Sonya Biddle

Sonya Biddle is an actress and politician in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. She served on the Montreal city council from 1998 to 2001 as a member of Vision Montreal.

Biddle is the daughter of well-known Montreal jazz bassist Charlie Biddle and the sister of jazz singer Stephanie Biddle. Her mother, a white francophone woman, was ostracized by other members of her family in the 1950s for having married a black man.

Biddle was a noted stage actress in Montreal during the 1980s and early 1990s, appearing in performances of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf,Irene and Lillian Forever,A Woman Alone,The Colored Museum,Fool Blast,No Men Beyond This Point,The Haunting, and Canad-uh?. In 1990, she directed the play, My Mom Was on the Radio. For a time, she and her partner Allan Patrick were the leaders and organizers of the Fool House Theatre Corporation, and in the mid-1990s she was involved in organizing community events, concerts, and festivals.

Biddle has appeared in the films Rebel High (1987), Snake Eater II: The Drug Buster (1989), Sweet Killing (1993), and The Bone Collector (1999).

Biddle had strong connections with the leadership of Vision Montreal before seeking political office herself; her partner Allan Patrick was an organizer for the party in the 1994 municipal election and subsequently became an advisor to mayor Pierre Bourque on issues affecting Montreal's anglophone community.

Biddle was elected to city council in the 1998 Montreal municipal election, narrowly defeating longtime Democratic Coalition incumbent Sam Boskey in Décarie. During the campaign, she highlighted her connections to the mayor and promised that the city would purchase the vacant Cinema V building to create a cultural centre for local artists and musicians. Vision Montreal won a majority government in this election, and in November 1998 Biddle was appointed as an associate member of the Montreal executive committee (i.e., the municipal cabinet).

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