Land Acknowledgement
The University Health Network’s (UHN) RBCD Clinic operates on what is colonially known as Toronto. This land is the traditional territory of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the Anishinabek Nation, including the Mississaugas of the New Credit, the Wendat, and other Indigenous Nations since time immemorial. Today, this land is home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples.
Long before European settlers forcefully stole this sacred land, this territory was and continues to be protected by the Sewatokwa'tshera't (the Dish with One Spoon) – an agreement among allied Indigenous Nations to share and care for the land and resources around the Great Lakes. This land is also subject to the Tekeni Teyoha:ke Kahswenhtake (Kaswentha/the Two Row Wampum) – an agreement originally made between the Haudenosaunee and the Dutch. The Kaswentha is a living treaty that articulates relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples based on peace, friendship, non-interference, and respect for each others’ ways.
Anti-Racism and Anti-Black Racism Policy
In February 2021, UHN enacted the Anti-Racism and Anti-Black Racism policy. UHN is committed to dismantling institutional racism by identifying, preventing, and removing barriers in delivering care, employment, education, and research.
UHN is also committed to understanding the histories of systemic racism and discrimination that results in unequal access for Black, Indigenous, and racialized peoples. Canada’s history of enslavement and current realities of racial segregation have devastating impacts on people of African-descent.
Anti-Black racism is real. Anti-Black racism exists in healthcare, education, housing, child welfare, employment, immigration, and justice systems. These systemic inequities can be directly traced to the legacies of colonialism and enslavement of African people.
The RBCD Hub recognizes that anti-Black racism and racism shape worse health outcomes – this is especially the case for the patient communities who receive care from the RBCD clinic. Interlocking oppressions, including Anti-Black racism, racism, ableism, poverty, Islamophobia, xenophobia, sexism, transphobia, homophobia, and racialized policing/criminalization, create barriers to care at interpersonal and structural levels.
Following UHN, The RBCD Hub is committed to ongoing learning and unlearning to disrupt and dismantle Anti-Black racism, racism, and all forms of oppression. We will deliver meaningful content within social justice and health equity frameworks.