More Ottawa black advocacy groups discouraging people from attending anti-racism march
Posted Jun 4, 2020 09:08:00 PM.
A collection of black advocacy groups in Ottawa are now discouraging people from attending a downtown anti-racism march, because they say the event is unsafe for black people.
Friday's event is organized by No Peace Until Justice Ottawa, but a collection of other groups, including the Ottawa Black Diaspora Coalition (OBDC), Full Femme, as well as No Justice, No Peace Ottawa and other black community organizers, say they're concerned about the risk of COVID-19 spreading in a march and would prefer a stand-in-place protest.
The groups are also concerned about the presence of police at the march, and what they feel is a lack of safety planning by organizers.
“In those safety plans, what comes up is having allies understand that if the police comes in contact with black folks, they are to get in between them,” said Leila Moumouni-Tchouassi, Ottawa Black Diaspora Coalition. “Understanding that there will be folks that have lawyers' numbers on-hand, and that those lawyers have been communicated with and are on stand-by.”
This comes after Justice For Regis Ottawa, another anti-black racism group, spoke out about the march on Wednesday.
No Peace Until Justice has moved the start of the march from the U.S. Embassy to Parliament Hill because of safety concerns raised. But Moumouni-Tchouassi says the concerns are more to do with the planning, and less about the specific location.
“We, as OBDC, have organized actions at the U.S. Embassy and at Parliament before,” she explained. “The main concern comes down to the fact that the organizers don't have a safety plan.”
March organizers have released safety tips, around COVID-19 as well as legal and physical safety, on their Instagram feed.
