In response to Violence at University of Waterloo
We express our deepest solidarity and collective grief to the students of diverse identity, who have been deeply impacted by the violence that occurred at Waterloo on June 28th. We recognise the particular impact such violence has for international students with diverse identities and hope you feel supported and cared for by campus communities in this moment of deep trauma.
Students for Consent Culture stands in solidarity with those victimized at the University of Waterloo after the attack on gender liberation and transgender rights, but also many across the country who continue to feel the impacts of violence. There are many of us who are transgender or queer and working in anti-violence - we know that this is not an isolated incident. Instead, we know this act of violence to be rooted in systemic transphobic, misogynistic, and colonial hatred both within post-secondary education and in society at-large. The fact that this incident occurred within a classroom cannot be overlooked. We firmly stand on the principle that everyone deserves a learning environment that is safe and free from the threat and reality of violence. A gender studies class is a space meant to foster critical thinking and encourage students to challenge false binaries, oppressive norms, and systems of domination. To target professors and students who are actively embracing liberation-oriented ways of understanding gender and sexuality is a broader attack on 2SLGBTQIA+ rights. It also underlines the immediate and ongoing threat faced by those teaching social justice oriented material, which is too often minimized by colleagues and administrators who do not face the same level of risk, and rarely recognize the direct link between hate-based harassment and life threatening physical violence.
We call on everyone - particularly those with the power to make changes within post-secondary institutions - to connect the dots between the Waterloo attack in a gender studies class, recent rollbacks of protections for queer and trans youth in New Brunswick, recent anti-trans protests in front of school and playgrounds across the country, calls for books to be banned in K-12 systems, and funding cuts and increasingly limited access to reproductive health systems. These are symptoms of an organized far-right backlash driven by fear, misinformation about gender-affirming care, transgender rights, sexual health education, feminism, and drag shows that continue to receive the spotlight in media and political arenas such as municipal council and school board meetings.
In regards to this specific act of violence, students at Waterloo are speaking out about ongoing hate and misogyny and systems of negligence from their institution. In a recent CBC article, we saw Waterloo students call for more transparency from their institution, both during and after the attacks. One student stated "[The university] should tell us what they've done, what steps they've taken to further secure the campus - like, what have you done after the incident that makes me feel like I want to go to university again. I don't feel like stepping foot into the campus." As a student-run organization supporting our fellow students, we have seen post-secondary institutions fail to provide safe environments due to their focus on “risk management” rather than building institutions which are safe and free from the risk of violence. We fear that this approach will result in an increase in police and campus security in response to this violence, as we saw in the response at Western to sexualised violence in 2021 and at York in 2007 - this is a tired, exhausting, and ultimately unhelpful response to persistent violence on campuses. What we need to see is a response that seeks to dismantle structures that allow this violence to happen both on and off campus.
In recent years, we have seen some resources put forward that we hope will move the needle on the issues of gender-based violence in post-secondary. This includes, but is not limited to:
A toolkit for Indigiqueer, Two-Spirit, LGBTQ+, and Gender Non-Conforming Indigenous youth created by the Native Youth Sexual Health Network
Our own Pass the Megaphone Toolkit for survivors and students looking for support on advocacy at the campus, provincial, and federal levels
A repository of tools within Possibility Seeds on topics ranging from solidarity and collective care to Resources for gender justice advocates to affirm and support 2SLGBTQIA gender-based violence survivors to media reporting on GBV
A vast library of resources ranging from webinars to graphics to forums at the Learning Network in Western University
We see these as valuable forms of harm reduction within a systemically and systematically violent system; however, we need empowerment in our communities and radical leadership in our institutions as we fight to dismantle these systems.
We encourage any individuals who have been shocked that such an attack would happen in Canada to reflect on how they feel so far removed from everyday transphobia and misogyny. Agents of this harm are emboldened by our current political systems, carceral approaches to violence, centuries of colonial patriarchy, and the modern rise of fascism that fuels these attacks.
Students of Waterloo – and everywhere: know that we are here for you to push beyond reactionary institutional responses. Know that we are here for you in your grief, rage, and radical hope. Know that we are here for you.
In Solidarity and Care,
Students for Consent Culture Canada