SPPA Statement Against Racism

Over the past two years, our School’s faculty, students and alumni have been having critically important conversations about the injustices experienced by Black, Indigenous and racialized peoples and communities in our societies. Conversations in the School on racism and injustices have been brought to the fore by our students’ call to action. These conversations have challenged us to recognize barriers to equity and inclusion in the life of the School and commit ourselves to concrete and demonstrable action.

These calls to action are being echoed across Carleton, other Canadian post-secondary institutions and in the Government of Canada, as reflected in Carleton University’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Action Plan and Indigenous Strategy Kinàmàgawin, and the Federal Public Service’s “Call to action on anti-racism, equity, and inclusion in the Federal Public Service.”

We take this opportunity to re-affirm our commitments, as a community.

• We affirm a commitment to action against racism of any kind.
• We affirm a commitment to action against racism directed at Black, Indigenous and racialized peoples and communities.
• We affirm our commitment to identifying all forms of barriers to equity, diversity and inclusion in our teaching, research and service, and combating them by designing and implementing appropriate action, in line with Carleton University’s EDI Action Plan.
• We seek to become an anti-racist organization and community that fosters an anti-racism culture and commit to increasing our collective awareness about the ways in which different lived experiences and identities produce varying experiences of unconscious bias.
• We commit to evaluate, reflect and reset our policies, processes, and interactions with one another to ensure that a diversity of voices and experiences are represented at all levels, and our racialized students, faculty and staff feel supported to succeed.

We are thankful to our students and alumni for their calls on the School to take concrete steps on these commitments. We have undertaken an internal consultation process that has taken time, and our plan of action is still developing. But it will build from and continue our engagement with the rest of Carleton and involve working with our students through a committee on anti-racism to develop a specific, meaningful and accountable plan of action to support EDI practices at the School. These concrete steps will include:

1. Creating an ongoing EDI committee to review our curriculum, School activities, and hiring to implement the plans set out in the University-level EDI Action Plan and Kinàmàgawin.
2. Facilitating anti-racism and equity in the classroom workshops for faculty and students with the support of the Department of Equity and Inclusive Communities
3. Embarking on a comprehensive discussion to develop clear and concrete strategies to become an anti-racist organization.

University Resources

Carleton Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan
Department of Equity and Inclusive Communities (EIC)
Centre for Indigenous Support and Community Engagement
Paul Menton Centre for Students with Disabilities