ACFAM Statement on HESN Arrests Dec 2021
The African and Caribbean Faculty Association of McMaster (ACFAM) expresses grave concern over the brutal arrests of members of the Hamilton Encampment Support Network between November 24 and November 29, 2021.
Dec 01, 2021
African and Caribbean Faculty Association of McMaster (ACFAM) and Black Student Success Centre (BSSC)
It does not escape our notice that those arrested were mostly Black youth, some of them our alumni, who had been working with the Network over the period of the pandemic to supply emergency support (food, blankets, etc.) to those living rough in public spaces in Hamilton.
While we recognize that the causes of people’s living in encampments are many and varied, we call upon the provincial and city governments to address these root causes, especially the owning and trading of local housing on the global market so that housing is now out of reach for an increasing number of Hamiltonians.
Calling in the police to disband encampments cannot solve the problem of housing if there is nowhere for displaced people to go, and it introduces an enforcement institution, the Hamilton Police Service, that has a documented record of aggressive and hostile engagements with BIPOC, queer, and non-binary people in this city. This record continues to grow with the violent beatings and arrests administered to Black youth members of the HESN over the past week.
Members of ACFAM and BSSC are involved in research, teaching, and learning that track the interrelations of race, poverty, sexual-gender identity, and disability that determine Hamiltonians’ ability to live in peace and dignity. We commit ourselves to continuing to call attention to the gaps in equity and respect that undermine our city’s ability to create a truly welcoming and supportive community. We express our admiration and gratitude to our community members who have put their bodies on the line to insist on humane and just solutions to the housing crisis in our neighborhoods. We support the calls to have all of the charges on the protesters dropped. We call upon our leaders at all levels—NGOs, public institutions, municipal, and provincial—to disarm and detask our police force, to seek real solutions to housing challenges in our city, and to care about those who have been made most vulnerable by them.
Please email acfam@mcmaster.ca to have your name added to the letter.
Daniel Coleman, Department of English and Cultural Studies
Juliet Daniel, Department of Biology
Bonny Ibhawoh, Department of History
Ameil Joseph, School of Social Work
Alpha Abebe, Faculty of Humanities
Faith Ogunkoya, Black Student Success Centre
Clare Warner, Equity, Inclusion and Anti-Racism (Student Affairs)
Shaiya Robinson, School of Interdisciplinary Science
Arij Elmi, School of Social Work
Eugène Nshimiyimana, Department of French
Lawrence Mbuagbaw, Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact
Paulin Coulibaly, Department of Civil Engineering and School of Earth, Environment and Society
Jordan Lentinello, Black Student Success Centre
Ingrid Waldron, Department of History
Kennishia Boahene, Black Student Success Centre
Gary Warner, Professor Emeritus
Lydia Kapiriri, Health, Aging and Society
Aaron Parry, Black Student Success Centre
May-Marie Duwai-Sowa
Robin Cameron, Department of Biology
Ronald Cummings, Department of English and Cultural Studies
Allies/Supporters:
Rodrigo Narro Pérez, Faculty of Science
Amber Dean, Department of English and Cultural Studies
Sheena Jary, Department of English and Cultural Studies
Eugenia Zuroski, Department of English and Cultural Studies
Vilma Rossi, Ward One Resident
Michael Egan, Department of History
Theresa Kenney, Department of English and Cultural Studies
Jose Moran-Mirabal, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
Dave Heidebrecht, Office of the Vice Provost (Academic)
Susie O’Brien, Department of English and Cultural Studies
Andrew Roddick, Department of Anthropology
Karen Balcom, Department of History/Office of Community Engagement
Vanessa Watts, Indigenous Studies & Sociology
Sarah Brophy, Department of English and Cultural Studies
Robert Innes, Indigenous Studies and Political Science
Renae Watchman, Indigenous Studies and English and Cultural Studies
Johannah Bird, English and Cultural Studies