Faculty criticize U of R’s handling of Clarke uproar
VP for Indigenous matters coming following race-tinted controversy
As University of Regina officials discussed a letter expressing concerns over the institution’s relationship with the Indigenous community in the wake of the George Elliott Clarke lecture controversy, the sound of drums from a round dance being held by students and staff could be heard in the room.
Thirty-four University of Regina faculty members signed the letter that also criticized the U of R administration’s handling of the controversy surrounding George Elliott Clarke’s cancelled lecture.
The letter, dated Feb. 12, was discussed as part of the U of R’s Executive of Council meeting Wednesday afternoon.
“There is a breakdown in trust and reciprocity between the administration of the University and the will and sensitivities of both on and off-campus communities. This was made patently clear by the recent events surrounding George Elliott Clarke’s lecture,” the letter reads.
“The administration was warned by multiple constituencies who are part of and connected to Indigenous communities about the real harm that the lecture would cause ... Knowledgeable and respected voices were repeatedly dismissed prior to the media frenzy and were only engaged after the story had exploded in the media.”
Clarke, a renowned Canadian poet, was scheduled to give the Woodrow Lloyd Lecture at the U of R on Jan. 23. The lecture received public backlash because of Clarke’s connection to Steven Kummerfield — now a published poet under the name Stephen Brown — who was convicted of killing Indigenous woman Pamela George on the outskirts of Regina in 1995.
Jérôme Melançon, an assistant professor at the U of R’s La Cité universitaire francophone, was one of the main writers of the letter and is his faculty’s representative on the Executive of Council.
He was glad to talk through the concerns raised in the letter with university administration and said the main concern was the Indigenous community not being consulted on decisions that affect it.
“As settlers, we don’t always know what these will be ahead of time and so it’s also important to hear them out when they’re calling us to accountability, when they’re pointing out what we’ve done and what we can do better,” said Melançon.
Meanwhile, four floors down, a group of students and staff gathered on the main floor of the Administration Humanities Building for a round dance and to hear several Indigenous women share their stories.
Tracie Leost, one of the round dance organizers and a third-year social work student at the U of R, said what happened with the Woodrow Lecture this year cannot be ignored.
“We can’t let this get pushed under the rug. We can’t have this happen again,” she said. “Anybody that empathizes and works with people that murder Indigenous women and girls, two spirit people, has no place on this campus.”
Since the controversy around Clarke’s proposed lecture began, Leost said she has seen racism flare up across the university and compared it to what she experienced during Gerald Stanley’s trial in connection with the death of 22-year-old Colten Boushie.
She said despite the U of R’s efforts toward reconciliation, the university is still not listening to Indigenous voices.
The drums from the round dance happening below were heard in the meeting room, and Melançon noted it was a good reminder that the university needs to acknowledge the Treaty 4 territory it sits on.
“That’s the heartbeat, and so if we’re going to talk about reconciliation and Indigenization, we have to continue hearing those voices,” he said.
U of R President Vianne Timmons
told reporters she spoke to the approximately 100 people present at the Executive of Council meeting about the letter, the events leading up to the cancellation of Clarke’s lecture and the consultation she did with the Indigenous
community afterward.
Timmons said the U of R will develop an associate vice-president (Indigenous) and restructure Indigenous supports on campus to make them “more robust.” She said it is also “looking at ensuring that our Indigenous Advisory Circle consults on any lecture series or lectures that have an Indigenous lens to them or Indigenous issues,” emphasizing she wants to focus on moving forward from this event.
But Leost said the only way the U of R and Indigenous community can move forward is if the U of R accepts responsibility for the hurt it has caused and issues an apology to the Indigenous community — something she feels should have happened weeks ago.
“I think a lot of what we’ve seen is denial and lack of accountability ... I don’t think a single Indigenous student or faculty member in this campus has heard, ‘I am sorry for hurting you,’ and that is the problem,” she said.
When she heard about the apology Richard Kleer, dean of arts, made to Clarke, she said she became even more upset and called the apology “shameful, disgusting and deplorable.”
“George Elliott Clarke is not the victim,” she said. “That is not how we untie the systemic racism this institution is founded on.”