Systemic injustices, a fatal disease

BY OMNIYA ALI

As of October 9th, 2020, according to the Government of Canada, 178,117 confirmed coronavirus cases and 9,585 deaths from the disease have occurred in Canada. The main underlying concept uniting everyone is that we are all susceptible to the virus, no one is safe. Yet, some people are still being treated as an afterthought, the importance of their life and safety coming second to others. The Concordia Student Union discussed these issues alongside others such as police and climate during their online seminar on September 13th. The seminar featured Montreal activists Ellen Gabriel, Harsha Walia, and Sandy Hudson. In the wake of coronavirus, many issues have been brought to the surface at a much more alarming rate and with much deeper effects. As discussed by these activists some of these issues entail the systemic oppression against Indigenous peoples, police brutality against black people as well as the Canadian government’s negligence towards marginalized people during the pandemic.
Spreading almost as infectiously as the present virus, systemic injustices must be treated with as much urgency. “For Indigenous people, [activism is] not a hobby, it’s what we have to do because we’re fighting colonization,” Gabriel, a human rights activist from Kanien’kehá:ka who has advocated for Indigenous peoples’ rights for nearly thirty years, told The McGill Tribute. Gabriel, Walia and Hudson discussed the current state of human rights around the world and reached the conclusion that “systemic injustices are inevitably intertwined,” Ella Fitzhugh, The McGill Tribute. They further expressed their desire to see the link between movements such as Black Lives Matter and Indigenous rights movements to enhance solidarity and outcomes. As Walia, a migrants’ rights activist, author, and lawyer based in Vancouver, BC, emphasized, the Canadian government has left people of the middle and working classes behind when attending to the COVID-19 crisis. “You’re supposed to believe in the government,” she expressed. Further explaining the disappointment people feel once they realize the government doesn’t quiet reciprocate or care for that feeling.

Although many obstacles have been placed in the way of these movements, Gabriel, Hudson and Walia are here to tell people not to lose hope. Sandy Hudson, founder of the Canadian wing of the BLM movement assured that the current success of the movement has aided in the pursuit of the goal of rallying to defund the police. “Policing in our communities […] really targets our communities in ways that they don’t target people who aren’t Indigenous, people who aren’t migrants, [and] people who aren’t black,” Hudson said. “The way that the state cracks down on particular communities and tries to keep us at the margins through the use of policing, I mean that’s a thorough line through all of our movements. This is a topic that really is just a human issue.”

As seen in protests in the US, defunding the police has widely been demanded as a solution to police brutality and racial inequalities. As supporters insisted, instead of funding the police department, the same amount of money allocated would be better off invested in communities, especially marginalized ones where most of the policing occurs. According to BLM Canada, taxpayers spend over $41 million per day collectively on police services across the country. That amount has yet to create safer, more secure communities. As suggested by the movement, that money can be redistributed towards other forms of services such as shelters, emergency services for mental distress, survivors of violence or sexual assault, among other forms.

“In human rights, we say all rights are interdependent [and] interrelated, one right that is violated prevents you from enjoying all of your rights,” – Ellen Gabriel