UARR, NCCM & other Community Groups Denounce Planned Hate Rallies in Toronto

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UARR Outreach ​ UARR Statement on the Criminalization of Pro-Palestinian Dissent and Protest and on the Rising Antisemitism across the Country

The Urban Alliance on Race Relations joins many Palestinian, Muslim, Arab and Jewish organizations in condemning the exponential rise of discrimination against Palestinian, Muslim, Arab and Jewish communities across Canada.

As an organization committed to fighting racism, we oppose the criminalization of peaceful anti-racist advocacy and protest. Currently, we are seeing the targeting and demonization of racialized communities, with several Canadian leaders making statements equating them with “terrorism”. As we’ve previously seen during the so-called “War on Terror '' after 9/11, and Canada’s seige of Kanien’kehá:ka, this framing promotes state policies and practices severely limiting human rights and civil liberties for Indigenous and racialized populations. We also observe that suppression and reprisal against anti-racist and anti-colonial advocacy is a hallmark of the system of white supremacy. We call on Canadian leaders to acknowledge, apologize for and address harms caused by such statements. These harms include drastically rising anti-Palestinian, anti-Muslim, and anti-Arab hate incidents on our streets, in workplaces, and in schools.

We simultaneously condemn the recent violent and hateful attacks against Jewish schools and places of worship. We should all be concerned when the safety and wellbeing of Jewish communities is threatened as they exercise their rights to freedom of worship, and freedom to visibly express their religious affiliation and identity. An attack on one of us as we exercise these rights is an attack on us all.

Canada is a member state of the United Nations and as such has an obligation to uphold international law. We believe this is a time for empathy, dialogue, and learning about the detrimental impacts of settler colonialism, white supremacy, anti-Semitism, anti-Palestinian racism, and Islamophobia.

Statement Regarding May 14 Attack

The Urban Alliance on Race Relations expresses deep sorrow in response to the May 14 white supremacist attack in Buffalo, New York. 

We honour those who lost their lives to this heinous act of violence: Roberta A. Drury, Margus D. Morrison, Andre Macknil, Aaron Salter, Geraldine Talley, Celestine Chaney. Heyward Paterson, Katherine Massey, Pearl Young, and Ruth Whitfield. 

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