‘Do this work ourselves before there are protests, given the history of the institution as a former Oblate owned and operated facility’
On May 9th, the U of O announced a new five-year action plan aimed at addressing systemic inequality affecting current and future Indigenous staff and students. The Indigenous Action Plan (IAP) was drafted from 2019 to 2024, after consultation with the Office of Indigenous Affairs and other “internal and external Indigenous and non-Indigenous stakeholders”.
The document details four separate hoops, responsible for addressing various policy, funding, scholastic, engagement, and public space goals. Articles within each hoop are also broken down into a cost analysis and the necessary steps involved in completing the goal. The U of O has also detailed annual reports meant to accompany the IAP as an accountability measure throughout the process.
Hoop One maintains a primary focus on “actions intended to bring about structural changes to the staffing, administrative practice, and governance of the university”. Proposed measures to assist the university in “keep[ing] pace as a leading research institution”, such as Article 1.2, aim to hire new Indigenous staff by “locat[ing] and offer[ing] tenure-track positions to Indigenous people from the local area.”
Attempts made by the university to bolster a competitive hiring process contrast against budgetary issues the administration has faced in recent years. Cuts to the School of Translation and Interpretation in 2023 saw the suspension of various programs and class reductions. More recently, budget cuts have affected part-time professors’ job security and class selection at large, leaving staff and students concerned with the university’s ongoing budgetary struggles.
Articles featured in Hoop Two, such as 2.5, 2.7, and 2.8 attempt to develop long-term support for Indigenous students. The creation of additional positions for pre- and postdoctoral students along with internships and mentorship opportunities would assure available positions for additional students, while the securing of further funding for scholarships and bursaries aims to reduce the financial cost of education.
Hoop three, primarily focused on the improvement of the campus space, also considers plans to “determine what the current principles on memorialization on campus are” and “review whether there are places on campus that need to be renamed”. Article 3.4 cites Toronto Metropolitan University’s name change in 2022 and Yale’s push to rename its Calhoun campus in 2017 as primary examples of facing “the historical legacy associated with particular figures”.
The U of O’s concerns about prompt memorialization and renaming efforts on campus cite a need to “do this work ourselves before there are protests, given the history of the institution as a former Oblate owned and operated facility” as per the document. Incidents such as vandalism, which occurred last summer during the university encampment, took aim at the stature of J.H Tabaret and his connections to the operation of residential schools throughout Canada. The statue, which has stood on campus since its original unveiling in 1889, remains unmentioned in the memorialization plan.
Hoop Four dedicates focus to internal and external engagement with the Indigenous community. Measures such as 4.1 and 4.2 offer support to Indigenous educational and outreach systems, through STEM mentorship programs integrated at select highschools. Additionally, Article 4.3 seeks to bring-on a permanent Algonquin knowledge keeper-in-residence for the Indigenous Resource Centre.
Notably absent from the plan are environmental goals addressing concerns present on campus.
Efforts by groups on-campus, such as Climate Justice Climatique University of Ottawa (CJCUO) have similarly highlighted the institution’s silence on environmental policy in regard to investments in RBC and the presence of the RBC OnCampus branch. The university has previously attempted to address the effects of climate change for Canada’s Indigenous peoples, though with little recent public comment.
