Black Lives Matter

June 18, 2020

The Windsor University Faculty Association expresses our unreserved support for the Black Lives Matter movement and for an end to racism, discrimination, and police violence against racialized people everywhere.

Racism in various forms has a long and continuing history in Canada. Since May 25, when the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked global protests, two racialized Canadians, Regis Korchinski-Paquet and Chantel Moore, have died as a result of troubling police action. As Canadians, it is too easy to allow high profile incidents of racism in other countries to distract us from our own failings. Our very existence as a nation has its roots in the European project of genocidal colonization. And although slavery was abolished in Canada in the early nineteenth century, racism and discrimination targeting Black and Indigenous Canadians and other racialized groups in our society persist. Canada as a nation must renounce our colonial past and build a nation that upholds for all the Charter rights to life, liberty, security of the person, and equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination.

It is similarly far too easy to become complacent about racism at the University of Windsor. The remarkable diversity within the student body and within WUFA’s membership of faculty and librarians seems a welcome indicator of racial and ethnic understanding, and yet students and faculty have, for years, raised concerns about incidents with racist elements.

Finally, as a union, and despite our commitment to the struggle for social justice, WUFA has not always succeeded in finding our best ability to support our racialized members. WUFA can and must do better. We want to hear from members about your experiences of racism on campus, and we will continue to review our processes and policies. WUFA welcomes input from all members.