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. 

This horrific act of violence was a hate crime motivated by anti-Black racism and white supremacy. We stand in solidarity with the survivors, and those who have lost beloved family members, friends, role models, and community members. We stand in solidarity with the Black community, who were directly targeted by the white nationalistic ideals promoted by the perpetrator. 

This attack was indicative of a rise in violence and hatred that have gone relatively unchecked, as anti-Black racism and white supremacist ideologies remain prevalent globally. The Urban Alliance on Race Relations calls for direct action to combat the violence and discrimination that target the Black community, both overtly and covertly. 

We reaffirm our commitment to community building and anti-racist work, in order to do our part to deconstruct these hateful ideologies. Moreover, we pledge to continue working to combat anti-Black racism, systemic discrimnation, and white supremacist ideologies. 

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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.

Open Letter to Pickering City Council

With Break The Chains Pickering, we have written an open letter to express our disappointment in response to the City's establishment of the Pickering Anti-Black Racism Task Force. We have been raising this critical point to the City of Pickering for the past two months. In response, the Black community has faced either silence or performative activism.

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