Canadian educators are joining the fight against anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism.
Wednesday morning kicked off Scholar Strike Canada, a two-day event in which professors will press pause on their everyday teaching and administrative duties to host digital teach-ins on police brutality and anti-Black and anti-Indigenous violence across the country.
Min Sook Lee, an assistant professor at OCAD University who co-organized Scholar Strike Canada, called education the “pathway for addressing the critical issues of our times,” adding it’s high time to “move the education from the brain to the muscle.”
“An uprising is in many ways a reckoning of anti-Black violence and anti-Indigenous violence and how our institutions are violent to too many of us. This is a moment of great change and our students need to be part of it, not bystanders or witnesses,” she said.
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On its website, Scholar Strike Canada demanded educators support defunding police, removing police from school campuses, and support redistributing the funds to Black, Indigenous, racialized, queer and trans communities.
The labour action also urged schools to address “historic and current underrepresentation of Black and Indigenous faculty (full and part-time) in all Canadian institutions,” stressing the need to prioritize diverse faculty hires.
2:04 Queen’s engineering student starts on-line account for people of colour to share their experience with racism at the university
Queen’s engineering student starts on-line account for people of colour to share their experience with racism at the university
Several activists and educators will be leading the event, including Desmond Cole, Susan M. Hill and Eve Tuck.
While Lee and her co-organizer, University of Toronto professor Beverly Bain, were assembling educators to garner support, Lee said it was important to them that they feature the voices of leading public intellectuals, activists, scholars, critical thinkers and artists who were engaging in current events.
“The role of education is to get to make democracy robust. That’s our job, to question power and question how institutions reproduce power and ideologies that are violent and anti-Black, anti-Indigenous and violent towards poorer people, queer people, trans and racialised communities,” she said.
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supporting today’s #ScholarStrikeCanada means supporting Indigenous land defence. please donate to @1492LBL and learn about the ongoing resistance to development on Six Nations of the Grand River territory https://t.co/oWesIf9pkz
One teach-in, which will be taught by Saskatoon community organizer Erica Violet Lee and co-founder of the Black Power Hour El Jones, is called ‘Gender, Colonialism and Anti-Black Police Racist Violence,’ which will focus on resisting oppression.
During another, entitled ‘Indigenous Responses to Black Resistance,’ York University professor Bonita Lawrence will look at the “commonalities between Indigenous peoples and Black people” and discuss Indigenous support for Black Lives Matter protests.
Min Sook Lee claimed there was a misconception of ‘Canada the Good,’ which she described as a “cultural amnesia” that leads Canadians, media and elected officials to deny systemic racism throughout the country.
“All of our institutions in many ways have been inherited through a colonial legacy,” she said. “Are we simply going to protect and reinforce those systems, or do we ask ourselves: how could we build our intellectual creative resources? How could we use them to do a society that cares for each other, that prioritizes human life, Black lives, Indigenous lives, queer lives, trans lives?”
Lee said she hoped the strike will influence and inform other actions that people engage in.
“Change is not given to you. It’s not gifted to you. You fight for it. You make it happen. It’s very much an opportunity for our students to understand how we make history in the moment,” she said.
3:02 Jacob Blake protests: Milwaukee Bucks boycott game following shooting
Jacob Blake protests: Milwaukee Bucks boycott game following shooting
Inspired by the NBA, WNBA
The labour action was created by University of Pennsylvania associate professor Dr. Anthea Butler, who told Global News that she credited the NBA and WNBA strikes as her inspiration for the Scholar Strike in the United States. The strike in the U.S. began on Tuesday and will last for two days.
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“That was the catalyst,” she said of the basketball associations, adding that it was “heartfelt” to see the support the Scholar trike had picked up. Butler said over 5,000 educators had signed up to either support or participate in the action.
We are calling for a Scholar strike #Scholarstrike on September 8-9 2020 to protest ongoing police violence and murders in America. See our statement below. If you are in higher-ed professor administrator adjunct or grad student, join us by signing up herehttps://t.co/9SalILvmkapic.twitter.com/eCeiMImDWq
The Milwaukee Bucks began a series of strikes by NBA, which included the Toronto Raptors, that occurred on the 26th in the wake of civil unrest over the Jacob Blake shooting, forcing the NBA to just postpone playoff games until the 28th.
When garnering support and volunteers for digital teach-ins, Butler said it was important that participants focused on racism, issues or injustice and policing.
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She said asking ethnics study faculty members like herself to teach is not enough to turn things around, but the responsibility of institutions and their administration to be proactive.
“How much of this are we supposed to continue to take in America as educators? Specifically as an African-American professor, am I supposed to just be happy to go to my job and teach this history of African-Americans when they are killing black people on the street every day?”
HOUSTON (AP) — Brian White scored in the second half to rally the Vancouver Whitecaps to a 1-1 draw with the Houston Dynamo on Wednesday night.
Houston (12-9-8) took a 1-0 lead into halftime after Ezequiel Ponce scored on a penalty kick in the seventh minute of stoppage time. Ponce’s third goal this season came after Amine Bassi drew a foul on Whitecaps midfielder Pedro Vite following a video review. It was Ponce’s sixth career appearance, all starts.
Vancouver (13-8-7) scored the equalizer in the 73rd minute when White, who entered in the 60th, used assists from Fafá Picault and Ryan Gauld to find the net for the 13th time this season. Picault’s assist was his fifth, matching his career high for a single season. Gauld’s assist gives him a career-best 13 on the season.
Yohei Takaoka, who had clean sheets in his last three starts, finished with one save in goal for the Whitecaps.
Steve Clark saved three shots for the Dynamo, who remain one point behind Vancouver in the Western Conference standings.
Houston, which was coming off a 4-1 victory over Real Salt Lake, has allowed just 33 goals this season.
Vancouver — 6-2-2 in its last 10 matches overall — leads the all-time series 10-9-6.
The Whitecaps remain on the road to play the Los Angeles Galaxy on Saturday. The Dynamo travel to play Austin FC on Saturday.
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — Tom Pearce and Nathan Saliba scored in the second half — the first goals of their careers — and CF Montreal rallied for a 2-2 draw with the New England Revolution on Wednesday night.
“In the second half, the guys came out a little more ambitious and above all, more connected,” Montreal head coach Laurent Courtois said. “It was a great second half of resilience and fighting spirit. Nathan and Sam were impressive.
“Impressive in covering the gaps and compensating for the teammates, and the individual defending – yes it’s true, it is a lot of weight on their shoulders, but that’s the job.”
New England (8-16-4) jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the 24th minute on Bobby Wood’s third goal of the season. Teenage defender Peyton Miller notched his first assist in his fourth career start and sixth appearance and Carles Gil picked up his ninth of the season. Peyton, at 16 years, 315 days old, is the eighth youngest player in league history to record his first assist.
The Revolution took a two-goal lead in the 35th minute and held it through halftime when 19-year-old Esmir Bajraktarevic took a pass from Gil and scored his third goal of the season and career in his first full season in the league. It was the 73rd regular-season assist in Gil’s career, tying him with Steve Ralston for the most in club history.
Montreal (7-12-10) pulled within a goal in the 54th minute when Pearce scored off a free kick after defender George Campbell drew a foul on New England’s Mark-Anthony Kaye. It was the first goal for Pearce in his third career start and fourth appearance.
“Playoffs are the goal. Maybe it wasn’t in the best form, but in the end, we are picking up a point,” Pearce said. “We came into this game confident, ready to play our own game. Everyone tries their best, whenever the players are called on, we are always ready, and we are always giving it our best.”
Montreal scored the equalizer in the 68th minute on the first career goal by Saliba, a 20-year-old midfielder. Saliba has made 34 starts and 48 appearances with Montreal in his two seasons in the league. Campbell snagged his second assist of the season and the third of his career.
“It’s an incredible feeling, it’s a goal I’ve been waiting for a long time. I’m extremely happy that I was able to score it and that it can help the team take this important point on the road,” Saliba said. “Pearce’s first goal gave us really good momentum and we kept up the pressure to go for a second goal. We got more solid defensively, and we came back ready after halftime, to push for these 3 points.”
Aljaz Ivacic finished with four saves in goal for the Revolution.
Jonathan Sirois stopped four shots for Montreal.
New England beat Montreal 5-0 on the road on Aug. 24.
New England leads the all-time series 16-13-4. Montreal improves to 5-8-2 on the road against the Revs.
The Revolution travel to take on Charlotte FC on Saturday. Montreal returns home to host the Chicago Fire on Saturday.
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Adolis García hit a two-run home run in the sixth inning, Cody Bradford pitched seven strong innings after the worst start of his career, and the Texas Rangers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 2-0 on Wednesday night.
The win kept the defending World Series-champion Rangers alive in the AL West race, trailing first-place Houston by 10 games with 10 to play.
García launched an inside sinker over the left-field wall off Toronto starter Bowden Francis (8-5) after Wyatt Langford singled.
“He swings hard, he swings a lot,” Francis said of García. “I guess the velo was dropping during that time.”
Bradford (6-3) allowed five hits and no walks while striking out six.
The seven shutout innings are the most in a game during his two-year career. He was knocked out of his previous start after allowing career highs in hits (nine), runs (eight) and homers (three) in 3 2/3 innings in a 14-4 loss at Arizona.
“Throughout the week, you’ve got to try and digest what happened, see where I can make adjustments, whether it was just game plan went wrong or just poor execution, or a little bit of both,” Bradford said. “Then you flush it.”
Bradford was perfect through four innings before Alejandro Kirk opened the fifth with a smash back to the mound that caromed off Bradford’s left foot and rolled into right field for a single. It extended Kirk’s hitting streak to a career-high 12 games.
Spencer Horwitz’s double to left-center put runners on second and third with no outs before Bradford retired the next three batters.
Blue Jays manager John Schneider credited Bradford’s “deceptive fastball.”
“When you’re throwing 89, 92, you’ve got to have pretty good deception with that at this level,” Schneider said. “Kept us off balance.”
Kirby Yates pitched a perfect ninth inning for his 31st save in 32 opportunities.
Francis, who took no-hitters into the ninth inning in two of his previous four starts, allowed a double to Marcus Semien, the Rangers’ first hitter of the game. He gave up five hits and one walk in six innings.
Francis has a 1.96 ERA in nine starts with 54 strikeouts and seven walks since being moved back into the starting rotation in late July.
“I don’t even want to get complacent, on cruise control,” Francis said. “Just keep attacking.”
TRAINER’S ROOM
Blue Jays: SS Bo Bichette was a late scratch with a right middle finger contusion suffered during infield practice. Schneider said the team will get back x-rays on Thursday. Bichette was activated Tuesday following a calf injury and played for the first time in two months, going 2 for 5 with one RBI at the plate. … INF Will Wagner (left knee inflammation) will have the knee scoped on Thursday. Schneider said Wagner should be ready to start spring training. Wagner, son of former major leaguer Billy Wagner, was acquired from Houston at the trade deadline.
UP NEXT
Rangers rookie RHP Kumar Rocker (0-0, 2.25 ERA) will make his home debut against Blue Jays RHP Kevin Gausman (12-11, 4.02) in the series finale. Rocker allowed one run in four innings at Seattle last Thursday in his major league debut.
