OCUFA supports the Scholar Strike for racial justice, an end to anti-Black police violence and anti-Indigenous colonial violence which will take place on September 9-10 in Canada.
While many OCUFA members are unable to legally strike during the length of their contract, we encourage faculty, academic librarians, and other staff to join the public digital teach-ins and other events being organized by #ScholarStrikeCanada against racist, institutional, and systemic forms of violence and to learn more about the demands of #ScholarStrikeCanada.
OCUFA condemns institutionalized racism and racist policing that inflict violence on Black, Indigenous, and other racialized communities across Ontario and the rest of Turtle Island. We extend our solidarity to Black, Indigenous, and other racialized communities that are subjected to this loss and trauma.
We echo the call of the #ScholarStrikeCanada organizers who “believe that it’s of crucial importance for those of us in higher education to take a stand in solidarity with our students and the communities we serve [and]…affirm protestors, workers for social justice, and activists who are crucial parts of making our communities safer places.”
We also call on university administrators to support faculty, librarians, other staff, and students participating in these actions and not penalize those who do. With over half of Ontario university courses taught by contract faculty, OCUFA acknowledges the precarious employment status of many academic staff and supports the #ScholarStrikeCanada organizers’ call for individuals to participate in ways that mirror their capacity to engage.
OCUFA is committed to working internally and externally to end racism and systemic discrimination. At universities across Ontario, Black, Indigenous, and racialized faculty, librarians, staff, and students bear the burden of systemic discrimination and of combating it. The OCUFA Executive is committed to examining and reimagining OCUFA’s structures to make them more representative and inclusive, and to effect systemic changes that support our racialized colleagues and students. This important work is ongoing.
For more information about the Scholar Strike, please visit: https://scholarstrikecanada.ca
Solidarity