REMC STATEMENT

JANUARY 2024

 
 

January 18, 2024

Where traditionally the New Year is a time of celebration, we, the staff and board of the Racial Equity Media Collective, feel compelled to express our grief in response to the ongoing catastrophic violence in Palestine, as well as our deep concern at the erosion of free expression that is currently apparent across the Canadian media landscape.

As a non-profit organization dedicated to racial equity in Canada’s screen sector, we echo the recent statement of the Documentary Organization of Canada in voicing our alarm at the censorious and punitive responses to journalists, artists, and cultural workers who have expressed support for Palestinians or criticisms of Israeli policies, including calls for a ceasefire in Gaza.

We are obliged to note that Indigenous, Black, and Arab voices appear to have been disproportionately impacted by reprisals against expressions of Palestinian solidarity. While many Canadian institutions have made public commitments to equity and reconciliation, those commitments ring hollow in the face of such disparities.

Freedom of expression is a Charter-protected right, and there can be few more urgent forms of expression than calls to protect the lives of innocent civilians, like those in Gaza currently subject to unimaginable suffering and trauma. We also acknowledge that this right is not absolute, and unreservedly condemn all expressions of hatred, incitement to violence, antisemitism, Islamophobia, and anti-Palestinian racism.

As such:

  • We call on Canadian media and cultural institutions to ensure robust protections for artists and cultural workers, and to refrain from curtailing or punishing expression that speaks to the reality of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and to the wider dehumanization occasioned by occupation.

  • We call on Canadian news organizations to ensure robust protection for journalists as part of a broader commitment to fair and balanced coverage of the conflict, including comprehensive representation of Palestinian perspectives.

  • We call on donor and sponsor-supported media arts organizations to resist internal and external pressure and remain resolute in their observance of the values of anti-racism, freedom, truth-telling, and artistic expression.

  • We call on all media arts organizations and production companies to stand in opposition to sentiments and actions that silence, exclude, erase or dehumanize Palestinians.

  • We call on all media arts organizations to continue supporting the work of Palestinian artists through funding, programming and dissemination.

We are thankful for the leadership and moral clarity demonstrated by organizations like the Toronto Palestine Film Festival and we stand in solidarity with those calling for a ceasefire. We acknowledge, too, the lesser-discussed violence and displacement currently occurring in Sudan, Ethiopia, Haiti, Yemen, and the Democratic Republic of Congo and hope for a swift end to the suffering caused by those conflicts.

Signed by the Racial Equity Media Collective (REMC)

Co-signed in solidarity by:

BIPOC TV & Film
Canadian Independent Screen Fund for BPOC Creators (CISF)
Creatives Empowered
Inspirit Foundation
Muslims in Media
Toronto Palestine Film Festival
Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival
Workman Arts