In March, the Equity Studies Student Union, in collaboration with multiple divisions and departments, had planned to host three activists from a grassroots cooperative in the Dominican Republic called La Federación de Campesinos Hacia El Progreso. La Federación fights for the land rights of local farmers, and ecological reservation. Unfortunately, these Dominican delegates were denied visas into Canada on the basis of not being able to sufficiently prove their return home, despite the fact that their visa applications were accompanied by letters of support from three of Canada’s largest and most reputable universities, who outlined their itineraries and reasons for travel. They are well-known environmental and social activists in their country, and are dedicated and ingrained members of their communities, which makes the suggestion that they were likely to attempt to remain here illegally highly improbable.
Mindful of what occurred in March, we decided to move forward with a redesign of our original event, including an expansion of the conversation to include a critique of the inequity of migration procedures between Canada and nations in the Global South. This time around, we are interested in interrogating what it means to build solidarity across borders while belonging to a nation-state that relies on public ignorance in order to maintain neo-colonial power relations with the global south. Solidarity Across Borders will begin with a video address from Esteban Polanco, the director of La Federación de Campesinos Hacia El Progreso, followed by a screening of short segments from Mining Morality Canada’s documentary “The Weight of Gold”, which addresses the various structural consequences of foreign mining interests in the Dominican Republic. We’ll then engage our audience in a dialogue with representatives from anti-mining groups including Protest Barrick and Mining Morality Canada around the impacts of mining, migration rights, and how solidarity takes shape in a sociopolitical environment reliant on a forgetting of our natural right to sustainability, security and interconnectivity.
Doors Open at 6:00PM • Discussion Begins at 6:30PM
For updates, please see our facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/435168459992679/
Free Event • Refreshments Provided • Accessible Space • All-Gender Washrooms Available • All Bodies Welcome
With Support From: Caribbean Studies Program • Centre for Community Partnerships • Equity Studies Program • Latin American Studies Program • Organization of Latin American Students • Ontario Public Interest Research Group • UTSU Sustainability Commission • Political Science Department