The Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations stands in solidarity with the families, friends, communities, and activists in Canada and the United States who are demonstrating against the deaths of Regis Korchinski-Paquet, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery, and all the other Black lives that have been lost because of anti-Black racism and police violence.
Although the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police was the catalyst for recent demonstrations in cities around the world, systemic anti-Black racism and police brutality are not isolated to the United States. In Canada, they recently manifested in the needless death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet during a confrontation with Toronto police. Systemic and institutionalized anti-Black racism has a long history in Canada, as does a colonialist culture rooted in white supremacy. The same process of ongoing colonization has resulted in the deaths of thousands of Indigenous Peoples since first contact, and recently, with the death of Chantel Moore at the hands of police.
As educators and researchers, we play an important role working against institutional anti-Black racism in our communities, on campus, and in our classrooms. Systemic anti-Black racism shows up in the underrepresentation of Black faculty, librarians, staff, and administrators in our universities, the devaluing of non-colonial ways of knowing and research, the absence of the histories and voices of Black communities in curricula, the policing and profiling of Black students on campus, and the barriers many Black students face attaining a postsecondary education, particularly those from lower socio-economic backgrounds. It is also evident through the overrepresentation of Black faculty as precariously employed members of our institutions who have no voice in hiring or collegial governance processes.
Read the full article (includes an excellent list of links to organizations you can donate to in Ontario and beyond)