Canadian universities, colleges commit to fight anti-Black racism in schools

Several Canadian universities and colleges are expected to sign the Scarborough Charter on Thursday in a commitment to fight anti-Black racism in schools.

A group of universities and colleges from across Canada are signing a charter to fight anti-Black racism in post-secondary institutions.

The 22-page document requires those signing it to respect certain principles as they develop their own action plans to foster Black inclusion.

Referred to as the Scarborough Charter, the document was drafted by an advisory committee that emerged from an event hosted by the University of Toronto last year as anti-Black racism was in the international spotlight.

“There was an opportune moment for us to say, ‘well, there are a lot of statements being issued, but this may be the time for us to come together and do this together,” charter committee chair Wisdom Tettey said in an interview.

The committee asked universities and colleges for their feedback to refine the charter and met with several organizations and groups, including Universities Canada and the parliamentary Black caucus, said Tettey, vice-president of the University of Toronto.

Forty-six universities and colleges, including the country’s largest post-secondary institutions, are signing the charter virtually on Thursday.

They include the University of Toronto, McGill University, York University, the University of British Columbia, the University of Calgary and the University of Waterloo.

Tettey said more universities and colleges are expected to sign the charter in the near future. There are 96 publicly-funded universities and 139 publicly-funded colleges in Canada.