Statement by the Federation a year after the racial profiling incident at Congress 2019

When we announced the cancellation of Congress 2020, one of our most important commitments was to carry forward the critical conversations around the theme Bridging Divides: Confronting Colonialism and Anti-Black Racism. Despite the many other urgent challenges posed by COVID-19, we are working to make that commitment a reality, and we will have more information for our Congress partners and member associations in the next few weeks.

The Federation has taken a number of other important steps following an incident of racial profiling that took place at Congress 2019:

• We fully addressed the four requests put forward by the Black Canadian Studies Association;

• We completed a full investigation and took a decisive action in light of the findings to suspend the individual responsible for the incident from Congress;

• We strengthened our organizational policies and practices to prevent discrimination, harassment, racial profiling, and anti-Black racism in the future, and adopted new Code of Conduct;

• We undertook unconscious bias training for all Federation staff members, which we will complete by the end of June 2020.

The recent inhumane acts of violence towards Black people have reminded us of how much work still needs to be done by all to stop racial profiling and anti-Black racism. We are committed to continuing to work hard and collaboratively with our members and partners to create safe spaces – spaces that are free from harassment, racial profiling and discrimination.

Gabriel Miller
President and CEO
Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences