CIARS' Principled Stance Against Violence, Injustice, and Occupation
The Centre for Integrative Anti-Racism Studies (CIARS) stands for peace, liberation, safety, and justice for everyone, everywhere.
CIARS condemns all ongoing violence that has led to the loss of innocent lives across the entirety of our Global community. We condemn not because we are forced to, but because it is about our humanity: we must oppose all death and destruction.
CIARS condemns Hamas' horrific attack in Israel on October 7th that led to the loss of innocent lives. CIARS also condemns Israel’s disproportionate response to Hamas’ attack leading to the ongoing loss of countless innocent lives in occupied Palestine.
We understand that all peoples have a right to defend themselves and to live in peace. But peace cannot be achieved through escalating violence in the name of “security” or through collective punishment due to the actions of a few.
CIARS calls for an end to all forms of foreign occupation of Lands, and the protection of human rights, human dignity, life, and wellbeing.
CIARS strongly opposes all racism, including Islamophobia; anti-Palestinian, anti-Indigenous, anti-Black racism; and antisemitism.
CIARS calls for an immediate ceasefire on humanitarian grounds and calls for global responsibility and leadership to work towards peace in all places of conflict.
We support freedom of speech and academic freedom in our universities and educational spaces. We hope that amid the tragedies of this political moment, we may open up spaces for, rather than silence, renewed conversations.
CIARS stands for ongoing critical anti-colonial dialogue that centers the sanctity of every human life, and that generates new solidarities rather than fomenting further separation through hostility and violence.
While decolonization can be violent, we know violence is never the solution, but rather, our resistance must be a search for new humanity.
CIARS sees this moment as a point for critical reflection on how all justice struggles against systems of domination are interconnected. We are only human through the humanity of others. No one group, no matter where in the world or what their history is, has the right to define the limits of this humanity.