Category Archives: Activism
UBC’s secrecy is nothing new
In an editorial on January 22, the Ubyssey staff rightly criticized UBC’s shameful contravention of Freedom of Information (FOI) laws, by going over the legal time limit in providing access to documents about the Gupta resignation, apparently as a way to avoid public scrutiny. This has in fact been a common practice, and has been […]
Public Statement on Campus (Un)safety
University of British Columbia xʷməθkʷəy̓əm Musqueam Territory socialjustgradstatements@gmail.com / socialjustgradstatements.wordpress.com Note: The views in this statement are solely of the authors. They do not reflect the views of all faculty, staff, and students at the Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Social Justice Research. Recently gaining public attention, student activism at UBC has illuminated the […]
Community Speaks Out Against Displacement in the DTES
It has been more than two weeks since the City of Vancouver’s decision to crack down on survival street vending on 0-400 blocks of East Hastings St. According to the City, the once-common act of selling wares on the sidewalk will no longer be tolerated, as police presence is set to increase in order to […]
Why I took my favorite charity to the Human Rights Tribunal
In September 2014, I took the British Columbia Lions Society for Children with Disabilities to the BC Human Rights Tribunal on the grounds of disability discrimination. I chose to seek legal action after internally voicing my concerns regarding the hiring processes of their summer camps, BC Easter Seals Camps that grossly favour able-bodied applicants. In […]
We are Here, We are Needed: UBC Students of Colour Ready to Speak Out against Racist Violence Worldwide
Next Friday, November 27th, an event at UBC is taking place where students of colour and allies will gather to show solidarity for the racist violence occurring throughout university campuses worldwide. Please join us at 2PM in the Performance Theatre of the AMS Nest, to show your support for #Mizzou, #Yale, #UWC, #FeesMustFall, #StudentBlackOut, #BlackLivesMatter […]
No, UBC, I won’t be white for you
Last week I was perusing the shops in our beautiful new $107 million, horizon-obliterating, architectural giant, also know as the AMS Student Nest. In one cute, somewhat bizarrely placed boutique, I discovered something very shocking: Cake Soap. Cake Soap is what I – with a penchant for Vybz Kartel and some Jamaican ancestry – would […]
Gupta and the state of transparency and democracy at UBC
If you’re anything like me, you spent August closely watching the unfolding drama at the highest echelons of UBC’s administration: a President who left unexpectedly and without explanation, the Board of Governors Chair cracking down on a professor, the AMS’s response, and now a call for transparency in the new Presidential Search process. As the […]
“Critical Muslim Voices and The Elections”: A Conversation with Hasan Alam
Hasan Alam is a lawyer, activist and a founding member of Critical Muslim Voices. A few weeks ago I got the chance to sit down with him and talk about Critical Muslim Voices, what the upcoming federal election means for Muslims, the Islamophobic rhetoric surrounding the elections, and the presence of CSIS (the Canadian Security […]
white feminist 404
can trauma be owned can it be speculated on / paid for in plastic rainbows & rubber kisses? you, white feminist, are a bracelet locking me within these washed, haunted halls (so clean): the clock, this wristband, these lunch trays – they tell me to give one story here the exact four lines you’ve been […]
Meat is Murder
There is no existence more complicated, convoluted and rewarding than being a human being. We live within our own inventions: insulated homes, organized municipal communities, restaurants, the internet, language – so who would want to be anything else? Now, across cultures relationships with land and animals vary, and since I cannot personally speak on the […]
