Over the past few days, many of you have approached us to express your grief and anger at the racial injustices that are occurring around us. Although the violent police murder of George Floyd may have brought it to the forefront, the subsequent death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet and police-shooting death of Chantel Moore bring home the continued reality that systemic racism permeates aspects of our own society and institutions. We grieve alongside you and share your anger at these horrific events.
Across all of the academic programming we are proud to offer at St. Paul’s University College, there is a common thread of social justice. We are also honoured to host Shatitsirótha’, Waterloo Indigenous Student Centre and we recognize that Canada has its own systemic, deep-roots of racism in connection to Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island.
We firmly believe racial justice must be a critical part of all social justice conversations and we commit to its inclusion within our academic programming.
As a community, St. Paul’s staff and faculty wish to state that racism in any of its forms is completely unacceptable and antithetical to who we are. We condemn racism unequivocally, and we commit to challenging our own deeply held assumptions and educating ourselves about the way racism continues to operate in our society.
At St. Paul’s, we care deeply about our students and our community. We stand with our students and colleagues in the work towards racial justice. We are here to listen to you and to support you. We know that the isolation created by COVID makes it doubly difficult to deal with the grief you feel. Please understand that you are not alone.
St. Paul’s Faculty and Staff