(Toronto) A group of universities and colleges across Canada have signed a charter to fight anti-black racism in post-secondary institutions.
The 22-page document demands that those who sign it adhere to certain principles when developing their own action plans to promote the inclusion of black people.
Called the Scarborough Charter, the document was drafted by an advisory committee that emerged from an event hosted by the University of Toronto last year when anti-Black racism was in the spotlight.
“There was an opportune moment for us to say, ‘well, there are a lot of statements going around, but maybe now is the time for us to come together and act together,’” the President said. charter committee chairman, Wisdom Tettey, in an interview.
The committee asked universities and colleges for feedback on refining the charter and met with several organizations and groups, including Universities Canada and the black parliamentary caucus, said Wisdom Tettey, vice-president of the University of Toronto.
Forty-six universities and colleges, including the country’s largest post-secondary institutions, virtually signed the charter Thursday.
Among the signatories are the Quebec universities of McGill, Concordia and Bishop. In the Maritimes, we find St. Francis Xavier, Dalhousie and Acadia universities.
Wisdom Tettey said more universities and colleges are expected to sign the charter in the near future. There are 96 universities and 139 publicly funded colleges in Canada.
“We expect each partner institution to commit to respecting the principles of black development,” said the vice-president of the University of Toronto.
“The idea of black people flourishing is to ensure that our institutions are places where black people, faculty, staff, students and community members can feel a sense of belonging, can come together. see in our mission and can be supported to flourish. ”
At the University of Toronto, part of the institution’s plan to break down barriers faced by black students is to provide them with better mental health support, Wisdom Tettey said.
“We make sure we have advisers who understand and come from black communities,” he said.
The university has also revised its curricula to ensure that black authors are included in education, and it supports black students through scholarships and access programs.
University of British Columbia president Ananya Mukherjee Reed said black students face the same barriers in post-secondary institutions as they do in society at large.
“They go to a class and they feel lonely. They are either the only black student or one of the very few black students, ”she said.
“They don’t always feel like they have a voice and when they sometimes express their voice or signal something related to black experience or history, they are not always heard. They often feel rejected. ”
The curricula of many universities do not reflect the experiences or successes of black people, she said.
“Black authors are often absent from the curriculum and it creates a sense of alienation when you are alone in a classroom and then you study something and you feel like you are missing a perspective. ”
Malinda Smith, vice-president of the University of Calgary, said there are also few black academics in faculties at Canadian universities.
Data from the 2016 Statistics Canada census and data from a 2019 Universities Canada report indicate that 6% of undergraduates, 6.1% of graduate students and 3% of doctoral graduates are black. , while 1.9% of university professors and 0.8% of university leaders are black, said Malinda Smith.
“There is a significant under-representation. I am the only black leader at the University of Calgary, ”she said, adding that universities face barriers and prejudices that can prevent the hiring of black academics.
“We need to recognize systemic racism and we need to recognize racial prejudice. ”
Robert Summerby-Murray, president of St. Mary’s University in Halifax, said that involving local black communities in university research is also an important step in combating anti-black racism.
“Part of what we’ve done in the charter, I believe, is to recognize a set of Eurocentric and colonial processes within the academy,” he said.
“Here in Nova Scotia we have a very important historic African Nova Scotian community… which has been in this province for hundreds of years. And these communities must be engaged as research partners. ”