The Decolonization and Anti-Racism committee stand in solidarity with the participants in the “Chiinawendiwin – We Are Related” days of action, November 19-21

We are the Decolonization and Anti-Racism committee of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Carleton University. We are students, faculty, and staff doing internationally recognized decolonizing and anti-racism work, and we are committed to lovingly hold institutions accountable to the communities they serve. We stand in solidarity with the participants in the “Chiinawendiwin – We Are Related” days of action, November 19th – 21st. The Ottawa Black Diaspora Coalition, KZ [Kitigan Zibi Anishnaabeg] Land Protectors, and the Justice for Abdirahman Coalition initiated these days of action, and we saw widespread support from the broader community, including many members of our department.

We affirm our collective responsibilities to communities that have been, and continue to be, oppressed by racism, colonialism, and capitalism in what is currently Canada, with a specific focus on Ottawa. We have specific responsibilities to be in solidarity with those who are manifesting their legal practices in their own unceded and unsurrendered lands – the Kitigan Zibi Anishnaabeg whose lands Ottawa and the institutions here occupy. The very premise of the “Chiinawendiwin – We Are Related” formation named the connections between struggles for Black dignity and Indigenous sovereignty – solidarities flung into relief by the actions of the Ottawa Police Services (OPS). We stand with the ten initial demands the Chiinawendiwin – We Are Related action forwarded:

1. Freeze the Ottawa Police Budget
2. No police in contested Indigenous territories
3. End dynamic entry, mental health checks, and sexual assault by police
4. End discrimination against Indigenous and Black students in schools
5. End School Resource Officer Program
6. No racial slurs in our classrooms
7. More funding for Indigenous and Black students
8. Funds to fight public health crisis of systemic racism
9. End racism in healthcare systems & public services
10. No more evictions. Affordable housing now!

We condemn the arrests of the twelve participants in collective action expressing these demands. The arrests themselves expressed a violation of relationality in line with the OPS’s history of racist behavior. The subsequent treatment of the arrestees, their belongings, and the people who have expressed solidarity with their demands at public comment at the OPS Board meetings has underlined how much work we have to do to in Ottawa.

We call on our communities to support this work, by donating money, communicating with municipal and local politicians, and otherwise materially and politically supporting the Ottawa Black Diaspora Coalition, the KZ Land Protectors, the Justice for Abdirahman Coalition, and others working for relationality, justice, and dignity.

In solidarity,
The Decolonization and Anti-Racism Committee of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Marie-Eve Carrier-Moisan
Xiaobei Chen
Danielle DiNovelli-Lang
Felicity Hauwert
Kristen Kowlessar
Mwika Belly Lubangi
Monique Manatch
Justin Paulson
Blair Rutherford
Alexis Shotwell
Jayani Srigouranga
Zoe Todd
Amanda Van Beinum