prison. Lloyd McKell, chair of the Spirit of Mandela Freedom Walk as well as Mandela Legacy Canada, was among those who attended to hear Mandela speak.

“My memory of that event was him standing on the stage at Queen’s Park and telling people, ‘I am free from prison, but South Africa is not free. Apartheid still oppresses people,’” McKell recalled. He said Mandela expressed appreciation to Canada for supporting those who were against apartheid in South Africa, a practice that deprived black people of many rights afforded to white people for decades in the 1900s.

McKell estimated approximately one thousand people, including school children, attended Saturday’s events. He hoped the walk and gathering would foster many of the values Mandela championed, such as courage, determination and reconciliation.

“It’s not exactly Mandela’s long walk to freedom, but it’s a symbolic walk to say that, as Mandela walked towards his freedom, we are here to walk towards the kind of society that we want to see for all of us.”

Dr. Akua Benjamin, one of the event’s featured speakers, reflected on hugging Mandela at the 1990 Queen’s Park event.

“I was one of the first people who was on stage when he arrived … I jumped up and down, I was so overcome and I was so elated to see him,” Benjamin said.

Benjamin also spoke about the police practice of carding, which she described as “racial profiling.” She called for police and government officials to end the practice and have grassroots community meetings, especially with those who have been carded.

Organizers also used Saturday’s event to call attention to the issues faced by the aboriginal community.

“I think we need to recognize the importance of everyone coming together to express solidarity with the plight of First (nations) peoples of Canada, particularly in light of the Truth and Reconciliation (commission) report. This event is certainly dedicated to that mission,” McKell said.

Saturday’s walk isn’t an annual event, according to McKell, but organizers will see if there is an interest in having similar events in the future.

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Nelson Mandela: A soft spot for Canada

Article by Richard Foot

Published Online December 17, 2013

Last Edited March 4, 2015

Even on a sun-drenched South African day, Robben Island is a bleak, uninviting outpost – rocky, windswept, circled by leagues of forbidding ocean, with only the heights of Table Mountain rising in the distance as a reminder that a real world still exists, somewhere on the far horizon.

When I visited in 1999 the island was a museum, a memorial to suffering. Yet while its jailers were long gone, the ghosts of cruelty still haunted the barracks that once housed the planet's most famous prisoner.

Nelson Mandela spent 18 years here in a concrete cell so small that when he lay down on the floor (there was no bed) his head touched one wall and his feet the other. How any human being could emerge from that trauma – plus another nine years in apartheid-era prisons on the mainland – without a trace of anger or desire for revenge is a wonder of our age.

Mandela, the first black president of South Africa, died this week — 5 Dec. 2013 — at the age of 95.

Canadians can take pride and comfort in knowing that one of the truths that sustained Mandela through his imprisonment was the knowledge that he wasn't alone. He knew that the outside world, with Canada often at the forefront, was with him, refusing to forget him, keeping the anti-apartheid flame alive.

John Diefenbaker took a leading role in persuading the Commonwealth to condemn South Africa, prompting the apartheid government to withdraw from the organization in 1961.

In subsequent decades civil society groups in Canada played a forceful role in the anti-apartheid struggle.

And one of the pillars of Canada's foreign policy through the late 1980s was opposition to the apartheid regime, through sanctions and other means. Brian Mulroney spent much political capital asking Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher to get tougher on South Africa. His pleas were ignored, or ridiculed by his fellow conservative leaders in London and Washington, but in the end Mulroney was proved right.

Mandela never forgot what Canada did for his country.

"We regard you as one of our great friends because of the solid support we have received from you and Canada over the years," Mandela told Mulroney in a phone call in February, 1990, the day after his release from prison.

The friendship with Canada blossomed. Four months after becoming a free man, Mandela was granted the extraordinary privilege of speaking, as a private, non-official foreigner, from the floor of the House of Commons in Ottawa. He thanked Canadians for having "reached out across the seas . . . to the rebels, the fugitives and the prisoners" of the apartheid regime.

In later years, Mandela would be feted by more than 50,000 awestruck fans at the SkyDome in Toronto; and in 2001 Jean Chretien made him an honorary citizen of Canada. Friends also report that Mandela's soft spot for Canada was often expressed by his requests and fondness for maple syrup.

One little-known fact is that in the late 1990s many senior Canadian officials – including then New Brunswick Premier Frank McKenna – also gave critical, behind-the-scenes support to the "new" South Africa, teaching the art of governance to its fledgling, regional state governments and their newly-elected political leaders. (The program was called the South Africa-Canada Program on Governance.)

Today there are schools and streets across Canada that bear Mandela's name. But perhaps nowhere are his ties with our country best memorialized than in his own description of an unexpected stop he made in 1990 in Goose Bay , Labrador, at the end of his first visit to Canada.

Taking a stroll on the tarmac as his airplane refuelled, Mandela approached a group of Innu teens watching the famous visitor through an airport fence.

"I learned that they had watched my release on television, and were familiar with events in South Africa," he said. "It was amazing to me that a teenage Innuit [sic] living at the roof of the world could watch the release of a political prisoner on the southern tip of Africa."

External Links

The life and times of Nelson Mandela Interactive multimedia CBC timeline that chronicles Mandela’s remarkable life and struggle against apartheid. Features interviews with Mandela and an excerpt from Mandela’s stirring 1990 address to the Canadian Parliament.

Mandela visits Canada Watch a brief CBC News story about Nelson Mandela’s 1990 visit to Canada.

Nelson Mandela in Canada A brief summary of Nelson Mandela's three visits to Canada from CBC News.

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How Nelson Mandela found inspiration in Canada

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The country that bestowed its highest accolades and even honorary  citizenship upon Nelson Mandela was often described by the legendary  freedom fighter as a source of inspiration throughout his struggle  for racial equality in South Africa.

Mandela found sympathy in Canada for his cause when he himself  was not able to fight for it, allies who supported his mission during his long incarceration, and adoring devotees who welcomed him  as a native son upon his release.

Historians say Canada even served as a blueprint for Mandela when  he finally took the helm of his country as president.

That feeling lasted until Mandela's death . South African  President Jacob Zuma made the announcement of Mandela's death at a  news conference late Thursday, saying "we've lost our greatest  son."

Scholars say Canada's appreciation for Mandela took root long  before he had garnered global praise for his role in bringing an end  to apartheid rule in South Africa and championing equality for  blacks throughout his home country.

Linda Freeman, a professor of political studies at Carleton  University specializing in South African studies, said grass roots  anti-apartheid organizations began forming across the country as  early as the 1970s .

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Church groups, community organizations and Canadian chapters of M andela's African National Congress mobilized efforts to resist the  regime even as Mandela himself languished in prison serving a life  sentence for plotting to overthrow the government.

Their efforts to lobby both Ottawa and the Canadian business  community fell on deaf ears for some time, Freeman said, adding  prime ministers from John Diefenbaker to John Turner did little to  curb a prosperous trading relationship with South Africa.

Longtime ambivalence

"Canada had a long, very undistinguished record of being  totally ambivalent towards South Africa," Freeman said in a  telephone interview from Vernon, B.C. "The most we would do  for a long time would be to condemn apartheid in the United Nations,  but staunchly support trade and investment. It was a fairly  hypocritical policy."

That changed when Brian Mulroney took power in 1985, she said,  adding he quickly emerged as a vocal champion of Mandela's cause.

He broke ranks with other western leaders by loudly speaking out  against the apartheid regime while imposing strict economic  sanctions against the government, she said.

Mandela's visits to Canada

Nelson Mandela visited Canada three times. Click here to read about his time in a country where he experienced what he called his "greatest moment ever outside South Africa."

Vern Harris, Mandela's chief archivist and head of memory  programming at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg, said  the freedom fighter was aware of Canada's growing support for his  cause during the 27 years of his incarceration.

"That solidarity meant a lot to the prisoners, it meant a lot to t he organizations that were involved in the liberation struggle,"  Harris said in a telephone interview. "I think there was a strong  appreciation for that long before he ever visited Canada himself."

That initial visit was made mere months after he was finally  released on Feb. 11, 1990, although preparations had begun a few months before.

Zeib Jeeva , then an anti-apartheid activist in Toronto, remembers hearing  from Mandela's African National Congress in London in late 1989 that they were organizing a Nelson Mandela Reception Committee to celebrate his eventual release.

Jeeva, who grew up in South Africa, and some friends soon set up a similar committee in Toronto. After organizing a celebration on Toronto's Danforth Avenue the day Mandela was released, they went on to organize his first visit to Canada.

Jeeva told CBC News that visiting Canada was a priority for Mandela, thanks to Canada's leadership under Mulroney in calling for anti-apartheid sanctions.

Phenomenal aura

Jeeba said his first meeting with Mandela was unbelievable.

"The aura around him was just phenomenal."

Harris said Mandela made a point of accepting  Mulroney's explicit invitation to visit as soon as possible.

"He was prioritizing countries which at that time had a  particular significance to the liberation struggle. Canada was way  up there as one of the first countries he visited after his  release," he said.

Harris and Freeman were interviewed for this story before  Mandela's death, when he was ailing.

Mandela's arrival on June. 17, 1990, marked the first of three  visits during which both parties fairly outdid themselves with  offers of thanks and praise.

Politicians spoke of Mandela's courage and convictions, while  Mandela singled out Canada for upholding the values he hoped to see  espoused at home.

"Your respect for diversity within your own society and your t olerant and civilized manner of dealing with the challenges of  difference and diversity had always been our inspiration," Mandela  said during his first address to the Canadian Parliament.

Those words were not just idle flattery, Harris said. When M andela was elected president of South Africa four years after his  release, he and his government aides made a point of scrutinizing  policies and practices from other countries that could serve as a  model for an emerging democracy.

Canada, Harris said, served as a template in areas ranging from  education to water treatment to social policy.

"When he talked about Canada providing an example and an  inspiration, it was based on really hard engagement with Canada's  experiences," he said.

Mandela's opinion of Canada never publicly cooled during his  subsequent visits, during which he was lavished with some of this  country's greatest honours.

Rare honour

He was made a Companion of the Order of Canada, the highest  possible rank, during his second trip in September 1998.

For his final visit in November 2001, he became one of only five  foreigners to be made an honorary Canadian citizen.

Adulation came from dignitaries and everyday people alike, with  throngs of supporters turning out for most of his public  appearances.

Mandela's popularity was most dramatically on display during the  1998 tour, which saw him address a rally of more than 40,000  schoolchildren in downtown Toronto. On that occasion, he heaped  praise on a new generation of Canadians.

"You have made me feel like a young man again with my batteries  recharged," he told the rally.

"The greatest joy has been to discover that there are so many  children in this country who care about other children around the  world."

Jeeva was one of the organizers of that event and said that now when he hears from someone who was at the event — "they are almost adult now" — they mention how Mandela left quite a mark on them. "They know about reconciliation, racism and stuff like that," Jeeva said.

Still, Harris said the sunny relationship Mandela had with Canada was occasionally dimmed  by a passing cloud.

In his 2010 book Conversations with Myself,  Mandela lamented  the fact that Canadian police "roughly" ejected a heckler from one  of his public appearances in 1990 without giving him a chance to  respond to her concerns.

Rude awakening

Interactions with Canadians also shed light on his own  preconceptions, according to the book. Mandela wrote of his first  encounter with Inuit teens during a 1990 refuelling stop in Iqaluit (although the book incorrectly has the stop taking place in Goose Bay, Labrador) , recollecting that he was surprised by their level of  education.

"I had never seen an Eskimo and I had always thought of them as  people who are catching ... polar bears and seals," he said.

"I was amazed to find out that these were high school children. ... It was the most fascinating conversation, precisely because it  was shocking. I was rudely shocked, awakened to the fact that my  knowledge of the Eskimo community was very backward."

Occasional voices were raised in protest of Mandela's warm  reception, notably then-Alliance MP Rob Anders who in 2001 blocked unanimous consent for a motion in the House of Commons on honorary c itizenship for Mandela, reportedly telling two Liberal MPs Mandela  was a "Communist and a terrorist."

The vast majority of Canadians, however, regarded Mandela as a  hero and role model without peer.

Former prime minister Joe Clark summed up the majority Canadian  view with his comments made the day Canada voted to officially grant  Mandela the status that would make him one of our own.

"With a flick of his wrist ... Nelson Mandela could have  triggered revolution and his country would be in flames," Clark  said.

"He did not. He did the opposite."

With files from Daniel Schwartz

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Nelson Mandela, the honorary Canadian

This article was published more than 10 years ago. Some information may no longer be current.

Nelson Mandela at a state dinner during his visit to Toronto June 18, 1990. Erik Christensen/The Globe and Mail

Nelson Mandela's passing is especially poignant for Canada. It is hard to think of another world leader shown the respect and affection he enjoyed here after his release from prison.

During two of his three visits to Canada, he addressed the joint Houses of Parliament to great acclaim. On the first occasion, just four months after being freed in 1990, he said he was deeply moved to be in a place where, unlike apartheid South Africa, people were free to determine their destiny.

In 1998, he became the first foreign leader awarded the Order of Canada, the nation's highest honour, and 45,000 Toronto schoolchildren treated him to a rapturous welcome when he launched the Canadian Friends of the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund.

Despite his age and stiff joints, Mr. Mandela joined in the dancing. A magical moment. "When you will be my age," prime minister Jean Chrétien told the children, "you will tell your grandchildren: 'I was there when Nelson Mandela came to Canada and Toronto.' " On his last visit in 2001, he became the first living person to be awarded honorary Canadian citizenship.

Competition to hear Mr. Mandela and to meet him on these occasions was fierce. No one, it seemed, had ever supported maintaining Canada's trade and diplomatic relations with the apartheid regime that had imprisoned him. Nor had they ever harboured reservations about his party, the African National Congress.

THE MULRONEY FACTOR

In his 1990 speech, Mr. Mandela paid tribute to the people of Canada for their involvement in the struggle to overthrow apartheid: Canadian trade unions, churches, universities, human-rights and solidarity groups, and the International Defence and Aid Fund for South Africa had spent decades in the trenches. In particular, the Task Force on the Churches and Corporate Responsibility had weathered the ridicule of Canada's business community and state officials in its battle against corporate involvement in apartheid South Africa.

He had also had come to thank Mr. Chrétien's predecessor, Brian Mulroney, for his willingness to break with his allies, U.S. president Ronald Reagan and British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, over the question of South Africa. In 1985, Mr. Mulroney had made a deep impression in Africa by pledging at the United Nations to break economic and diplomatic relations if South Africa did not abandon apartheid. His battles with Mrs. Thatcher over Commonwealth sanctions against South Africa were legendary.

In official Canada, Mr. Mulroney's approach was pivotal in causing a shift in thinking about South Africa and the ANC. For most of the postwar period, including the Trudeau era, Canadian policy had been paradoxical: to trade and condemn simultaneously. Canada resisted efforts to interfere with its diplomatic and commercial relations with South Africa, but then tried to soften the impact by regularly denouncing apartheid in international forums. Until well into the 1980s, the ANC had difficulty getting a hearing in Ottawa, where it was dismissed as an insignificant band of "communist terrorists."

The tide began to turn only in the mid-1980s, after a major uprising in South Africa and the realization among Western banks, corporations and governments that apartheid's days were numbered. In 1985, the Commonwealth appointed an Eminent Persons Group to visit the region and assess the prospects for peace. A high point of the initiative was a meeting the group had with Mr. Mandela, the first of its kind during his long incarceration. Anglican archbishop Ted Scott, one of the eminent persons, returned to give Canada a first-hand testimonial on the man's character. The EPG report concluded unequivocally that he was a nationalist, rather than a communist, and that he had adopted armed struggle only because he had no other options.

Mr. Mulroney agreed, and faced down those who believed otherwise. He asked his opponents, "How would you know he's a communist? He's been in jail for 27 years. Has he spoken to you lately? ...

"If I were a young black man imprisoned in South Africa," he added, "I would support those who supported me."

The prime minister also made clear that, while his government could not condone violence, "we understand the ANC's contention: 'You ask us to drop our arms to do what? Accept more repression? Accept more brutality from the apartheid state that is armed to the teeth?' "

NOT EVERYONE A FAN

Many in Mr. Mulroney's own party, as well as the bureaucracy and private sector, opposed this new policy. The wife of one Progressive Conservative MP even circulated South African propaganda calling ANC members "immoral, non-Christian, Marxist-Leninist revolutionaries."

In 1987, these circles mounted a campaign against ANC president Oliver Tambo, Mr. Mandela's close friend and colleague, on his first official visit to Canada. Meanwhile, Mr. Mulroney turned his attention to more pressing matters, such as the Meech Lake accord and free trade, and some public-opinion leaders made no secret of their preference of Mangosuthu Buthelezi, the chief minister of the Kwazulu homeland and leader of the Inkatha Freedom Party.

Two years earlier, The Globe and Mail had called Mr. Buthelezi as "authentic a black leader as Nelson Mandela" and then in December, 1986, "the best hope, if not the only hope, for the emergence of a moderate black leadership from the ashes of apartheid." As late as 1988, a Globe editorial stated unequivocally that there would "never be a President Mandela."

The historical record shows that Mr. Buthelezi was a destructive force, a collaborator who waged a bloody campaign to eliminate the ANC. But it wasn't until 1993, a year before Mr. Mandela's presidential inauguration, that The Globe realized its "best hope" was instead a "spoiler" who could wreck the whole process of change.

The antipathy and distrust of Canada's private sector toward Mr. Mandela lasted well after his release. Roy McMurtry, Canada's former high commissioner in London, supported Mr. Mulroney's policy but found it almost impossible to raise the ANC's profile in the business community. Corporate titans showed no desire to rub shoulders with the party's leader. When pressed, one bank chairman said, "Meet Nelson Mandela? You have got to be kidding!"

Canadian governments responded warily to the uncertainty and turbulence of the transition period. However, on the key issue of sanctions, despite strong pressure from the private sector to end them and some internal disquiet, Ottawa maintained its commitment. Canadian sanctions finally were lifted in September, 1993 – at Mr. Mandela's request. Although the Canadian government's participation in the international battle against apartheid was late, limited and overblown, in this respect it kept the faith.

DEFYING INJUSTICE

Mr. Mandela's rise to the presidency in 1994 marked a high point in his and South Africa's remarkable journey. As he walked his country through the transition to its post-apartheid future, he became an icon of tolerance, forgiveness and reconciliation; one of the great figures of our time. His decision not to cling to power by seeking a second term set an example for leaders everywhere.

The price that he and others paid for ending apartheid – in personal and family terms – was steep. However, his ability to rise above the worst that the apartheid regime could throw at him, and emerge free of bitterness and the desire for revenge lifted the human spirit everywhere. As one observer put it, he reminds us that injustice has a long and hurtful say but never the last word.

Mr. Mandela's significance for Canada is clear. He stands as a testament to the dangers of knee-jerk prejudice and hazy understanding; proof positive that one person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter.

The lessons for today – now that the word "terrorist" is used indiscriminately and anti-terrorist legislation criminalizes many activities used in the battle against apartheid – are evident. Above all, the story of Canada and Mr. Mandela should alert us to the enduring importance of imagination, as well as precision, in Canadian foreign policy.

Linda Freeman is teaches political science at Carleton University and is the author of The Ambiguous Champion – Canada and South Africa in the Trudeau and Mulroney Years, published by the University of Toronto Press.

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Mandela and Canada: His first visit was 1990

Nelson Mandela's ties to Canada were forged long before he earned global praise for his role in bringing an end to apartheid rule in South Africa. Here are some key events that helped cement his relationship with Canada:

1986: Canada implements trade sanctions against South Africa, curtailing a relationship valued at the time at $500 million.

Feb. 11, 1990: Mandela is released from prison after 27 years behind bars on Robben Island.

Feb. 12, 1990: Prime Minister Brian Mulroney sends Mandela a letter inviting him to visit Canada and offering him help to build a new, non-racial South African democracy.

June 17, 1990: Mandela arrives in Canada for his first visit to the country. Mulroney announces the establishment of a $5 million fund to help relocate South African exiles. Mandela addresses parliament in Ottawa.

Sept. 24, 1993: Mandela requests Canada lift economic sanctions against South Africa during a speech to the United Nations. Hours later, External Affairs Minister Perrin Beatty announces Ottawa would comply.

Sept. 24, 1998: At the start of Mandela's second visit to Canada, he is made an honorary Companion of the Order of Canada. Mandela was one of only a handful of people born outside of Canada to be inducted into the order.

Sept. 25, 1998: Mandela addresses a rally of more than 40,000 students at Toronto's Sky Dome with Prime Minister Jean Chretien and other dignitaries in attendance.

Nov. 17, 2001: Mandela begins a three-day visit to Canada by attending a ceremony to rename a Toronto public school after him. He and his wife Graca Machel later receive honorary degrees from Toronto's Ryerson University.

Nov. 19, 2001: Mandela becomes the first living person to be made an honorary citizen of Canada.

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Torontonians remember Nelson Mandela

As the world mourns the death of Nelson Mandela, Toronto residents are remembering the special connection between the former South African president and their city.

The flags have been lowered to half-mast at Nelson Mandela Park Public School, which was renamed in his honour in 2001.

Students and staff attended a special ceremony honouring the leader Friday morning. During the ceremony, principal Jason Kanderkery said it was important that the school continue to build on Mandela's "legacy of hope and purpose."

Mandela and his wife, Graca Machel, attended the school's re-naming ceremony in 2001. He was also granted honorary Canadian citizenship during that same visit to Canada.

During the ceremony Friday, the same drummers who performed for Mandela in 2001, were back to play again.

Meanwhile a makeshift memorial, which appeared on the school's steps Thursday night, continued to grow as Torontonians left candles, flowers and photos to mark Mandela's death.

Inside the school there are many tributes to Mandela, with students' murals of the leader hanging in the halls alongside mementos from his time in power, including an original ballot from Mandela's 1994 election win.

The building is a source of pride for many of the students and staff.

Student Kishka Nur told CTV Toronto that every morning the announcements begin with a student saying "Good morning Nelson Mandela Park Public School."

"That gives me the time to think about him," Nur said.

Coincidentally on Thursday night, the school happened to be screening the new film about Mandela's life, "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom."

Attendees said it was a special way for young children to learn about the man and his incredible legacy.

"He represented so much in terms of freedom and in terms of justice… I think it's a big loss for the human planet that we lost him today. But I also think it's an opportunity for us to remember the great things that he's done," Ian Keteku said.

Toronto resident and a long-time friend of Mandela, Ebrahim Moolla told CTV's Canada AM that news of Mandela's death deeply saddened him.

"I didn't sleep at all last night," he said Friday. "It was a terrible thing for me to have heard, because he was such a great human being… a friend, mentor, leader … a person who (helped) lead South Africa to Freedom."

Moolla marched with Mandela in 1952, along with about 50 others, into the South African township of Boksburg. All the protesters were arrested, and Moolla, who was just 21-years-old at the time, was imprisoned for four months.

Moolla said when he first met Mandela, the young member of the African National Congress didn't support non-blacks and communists joining the fight against apartheid.

"He was a young hot head at this time," Moolla said, with a laugh. "But subsequently, he got around and decided that South Africa needs to be free, and it can only be free with the cooperation of all the people of South Africa. That's how I got to know him."

Moolla, who was a member of the South African Indian Congress at the time, used to courier messages from the SAIC to Mandela, taking "devious" routes to avoid being caught by the police, he said.

Since moving to Toronto, Moolla had the chance to meet with Mandela a number of times, the last being approximately five years ago at a reunion in South Africa for those who had been tried in the "Treason Trial" of 1956.

Mandela was among the 156 people who were arrested and accused of treason in 1956. Moolla's younger brother had also been arrested, and Moolla himself was considered a co-conspirator.

At the reunion, Moolla recalls being able to speak with Mandela intimately, without the interference of Mandela's security personnel. "I spoke to him for a while," he said. "It was very, very touching."

For complete coverage of Mandela’s life, legacy and death click: http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/nelson-mandela

A boy holds up a picture during a celebration of life to the late former president of South Africa Nelson Mandela at the Nelson Mandela Park Public School in Toronto, Friday, Dec. 6, 2013. (Mark Blinch / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Nelson Mandela and his wife Graca Machel share a private moment during a ceremony to rename a school Nelson Mandela Park Public School in Toronto on Saturday Nov. 17, 2001. The former South African president, who spent much of 2013 in and out of the hospital, died Thursday, Dec. 5, 2013 at age 95. (THE CANADIAN PRESS / Frank Gunn)

Candles and a photo of Nelson Mandela were left at a makeshift memorial to the South African revolutionary at Nelson Mandela Park Public School in Toronto, Dec. 5, 2013.

Candles are lit at a makeshift memorial to Nelson Mandela at Nelson Mandela Park Public School in Toronto, Dec. 5, 2013.

Ebrahim Moolla speaks about his friendship with Nelson Mandela on CTV's Canada AM on Dec. 6, 2013.

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Mandela's visits to U.S. left indelible impressions

• South African leader visited U.S. many times and carried messages of optimism
• Among the visits was one to New York following 9/11 attacks

Nelson Mandela visited the United States as a newly freed opposition leader, as South Africa's first black president and finally as an elder statesman. Each time, in each city, those who met him -- or merely caught a glimpse of him -- say he left a profound impression.

Mandela's journeys spanned the nation from New York to Los Angeles. In the early years, he came to raise money to boost the African National Congress' chances in South African elections.

In the later years, he came to accept awards and honors, from the key to New York City to an honorary degree from Amherst College. He hobnobbed with politicians at the highest levels of government and greeted worshipers at humble southern churches.

He called presidents and movie stars friends. He spoke at Yankee Stadium, high schools and even opened the Tribeca Film Festival.

People who witnessed his speeches say his warm countenance and dignified bearing offered the hope for harmony in cities still struggling with racial strife and comforted the grieving country after the Sept. 11, 2001.

Mandela's visit to New York following the terrorist attacks and his visit to Ground Zero "helped give our city strength and hope, for which we will be forever grateful," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement.

Here are some of the highlights:

Mandela arrived in New York in June, four months after his release from prison, to a ticker tape parade organized by New York City Mayor David Dinkins. During the six-week fundraising tour for the African National Congress, Mandela visited New York, Boston, Washington, Atlanta, Detroit, Los Angeles and Oakland.

In New York, he spoke to a sold-out crowd at Yankee Stadium and attended a concert at Riverside Church.

New York City Mayor Elect Bill DeBlasio, who attended Mandela's speech at Yankee Stadium said Mandela thanked the people of the United States for not abandoning the struggle to end apartheid.

"We came to believe in his fight for justice as if it were our own," he said.

In Boston, he spoke to students at Madison Park High School in Roxbury before heading to a luncheon under a tent on the Charles River with political elites where then-Sen. Ted Kennedy and former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis greeted him.

Former Vermont Gov. Madeleine Kunin, who met Mandela at a luncheon, recalled his gaze.

"When we shook hands, he looked me directly in the eye for several moments and broke into a broad smile," she said. "He made me feel like I was the only one under the tent."

Hundreds of thousands of people filled the Charles River Esplanade to greet him.

Raymond Flynn was mayor at the time and told WBUR, a public radio station in Boston, he will never forget the moment.

"It was the first time that I recall standing and looking out at a massive audience and seeing white and black, young and old, people from the neighborhoods, people from the suburbs," Flynn said. "It was almost like a Celtics celebration, only this had a greater significance than even that."

As Mandela stepped off the plane into a throng of Detroit dignitaries, it was civil rights leader Rosa Parks that he rushed to hug.

"Mandela and his wife were just thrilled to meet her," said U.S. Appeals Court Judge Damon Keith, who witnessed the encounter. "Of all the people there to greet him, the one who stood out to him was Rosa Parks."

At Mandela's final U.S. stop, 58,000 people packed the Oakland Coliseum to hear his speech.

Mandela spoke before the United Nations General Assembly in December and gave the H.J. Heinz Company Foundation Distinguished Lecture at the University of Pittsburgh.

Mandela appeared before the United Nations National Security Council in New York to request that the UN appoint a special representative to help quell the violence that had erupted in South Africa, demand the release of political prisoners and repeal laws meant to repress South African blacks.

Mandela campaigned across the country for two weeks, stopping in New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Los Angeles, to raise money for African National Congress candidates in the upcoming South African elections

On July 4, 1993, he accepted The Liberty Medal along with South African President F.W. de Klerk at Independence Hall in Philadelphia from President Bill Clinton.

He spent two days in Atlanta where he made fundraising appearances at black churches, including Cascade United Methodist Church and Antioch Baptist Church North. He stayed at the Ritz Carlton, lunched with Coca Cola's top managers, stopped by CNN for an interview, visisted the Southern Christian Leadership Conference office and accepted an honorary degree from Clark Atlanta University, the Atlantic Journal Constitution reported at the time.

In October, he returned to Washington, D.C. to accept the inaugural J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding. The Fulbright association noted "his personal courage and selfless determination to eliminate racial and political barriers in South Africa and for his work to focus international attention on the divisive practices that were part of the daily lives of South Africans of all races."

In October, as South Africa's newly elected president, Mandela made his first state visit to the United States, which included a State Dinner and visits with President Bill Clinton. He stopped in New York and visited with Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

He spoke on Oct. 7 at a sold out luncheon in the ballroom of the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. 1994 National Press Club President Gil Klein recalled the bedlam that surrounded Mandela as admirers sought to shake his hand or speak with him.

"What I remember most about Nelson Mandela was his inner peace, his perfect calmness. There was turmoil all around him. It didn't bother him," Klein wrote in a recollection of the event.

Mandela, in his final visit to the U.S. as South Africa's president, spoke before the United Nations General Assembly in September and at New York City's Cathedral of St. John the Divine. He also accepted an honorary doctorate from Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., and the Congressional Gold Medal in Washington.

In November, Mandela visited Ground Zero, the site of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and offered words of comfort to New Yorkers. He gave the Annual Sadat Lecture for Peace at University of Maryland and attended the Mosaic Foundation benefit dinner at Saudi Arabia's ambassador's residence where he joked about being unemployed.

"I increasingly find myself these days having to thank people for their generosity and consideration towards an unemployed old pensioner," he said. "Tonight is no exception. You had the good common sense to recognize that a person in that category may be in need of a good dinner from time to time."

Mandela, in New York to address the World Economic Forum's annual meeting, also opened the First Annual Tribeca Film Festival at New York's City Hall at the invitation of Robert DeNiro, whom he called a friend.

Bloomberg presented Mandela with a key to the city. Bloomberg said in a statement that Mandela spoke "passionately about the work of his foundation and his ongoing efforts to tackle the HIV/AIDS epidemic and many other important issues."

Mandela received an honorary degree addressed the students and faculty of Amherst College at St. Bartholomew's Church in New York City on May 12.

Contributing: Sharyn Jackson and Jens Manuel Krogstad, The Des Moines Register; Tim Johnson, The Burlington Free Press; Sebastian Kitchen of The Montgomery Advertiser