On November 26th, 2021, Hamilton Police Service officers brutalized and arrested Black youth leaders, including Platform’s Program Coordinator Rowa Mohamed, and Sarah Jama, the co-founder of the Disability Justice Network of Ontario, who were peacefully observing an encampment teardown and supporting unhoused community members.

We strongly condemn the violence showcased by Hamilton Police Services, and implore our community members to join our calls for defunding the police and investing in community support services.

Police violence continues to disproportionately affect Black, Indigenous and racialized people, especially Black Muslim women and people with disabilities who live at the intersection of multiple marginalized experiences. Since their inception, police systems in what is currently known as Canada have existed with the goal of eradicating and suppressing Indigenous and Black communities. From Hamilton Police brutalizing Black community leaders to the RCMP arresting Indigenous land defenders in Wetʼsuwetʼen Terrioty, police violence is not justifiable and is yet another example of the fact that a violent, oppressive system such as the police cannot be reformed.

Defunding and abolishing the police is the only way to reduce and eradicate police violence.

Our governments must invest in affordable housing and social and financial safety nets that empower and uplift marginalized communities, and not police systems that further marginalize them.

We stand with Rowa, Sarah, and the countless other leaders who continue to show up for systemically marginalized members of our communities, especially the unhoused population in Hamilton.

To learn more, please follow the Hamilton Encampment Support Network.

Arezoo Najibzadeh (she/her)
Founder and Managing Director
Platform

1- Policing Black Lives: State Violence In Canada From Slavery To The Present – Robyn Maynard

2- The Skin We’re In: A Year Of Black Resistance And Power – Desmond Cole

– Q&A: Author Robyn Maynard On Anti-black Racism, Misogyny, And Policing In Canada

– The “abolish The Police” Movement, Explained By 7 Scholars And Activists

– Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish The Police, Mariame Kab