Revised CATS Statement on Anti-Racism and Commitment to Equity and Diversity
2020-06-05
The world has seen irrefutable and repugnant acts of violence and police brutality against black, indigenous and racialized communities indicative of systematic institutionalized racism. Unfortunately, such acts of discrimination and violence continue to occur in our own Canadian cities.
Your CATS Executive wanted to reach out to you, our membership, to condemn such actions, and stand in solidarity with all Black, Indigenous and People of Colour. We call on us all, collectively and individually, to be overtly anti-racist to confront and eradicate racism in all its forms, support the reduction of egregious harmful social inequity especially when associated with race, and fully embrace cultural and ethnic diversity for the beautiful gift that it is.
Although our organization has informally made efforts in this direction, we propose a more formal overt institutionalization of commitment to equity and diversity within our CATS organization, and will work to make it happen. We will report back to our membership soon regarding specifics. Please feel free to contact us with your thoughts and suggestions.
Your CATS Executive Committee, Andrew Seely, Gail Darling, John Dickie, Sean Grondin, James Villeneuve, Shona Smith, Najib Safieddine, Basil Nasir, Jonathan Spicer, Simon Turner, Christian Finley, Biniam Kidane, Colin Schieman