U of M profs, others, joining Scholar Strike Canada

Educators across the country are joining together with a list of demands, calling for the ending of racist, carceral, institutional, and systemic forms of violence.

Scholar Strike Canada was inspired by Anthea Butler, a Black scholar who noted that the academic community could follow the lead of athletic organizations taking a stand against racism.

Following her lead, Scholar Strike Canada was formed, organizing a strike at the beginning of the school year. The strike will be on September 9 and 10.

Scholars at schools across the country, including in Manitoba, have pledged to pause work and instead use the time to do things such as organize public digital teach-ins on police brutality and violence.

President Michael Benarroch of the University of Manitoba shared a letter with the school in regard to the strike. Benarroch says the school supports those participating.

"The University of Manitoba is a community where we exchange ideas, where we shine a light on past actions and hard truths, and where we question established patterns. We do this work because it allows us to grow, both as individuals and as a community. Our community and our nation are now at a crossroads, and we must ask ourselves – how will we listen, how will we learn, and how will we grow?"

The president says that the school is encouraging those participating to use the time in a way that suits them best, including reflection and learning, advocation, and other methods. 

"I want to be clear – the University of Manitoba condemns all forms of racism. Anti-BIPOC racism (Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour) has no place on our campuses, in our curricula, or in our governance systems. Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion must form the bedrock of our institution, and indeed, all modern and accessible universities in Canada. The University is continuing to work on developing an action plan to address racism through the work of the Office of the Vice-President (Indigenous) and the President’s Task Force on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion."

Scholar Strike Canada has a list of demands for its scholars:

• We must support the demands for defunding the police and redistributing those resources to Black, Indigenous, racialized, queer and trans communities for the creation of sustainable and healthy communities. 

• We must support demands to remove campus police.  All agreements between policing institutions and universities must be rescinded.

• We must address the historic and current underrepresentation of Black and Indigenous faculty (full and part-time) in all Canadian institutions and press University Administrations to prioritize the urgency of these faculty hires.

• We commit to supporting meaningful efforts to recruit, admit, retain and mentor Black, Indigenous and racialized undergraduate and graduate students.

• We must support the campaign by CUPE 3261 to stop the University of Toronto from contracting out caretaking services thereby relinquishing its responsibility to safeguard secure and suitable paying jobs and health and safety of workers

• We must advocate for the creation, expansion, and maintenance of mental health and health care resources for students at our universities.

• We must support the demand for affordable education, sustainable jobs and housing for students and cultural professionals across all the universities. 

The organization has two days planned of discussions and panels which are set to end Thursday night.