Truths & Rights band has a special place in Canadian reggae music history as one of the most talented and socially significant reggae bands in Toronto during the late 70s and 80s.

Founded in 1977 in Regent Park out of a Black community project called Immi-Can, the group was comprised of Caribbean musicians whose socially conscious songs about racism and climate change were front and centre in their music.

The band quickly made a name for themselves with a broad cross section of fans from reggae to rock and enjoyed radio play from various stations including CBC.

Highlights of Truths & Rights’ career include opening for Dennis Brown and Third World at Varsity stadium on August 2nd, 1981 and opening for English Beat at the Concert Hall.

The group’s first recording, “Acid Rain” released in 1980, was written by the band founder Mojah along with Juno Award-winning poet, Lillian Allen and Ato Seitu, the band’s graphic artist and manager. The song was very timely and urgent at the time.

Environment Canada in October 1979 “identified acidic precipitation as the problem of greatest concern. In 1980, Canada and the US signed a “Memorandum of Intent Concerning Transboundary Air Pollution.” The song “Acid Rain” won Q107 Radio’s Homegrown contest.

Truths & Rights followed up that single with another protest song in 1981, titled “Metro’s Number 1 Problem,” which denounced Police actions with respect to the black community along with other racial tensions in Toronto. That song came on the heels of Albert Johnson’s death in an interaction with Police.

Peter Goddard, Toronto Star’s music critic hailed Truths & Rights as Toronto’s “Band of the Year.”

Truths & Rights toured across Ontario and Quebec becoming the top paid reggae band at the time.

T&R worked with Olivia Grange, who managed several artists at the time. She later returned to Jamaica, becoming a successful politician and is currently the Minister of Sports, Culture, Entertainment and Gender Affairs in the Jamaican government.

Despite their popularity and social importance, Truths & Rights never got signed to a major label and T&R disbanded. Almost 40 years later, the band’s lost music was rediscovered and brought back to life by Jeff Holdip, the band’s sound engineer. The result: a digital album titled, Time For Us to Unite.