Skip to main content
Skip to McMaster Navigation Skip to Site Navigation Skip to main content
McMaster logo
ACFAM Statement on HESN Arrests

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

Selina Mudavanhu, Department of Communication Studies & Media Arts

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

Celeste Licorish
Access Program Manager, McMaster University
 
Melinda Gough
Professor, English & Cultural Studies
 
Dr. Peter Cockett
McMaster University
 
Allauren Samantha Forbes
Assistant Professor
 
Stephanie Erickson
Gender and Social Justice Program
 
Shahzi Yasmin Bokhari
Social Work graduate student, McMaster University, Ward 2 resident
 
Saara Greene (Professor, School of Social Work)
 
Mads Clement (they/them)
BA, Justice, Political Philosophy, and Law
Gender and Social Justice Master's Student
McMaster University
 
Bridget Marsdin, School of Social Work
 
Natasha Johnson, MD, FAAP, FRCPC
Associate Chair, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion
Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics, McMaster University
 
Christine Quail, Department of Communication Studies & Media Arts / Gender & Social Justice Program
 
Peter Walmsley
Professor, English and Cultural Studies
 
Adrianne Xavier
Indigenous Studies & Anthropology
 
Dr. Chandrima Chakraborty
Professor, Department of English and Cultural Studies
Director, Global Peace and Social Justice Program and Centre for Peace Studies
 
Sheila Sammon,
Professor Emerita
 
Nicole Longstaff, Office of International Affairs, McMaster University
 
Joan Johnson
Equity and Inclusion Office
 
Nick Marquis
Learning Technologies Consultant
Office of the Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences
 
Arlene Fajutrao Dosen
Director, Student Success
 
Catherine Anderson
Director, Gender and Social Justice Program
 
Beth Aiken
PhD Candidate
Department of History
McMaster University
 
Carolyn Ralph, School of Social Work
 
Lyndsey P. Beutin, PhD
Assistant Professor
Communication Studies & Multimedia
McMaster University
 
Aisha Wilks
PhD Student
Department of English & Cultural Studies
McMaster University
 
Ian McKay
History/Wilson Institute
 
Ann Fudge Schormans, M.S.W., Ph.D. (she/her pronouns)
Associate Professor, School of Social Work