Black History Month: Entrepreneurs’ journeys to settling in the North Peace

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — Black entrepreneurs have opened up about their journeys to setting up their businesses in Fort St. John for Black History Month 2025. 

For some residents of Fort St. John, the pathway to settling in the town can be an uneven and often eventful one.

In addition, the town’s location may give people coming to the community a sense of isolation.

That may be the case for the Black community. According to the 2021 census, just 435 of Fort St. John’s 21,465 residents, or 0.02 per cent of the population, identify as Black.

Trishoy Annette Salmon

For Trishoy Annette Salmon, her journey to Fort St. John began in Jamaica.

A child of divorced parents, Salmon moved to London, Ontario from the island nation in 2002 with her father and seven siblings.

Eventually settling in Toronto after high school, she heard the news that her mother, Annette, was also planning to immigrate to Canada as part of a foreign workers’ program in 2008. 

“She said she’d be working at Tim Hortons,” said Salmon, who started Box.braid.blvd in town in 2019. “I said ‘dope, there’s a Tims on every street corner.’

“Then she said she’d be in Fort St. John. As an immigrant child, Canada to me was London and Toronto. It wasn’t even on my radar.”

In her own words, Salmon came to “rescue her mom” from the clutches of the cold. Yet, when she came here, she saw something that hadn’t been given to her back east: opportunity. 

“I felt it was a fight in Toronto just to get a part-time job,” said Salmon. “My first day here, I met the manager who hired my mom.  He said ‘here’s a uniform. You can start tomorrow.’”

Over time, she gained experience in bookkeeping and the banking sector. Salmon juggled both braiding hair and raising her eldest son, now 15. 

Learning to cut hair came as a result of frequent visits to Grande Prairie’s Bello Stylez, a barbershop run by Salmon’s old classmates from London. 

“Tino Bello said to me ‘I can teach you’,” recalls Salmon. “I spent a summer going down there to learn. He taught me for free as long as I brought my own clippers.”

Now 35 years old and married with four children, Salmon balances her braid business with a job bartending at Boston Pizza. Although she opened a storefront in 2019, it had to close during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It hasn’t stopped her, as customers still line up looking for braided hair, now in her kitchen. 

She says she’s “very appreciative” of the opportunities Fort St. John has afforded her.

Oluchi Eguzozie

For Oluchi Eguzozie, being able to stand out anonymously is different from her previous life.

A native of Nigeria, Eguzozie was known in the capital of Lagos as a media personality and featured on broadcast television for a decade.

After spending some time in Houston, Texas, she formally moved to Fort St. John in 2022. She didn’t expect what welcomed her.

“I was thinking Fort St. John would be similar to Houston,” said Eguzozie. “I was hoping to see subways, undergrounds and a lot of perks you see in the bigger city.

“Perhaps I didn’t do enough research about the town. But I have come to love Fort St. John.”

Eguzozie currently works at the Fort St. John Association for Community Living as a support worker. 

With a background in microbiology, she shifted her focus to healthcare after completing a business management post-degree diploma, winning the 2024 Lieutenant Governor’s Medal for Inclusion, Democracy and Reconciliation at Northern Lights College.

She just registered her business, Afri-Grabs, last month and hopes to open a storefront in town in the near future.  

The culinary offerings will include different Nigerian soups, porridges, ox tail, goat foot and fried plantains.

“I was involved in a lot of potlucks in the community,” said Eguzozie. “I offered to just bring food into work so people can try it out. Seeing what they like and don’t like.

“We do not have an African store. There’s nowhere to buy it. There was nothing else that was close to my home country.”

“As a young woman with a family, Fort St. John is the best option I picked for myself. We have a Black community in the town. If you like the natural, calm environment, come here. But I’m here to stay in Fort St. John for as long as I want.”

Both women are examples of life in Fort St. John, and the opportunities afforded within the town if one is sought.

Further discussion about the Black community was explored at Northern Lights College’s event “Black Legacy and Leadership: Celebrating Canadian History and Uplifting Future Generations” in Fort St. John on February 13th.