*UPDATED JANUARY 24, 2022

Land acknowledgement: SFU350 and CWJ respectfully acknowledge that we are working on the unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), Katzie, and kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem) Nations. Unceded means that this land was never surrendered, relinquished or handed over in any way. We continue to be on occupied lands and therefore, we acknowledge that we, as people living and working on these lands, must always centre our movement around Indigenous rights and sovereignty.

About this event:

SFU350 and Contract Worker Justice @SFU (CWJ) will be hosting a Livestream Watch-Party during the SFU Board of Governors (BoG) meeting on January 27th. In this meeting, the BoG will respond to SFU350 previous motion concerning the demands in our Climate Emergency Declaration (CED) Open Letter, and the CWJ will present their findings in their preliminary report, Labour Conditions among Contract Cleaning and Food Service Staff at Simon Fraser University.

This event will be held entirely online and will include:

• Livestream of CWJ's presentation of their January 2022 preliminary report at 8am PDT (Zoom will open at 7:45am)
• Livestream of the BoG's response to SFU350's CED demands
• Recruitment opportunities for both SFU350 and CWJ
• Games
• Share-back on the meeting outcomes

Please join us for this exciting event where we highlight solidarity amoung students and workers.

About Contract Worker Justice @SFU (CWJ)

Contract Worker Justice @SFU (CWJ) is a coalition of workers, students, faculty and larger SFU community members fighting to end the contracting-out practice of food service and cleaning work at SFU. CWJ has released a report, Labour Conditions among Contract Cleaning and Food Service Staff at Simon Fraser University, which summarizes the preliminary findings of worker interviews that the coalition has been conducting since October 2021. The report outlines impoverishment, degradation, unsafe working conditions, and more. These findings will be presented to BOG on Thursday, January 27, at 8am PDT, to urge SFU to do right by these important members of the SFU community and bring them back in house.

Follow them on social media: @cwj_sfu (Twitter), @contractworkerjusticesfu (Instagram, Facebook) and their website contractworkerjusticesfu.ca

Recap on Events since September 2021

The September 28th BoG meeting was a huge day for SFU350 and our CED campaign as we presented to the BoG our motion concerning the seven demands laid out in our open letter. The outcome of this meeting included a delay to vote on our motion until the January 27th, 2022 meeting and a partial commitment to divestment. On November 1st, SFU President Joy Johnson announced full divestment from fossil fuels - the first of our seven demands to be met! We are beyond thrilled with this huge achievement that took eight years of student and community activism, campaigning, lobbying and exercising of student power.

We now wait in anticipation for the January 27th BoG meeting to hear what the BoG has to say about the rest of the demands, so please join us on this big day!

Everyone is welcome, regardless of familiarity level with climate change work.

This Livestream Watch-Party event is a part of SFU350’s Climate Emergency Declaration campaign series. We are pushing SFU to declare a climate emergency and commit to a set of seven demands to make concrete commitments and achieve meaningful action in alignment with global science-based targets.

Institutions like SFU have the power to make concrete commitments and achieve meaningful action in alignment with global science-based targets. These commitments and actions should center and contribute to decolonization, reconciliation, and justice by design. SFU has already started on this process with its recent 2020-2025 Sustainability Plan. While this is an important step in the right direction, more can and should be done. This climate emergency declaration exceeds the requirements of the 2025 plan and calls on SFU to do much more, including the following:

• declare a climate emergency;
• take a stance on the TMX pipeline expansion;
• promote divestment as a way to signal to other institutional investors that fossil fuels are no longer a wise investment;
• ensure all SFU students graduate with an understanding of climate change and climate justice;
• ensure SFU does not receive funding from fossil fuel special interest groups;
• set a comprehensive science-based university-wide decarbonization target and limit reliance on carbon offsets;
• encourage standing in solidarity with direct actions for climate justice; and
• recommend solutions that centre climate justice while also recognizing the ongoing harm that universities perpetuate.

ACCESSIBILITY, TECHNOLOGY AND PRIVACY

• This event will be hosted over Zoom and a link and password for access will be sent out to all registrants.
• Closed captioning will be available for this event.

Please let us know of any accessibility needs you may have by contacting Liam Mackay at 350sfu@gmail.com.

Technology requirements

• This event will be presented in a participatory webinar format. To engage fully you will need:
• A laptop, computer, or smartphone
• A webcam
• A microphone
• Speakers or headphones

Protecting your privacy

• To ensure that we are using online meeting technology in a privacy-conscious way, we are following best practices for this online event series:
• We will only circulate the meeting link to those who are registered for the event
• We will password protect the meeting

COMMUNITY AGREEMENT

There will be zero tolerance for those who promote violence against others on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, religious affiliation, or different ability. Anyone who incites harm towards other participants (be it through the chat, video or audio functions) will be removed at the discretion of our technical team and moderator.

• Questions are welcomed and encouraged throughout the event!
• Don’t assume pronouns/gender/knowledge based on someone’s name or video image. We can refer to people using the usernames they provide!
• Respect the opinions of others. Every participant brings information, points of view and ideas to contribute
• Practice self-care: if you need to take a break from the content, please feel free to do so.

QUESTIONS

If you have any questions about this event, please contact Allyson Soriano at 350sfu@gmail.com.

Sign our petition: https://www.sfu350.com/ced

Follow us on social media: @sfu350