SBA Newsletter [February 7th, 2017]

SBA Programming and Events

The Muslims are Coming!
Surviving Together Workshop
Crafternoon
QT2SBIPOC Discussion Night
Office Closures

Community Events and Resources

Anti-Racism and Cultural Diversity Office Drop In Hours
12th Annual Strawberry Ceremony
Honouring Our Students Pow Wow and Indigenous Festival
Making Canada Great Again: Deconstructing Fear Tactics
Reclaiming Our Bodies and Minds – Call for Tabling
The New Disability Activisms – Call for Abstracts

SBA Programming and Events

Office Closure Notice

Please note that the SBA Centre will be closed on Tuesday February 14th from 12pm-2pm in order to attend the 12th Annual Strawberry Ceremony. SBA members who would like to join us and travel together to the Strawberry Ceremony should arrive at the SBA Centre by 12pm. TTC tokens will be provided.

More information about the Strawberry Ceremony:
Media and public attention to this issue has continued to grow since we gathered last year but Indigenous women are still going missing and being murdered. No More Silence has continued to work hard to create a community-owned database in collaboration with Families of Sisters in Spirit and the Native Youth Sexual Health Network in It Starts with Us – the collaboration has also produced these beautiful tributes: http://www.itstartswithus-mmiw.com/tributes

On February 14th we come together in solidarity with the women who started this vigil over 20 years ago in Vancouver’s DTES, and with the marches and rallies that will be taking place across this land. We stand in defense of our lives and to demonstrate against the complicity of the state in the ongoing genocide of Indigenous women and the impunity of state institutions and actors (police, RCMP, coroners’ offices, the courts, and an indifferent federal government) that prevents justice for all Indigenous peoples.

No More Silence began holding ceremony at police headquarters on February 14th 12 years ago. 5 years ago we formed the February 14th Organizing Committee in an effort to broaden community participation in the planning of the event – the committee is now made up of individuals and organizations including The Native Youth Sexual Health Network, Sistering, Maggies – Toronto Sex Workers Action Project and other feminist and Indigenous community organizations.

Visit: https://www.facebook.com/events/1103506026428929/

Please note the additional upcoming Centre closures:

February 17th – All Day
February 20th – Family Day
February 21st – All Day

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The Muslims Are Coming!

This event is the first of a series which aims to create a critical conversation space for people who have some connection to Muslim identity including through family, history, and/or culture. People who identify as practicing, non-practicing, or something in between are all welcome.

Using short video clips of poetry, prose, comedy and documentaries, we will discuss the multifaceted experiences of growing up and living in migrant Muslim families/communities and the politics of being Muslim in our current times. Our conversation will centre the experiences of black and racialized Muslims and in particular the voices of queer, trans, disabled and mad people.

The topic for this session will be state surveillance, islamophobic violence, and current events. This will also be a space to talk about ways in which we can respond to current events and how we can collectively hold space to grieve.

The Muslims Are Coming! is part of a monthly discussion series organized by SBA and CWTP.

Date: Wednesday February 8th, 2017

Time: 1:30-3:30PM

Location: 569 Spadina Ave (Accessible entrance via Bancroft Ave), Multifaith Centre / Koffler Building, Room 208, Main Activity Hall

Access Info: Wheelchair accessible building. Accessible, gender-neutral washroom on same floor as event. TTC tokens available. Video clips will have captioning or will be accompanied by written text of the dialogue. Family-friendly space. Please arrive scent-free. Snacks including vegan and gluten-free options will be served.

If you have any other access needs please contact sba.advocacycoordinator@gmail.com

Allies, we appreciate your support in helping us maintain this closed conversations space for people who have connections to Muslim identity and by sharing this event info with your networks.

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Surviving Together; A Self-Advocacy Workshop for Disabled Students

Join Students for Barrier-free Access (SBA) for a student-run orientation for disabled students and student advocates. Whether you are an undergraduate or graduate student, full-time or part-time, new or returning, an international or transfer student, this orientation is for you!
Come meet other disabled students and SBA members, enjoy some snacks, and learn more about self-advocacy and resources for disabled students on campus.

Guest Speakers include:
Tess Sheldon Staff Lawyer, ARCH Disability Law Centre
Elizabeth Kurz, Downtown Legal Services
Ellen Hodnett, Ombudsperson, Office of the University Ombudsperson, University of Toronto

Topics covered at the orientation:
– Know Your Rights as a disabled student – Presented by ARCH Disability Law Centre
– self-advocacy and navigating academic accommodations
– introduction to campus resources and services for disabled students
– introduction to Students for Barrier-Free Access’ resources and services

Date: Friday February 10, 2017

Time: 3pm-5pm

Location: 246 Bloor Street West (Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social work) room 702, 7th floor

Everyone welcome!
Wheelchair accessible. Live captioning will be available.
Accessible and gender-neutral washroom located on the same floor as the event room.
Please note that this will be a scent-free space.

Light refreshments, including vegan and gluten-free options, will be served.

If you require ASL to participate in the event, or if you have any other access needs please contact Nadia at sba.advocacycoordinator@gmail.com

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Crafternoon

Join us for another Crafternoon on Thursday February 9th, 2016 from 4:30 to 6:30pm. We will be learning how to do string art! We have limited supplies so please let me know if you’re interested by emailing: sba@utoronto.ca . To learn more, check out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULOfvuDIqoE

215 Huron street, room 924. All-Gender washroom on the same floor.

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QT2SBIPOC Discussion Night, Monday February 13, 2017 6:30-8:00pm

Students for Barrier-free Access (SBA) and the Centre for Women and Trans People (CWTP) at U of T invites you to join us for the first night of a new series of events that works to create space for community building, critical conversation, and support for Queer, Trans and Two-Spirit, Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (QT2SBIPOC).

As organizers of this space, we recognize that this event will be taking place on the territories of the Huron-Wendat and Petun First Nations, the Seneca and the Mississaugas of New Credit. We are here because this land is occupied. As organizations located within the University of Toronto, it is our responsibility to acknowledge that we are all treaty people that live, work and organize on occupied land.

We also recognize that this University is a space that many of our community members experience violence, including the violence of settler-colonialism, anti-black racism, white supremacy, homophobia, transphobia, transmisogyny, ableism, sanism, classism, Islamophobia and the violence of rape culture. Recent events on campus have highlighted the ongoing presence of these forms of violence. As a collective, we work to challenge these forms of violence in our communities and in our everyday practice.

We have a strong commitment to creating anti-colonial community space that rejects ableist and sanist ways of relating. We are committed to building meaningful and reciprocal relationships between Indigenous, Black, and POC communities and to acknowledge that this requires difficult conversations to be had. Through the QT2SBIPOC Discussion Night Series, we strive to hold a space for these conversations.

This discussion topic for this meeting will be ‘how to take on critical conversations with community (and/or with family)’.

Date: Monday February 13, 2017

Time: 6:30pm-8:00pm

Location: SBA Centre, 215 Huron Street, Suite 924, on the 9th floor.
Please note that the front doors to 215 Huron Street lock at 5:30pm. Event organizers will wait at the entrance to let people in from 6:25-6:30pm. If you arrive later, please call 416-967-7322 and one of us will let you in.

Wheelchair accessible. Accessible and all-gender washroom located on the same floor as the event room.

Please note that the SBA Centre is a scent-free space.
Snacks, including vegan and gluten-free options will be served.
If you require ASL to participate in the event, or if you have any other access needs please contact Nadia at sba.advocacycoordinator@gmail.com

***This is a QT2SBIPOC only space. As always, we appreciate the support we receive from our white allies by respecting this space and by sharing this event information with their networks.***
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Office Closure Notice

Community events and Resources

Anti-Racism and Cultural Diversity Office Drop In Hours

WEEKLY ON TUESDAYS FROM 3-4PM

Enjoy critical discussions about race, faith, gender and other intersections of identity?

Don’t have a space to talk about these topics?

Come to our drop-in hours!

We have SNACKS!!!

Location: 215 Huron Street, Room 603.

For more information check out: https://www.facebook.com/events/676111572591543/

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12th Annual Strawberry Ceremony

Strawberry Ceremony with Elder Wanda Whitebird begins at 12:30 at Police Headquarters, 40 College Street at Bay, Toronto

Please leave your agency, institutional and organisation banners at home and instead make signs in honour of women, girls, trans and two-spirit people who have died violent and premature deaths.

Singers, song keepers and drummers please bring your drums for the ceremony. Drummers from the organising committee, with the direction of Wanda, will be leading songs. Jingle dress dancers are also called to join on the march. Please contact us if you can participate so protocols can be observed.

We recognise that February is out of season for a ceremony involving strawberries, but the violence we are experiencing is also a disruption in our traditional ways of life.

*************
Accessibility info:
It might be COLD! Please dress for the weather and we will endeavour to keep ceremony to 1 hour.
Some tokens will be available
There will be a sound system
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Media and public attention to this issue has continued to grow since we gathered last year but Indigenous women are still going missing and being murdered. No More Silence has continued to work hard to create a community-owned database in collaboration with Families of Sisters in Spirit and the Native Youth Sexual Health Network in It Starts with Us – the collaboration has also produced these beautiful tributes: http://www.itstartswithus-mmiw.com/tributes

Please message us if you would like to volunteer, or add to the list of endorsements!

For more information: https://www.facebook.com/events/1103506026428929/
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Honouring Our Students Pow Wow and Indigenous Festival will be a celebration that honours all students at University of Toronto.

The day will be filled with activities of a traditional powwow, and we will also be celebrating all the Indigneous communities that call Toronto home.

It’s a day to celebrate academic journeys and Indigenous culture.

Everyone is welcome, especially all students of University of Toronto.

The event details are as follows:

Saturday, March 11, 2017
Time: 12-6pm
Location: Athletic Centre – Sports Gym

Honouring Our Students Pow Wow and Indigenous Festival 2017 VIPs and Staff.

Master of Ceremonies
Chris Pheasant

Arena Director
Amos Key Jr.

Head Veteran – Eagle Staff Carrier
Andrew Wesley
James Bird

Host Drum Group
Smoke Trail

Co-Host Drum
Young Creek
Charging Horse

Head Male Dancer
Buck Neshkiwe AKA Standing Bear

Head Female Dancer
Nichole Leveck

Elders
Alex McKay
Andrew Wesley
Lee Maracle
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Making Canada Great Again: Deconstructing Fear Tactics

Date: February 17th 2017, from 6pm- 8pm

Location: Claude T Bissell Building room 205.

This event will be a discussion on the current culture of fear and how it’s used to as a tool in political agendas. Stephen Harper and Donald Trump are examples of political figures that use or have used fear tactics, particularly against Muslims, as a campaign strategy. It is crucial that all Canadians, in such troubling times, learn how Islamophobia and xenophobia and other forms of hatred are weaponized so we can protect ourselves, our loved ones, and our community at-large. The event will also include group activities that will help particpants engage with relevant themes.

Amira Elghawaby, the Communications Director for the National Council of Muslims, will be the keynote speaker for the event. A vocal human rights advocate specializing in challenging Islamophobia, she has been both a full- time and freelance journalist, writing and producing stories for a variety of media including CBC Radio, the Ottawa Citizen, the Toronto Star, and The Globe and Mail. In 2012, she joined the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) as a Human Rights Coordinator, advocating for human right and civil liberties of diverse communities. In 2015, she became the Communications Director, in which she leads NCCM’s media relations, public engagement, and strategic communications.

Free food will be provided.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact vpequity@utsu.ca. For more information: https://www.facebook.com/events/1625699551072640/

This event has been brought to you by the University of Toronto Students’ Union in collaboration with the Muslim Students’ Association, African Students’ Association , Nigerian Students’ Association, Woodsworth College Students’ Association, and the New College Student Council as part of our Anti- Islamophobia Week campaign.

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Reclaiming Our Bodies and Minds – Call for Tabling

Once again, the first day of the “Reclaiming our bodies and minds” ROBAM conference will start with a community fair. You are invited to table at no cost to your organization.

1) Table at no cost in our community fair on Friday March 10 from 4 to 6:30 pm

2) Promote your program or upcoming events,

3) Distribute material to attendees

What is ROBAM

Is a multi-campus Conference that focuses on Disability Rights and accessibility. We provide accommodations like ASL interpretation, attendant care, and all meals at no cost to participants and it is open to the community.

Check out our website and feel free to share with those in your list of this great opportunity to hear speakers from disability advocates from Arts, Academia, and community.

Click on the button to register and indicate your accessibility needs.

https://reclaimingourbodiesandminds.wordpress.com/

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The New Disability Activism: Current Trends, Shifting Priorities and (Uncertain) Future Directions

The onslaught of neoliberalism, austerity measures and cuts, impact of climate change, protracted conflicts and ongoing refugee crisis, rise of far right and populist movements have all negatively impacted on disability and created more suffering, impairment and deaths in the global north and south. At the same time we are witnessing the watering down of many rights, legal entitlements and policies that sustained disability lives as well as the ability and willingness of academia, non-governmental organisations, multinationals and institutions to get involved in fighting back politically, economically, culturally and socially to ensure change. Yet, disabled people are fighting back and we urgently need to understand how, where and what they are doing, what they feel their challenges are and what their future needs will be.

Editors Dr. Maria Berghs (De Montfort University), Dr. Tsitsi Chatiaka (University of Zimbabwe) and Dr. Yahya El-Lahib (University of Calgary) are putting together a book proposal for Routledge illustrating disability activism in its current forms and needed future directions. We will provide a dedicated space to disability activists to give them a platform to illustrate their current practices and a platform to do this in a format of their choosing. We also want to illustrate some of the ways in which academics are engaging in activist practice to understand why and how this occurs. Lastly, we feel we need to learn from the ways in which disability activism is forming and will change or needs to change to combat the coming challenges of the 21st Century. How do you define activism? Does disability activism need to decolonise? What are the differing roles of pioneer and emerging activists in the north and south? What kinds of issues are of concern?

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:
-The links between models and theories to social changes as seen and understood by activists and academics: what works?
-The effects of neoliberal austerity measures and role of disabled people’s activism in the global north and south and links to influencing international and national policy
-Disability activism and links to academia, non-governmental organisations, multinationals and ensuring funding, restitution or reparations
-Perspectives from pioneer disability activists from the global north and south
-Decolonising disability activism, protesting ableism and rethinking human rights in the global south and north
-The experiences of disability activisms or emerging activisms that are not regularly given attention such as those of women, children and the elderly
-New tactics, issues and advocacy movements, emancipations and liberations
-Cyber-activism, the deep web and social media
-New health activisms around issues such as dementia or infectious diseases and links to ‘disability’, biological (dis)ableism and the new futures of genomics for disability lives
-Psychiatry, mad pride, mad studies, neurodiversity and survivor activism
-Rebellion, emancipation, political revolt and the roles of disability in peace movements and reconciliation
-Forced migration, refugee experiences and combating a disabling humanitarianism
-Involvement in accessibility, independence and inclusion movements in Indonesia, intersectionality to protests against university fees in South Africa or movements such as Black Lives Matter in the United States
-Far right movements, fascism and living under (dis) ableist dictatorships
-Interventions in disabled people’s lives and role of activism
-Disability activism incarcerated and imprisoned (i.e. prisons, day centres, orphanages, care homes etc).
-Art, culture, tourism and disability activism
-Political engagement, voting (Cripping the vote or making it accessible) and occupation of public spaces

Editors: Dr. Maria Berghs (De Montfort University), Dr. Tsitsi Chatiaka (University of Zimbabwe) and Dr. Yahya El-Lahib (University of Calgary)

We will be supported by an advisory board of activists who will ensure oversight of the activist contributions.

Please send your abstract submissions to: disabilityactivism@gmail.com

Abstracts should contain a title, a short paragraph (300 words) and some key words.

Deadline: 31st of March 2017
– See more at: http://www.neads.ca/en/about/media/index.php?id=448#sthash.FWyap5ZH.dpuf

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