An activist and former football player examines the people and forces that shaped his inclusive social vision. Born in Montreal to an upper-class Black Jamaican father and a working-class White Quebecer mother, Holness grew up in the Hindu faith his parents had adopted. His home life, however, was anything but settled. Restless and idealistic, his mother took Holness to live in an ashram in West Virginia, where she dropped in and out of his life. Her frequent absences eroded their bond, but the author still credits her with helping him understand love "as a force that could traverse geographical, racial and cultural lines, that didn't depend on labels or conventions." Reuniting with his mother in Montreal at age 9, Holness suddenly came into contact with people who, unlike the members of his ashram, judged him for being different. As he was settling into his new home and into renewed contact with his father, the author's mother moved the family to a small majority-White town where school peers grouped him with "kids who wore baggy clothes and liked hip-hop." From there, they moved to Ottawa and then back to Montreal, where he began dealing marijuana. His athletic gifts saved him from falling too far behind, and he attended college, where he embraced education rather than drugs as rebellion against marginalization. After a series of international development projects led him away from Canada, Holness returned to Montreal determined to tear down the barriers that tyrannized non-White, non-French minorities in Quebec. Though losing two bids to become mayor, he nevertheless brought--and continues to bring--much-needed attention to systemic discrimination. "I knew that the city couldn't advance toward justice and fairness while ignoring the realities of intersectionality," he writes. This brief autobiography about a unique individual will be of special interest to readers seeking to better understand Canada's little-discussed racial issues. Illuminating reading. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Holness, a former football player, grew up the son of a Black Jamaican father and white Quebecer. He later ran for mayoral office and became an activist for social justice who confronts systemic racism in Canada. In this memoir, he discusses how these issues affected him, his parents' difficulties being an interracial couple at a politically charged time in Quebec, and later, his mother's embrace of Hinduism. Growing up in Montreal as an English speaker, he details his struggles with the language barrier and assimilating into French-speaking schools. He also discusses his entry into football, his mother's untimely death, and travels to figure out his purpose in life. Canadian readers within and outside of Quebec will find Holness' story an interesting chronicle, while those abroad may struggle to understand the political systems, parties, and government structure he describes. Nonetheless, Eyes on the Horizon is an important memoir of confronting systemic racism in Canada. A good addition to public library collections of Black voices and perspectives.