About the Event:
We are hosting an online discussion for the South Asian community about anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism in policing in Canada.
South Asians benefit from the racial justice fights led by Black and Indigenous communities here on Turtle Island. We also often uphold anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism. Many of us in South Asian diasporas come from homelands that have militarized and unaccountable police forces that act as tools of authoritarian regimes. We see both in history and present day reality people being overpoliced and criminalized based on religion, gender, caste, and class in our home countries and here in so-called Canada.
In light of this, there is an urgent need for more dialogue and critical examination of racism within South Asian communities, the role of the police, and the need to build solidarity with Indigenous and Black communities here, as well as solidarity with struggles abroad.
We will hear from panelists who will draw on their experiences as South Asians in medicine, law, and community organizing to discuss how we can respond to the compounding crises of racism and state violence.
This event aims to be the first of a series addressing South Asian struggles and complicities with policing, racism and discrimination.
Panelists:
Dr Tharuna Abbu (they/them) – Family Physician, Vancouver
Harsha Walia – (she/her) – Executive Director, BC Civil Liberties Association, Vancouver
Sunil Gurmukh – (he/him) – Human Rights Lawyer and Adjunct Law Professor, Western University
About the organizers:
South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy (SANSAD) is an organization of the South Asian diaspora based in British Columbia, Canada. It comprises people with origin in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
Learn more: https://sansad.org/sansad/who-we-are/
Land Acknowledgement:
We are all living and working on stolen Indigenous lands and this event is being organized from the unceded, ancestral, and occupied, traditional lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Səl̓ílwətaʔ (Tsleil-Watuth), and Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) Nations of the Coast Salish peoples (colonially known as Vancouver). We recognize there is no justice for anyone until there is justice for the Indigenous peoples of these lands.