The Brock University Faculty Association is deeply grieved by the events of the last week. We share the horror expressed by Canadians across the country at the hate-inspired violence perpetrated against our neighbours in Quebec City during a time of peaceful prayer. We extend our condolences to the families and friends of those who died, and our fervent wishes for the swift and full recovery of those who were injured. And we stand in unity with those who, because of that event, now feel afraid or unwelcome.
Moreover, we join with CAUT and with OCUFA in vigorously opposing the Trump Administration’s suspension of the US Refugee Admissions Program and the ban on travel to the U.S. by residents of seven Muslim-majority countries. This is an unprecedented application of racial and religious profiling that, in the case of refugees, targets some of the world’s most vulnerable people—people who have already experienced unspeakable trauma. It also reinforces the fear, racism, Islamophobia, xenophobia, and hatred that enables the violence we witnessed in Quebec City.
We are in deeply unsettling times. Evidence and rational argument are increasingly dismissed, while passion and unexamined emotion carry the political day. In times like these, universities, as communities of scholarship, are uniquely suited—and called—to take a stand for rationality, ethics, diversity, and social justice. BUFA affirms our commitment to work with the entire Brock community to fulfil this calling.
Linda Rose-Krasnor, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Psychology
President, Brock University Faculty Association
Brock University
Phone: 905-688-5550, ext. 3870
[email protected]
