Sandy Hudson | |
---|---|
Born | Sandra Hudson |
Nationality | Canadian |
Education | University of Toronto, University of California, Los Angeles |
Organization(s) | Black Lives Matter, Black Legal Action Centre |
Known for | Black Lives Matter, Sandy and Nora Talk Politics |
Sandy Hudson is a Jamaican-Canadian political activist, writer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She is the co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement presence in Canada. [1]
Sandy Hudson grew up in North York and attended high school in Brampton. [2] She attended the University of Toronto, where she earned a bachelor's degree in political science and sociology. [3] [2] She also holds a Master of Arts in Social Justice Education from the University of Toronto. [4] [5] She currently resides in Los Angeles, where she is attending UCLA School of Law. [6]
In the year of 2015, the University of Toronto Students' Union filed a lawsuit against Hudson and the outgoing President, Yolen Bollo-Kamara and Vice-President Cameron Wathey. The lawsuit demanded Hudson return $277,508.62 in severance pay and overtime, paid on dismissal from her position as student union executive director and approved by Bollo-Kamara and Wathey, alleging that the dismissal prior to the end of her period of tenure was without legal basis and that she was not eligible for overtime payments. [7] [8] The lawsuit had alleged that Bollo-Kamara and Wathey “breached their fiduciary duty” by signing off on 2,589.5 hours of overtime for Hudson, which was included in the severance package upon the termination of her contract. 1,974.5 hours of those 2,589.5 overtime hours were logged in a single entry on April 1, 2015. [9] The severance pay and overtime was paid in the weeks after her slate's loss in the student elections and equated 10% of the union's budget. The lawsuit sought a further $200,000 in punitive damages from the three for breach of fiduciary trust. [10] [11] Hudson countersued the student union for $300,000 for breach of a confidentiality clause in her severance agreement and alleging "inappropriate conduct and unwelcome comments from UTSU directors [...] in relation to [her] perceived sexual orientation, gender and race". [8] [12] [13] [14] The lawsuit was settled out-of-court in 2017 with Hudson agreeing to repay some of the overtime payment. [8] [15]
Hudson started the Toronto chapter of Black Lives Matter after being encouraged by her brother to do something following the police killings of Mike Brown and Jermaine Carby. [16] Thousands attended a solidarity rally that she organized with Janaya Khan. After the rally, they contacted Patrisse Cullors to establish the group as the first official chapter of Black Lives Matter outside of the United States. [2] The group has challenged different forms of anti-Black racism in Canada, and has made issues like carding and defunding the police national conversations. [3] [17] [18] [19]
In 2017, she started the Black Legal Action Centre with Zanana Akande and Rinaldo Walcott. [20] [21] The centre is a legal clinic that provides legal aid services to Black Ontarians and engages in test case litigation. [20]
Hudson is a freelance writer and author. She has published academic writings in Race and Racialization: Essential Readings, Second Edition and New Framings on Anti-Racism and Resistance, Volume 2: Resistance and the New Futurity [22] [23] . She has written for NOW Magazine, The Washington Post, Huffington Post, FLARE Magazine and Maclean's Magazine [24] [25] [6] [26] [27] . Her first book, Until We Are Free: Reflections on Black Lives Matter in Canada, [28] was released in 2020.
Hudson is a speaker with the National Speakers Bureau of Canada. [4] She has spoken at universities, labour unions, and institutions across Canada, including the University of Toronto, the Canadian Labour Congress, and the Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice. [29] [4] [30]
In 2017, she started the Sandy and Nora Talk Politics podcast with her friend and co-host Nora Loreto. [31] [ non-primary source needed ] The podcast analyzes Canadian news and encourages listeners to become activists in their communities. [32] [33]
In 2016, Hudson was named one of Toronto Life's most influential Torontonians, and in 2017 was named one of Toronto's most inspiring women by Post City Magazine [34] [35] . She was awarded the Lincoln Alexander Award by Osgoode Hall Law School in 2018 and the Emerging Leader award by the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education in 2019. [5] [16] She regularly provides comment in Canadian mainstream media on issues of race. She was featured in Charles Officer's CBC Television documentary The Skin We're In , and in the 2016 and 2020 CBC News' features Being Black in Canada. [36] Her activism has been featured in The New York Times, Newsweek, and Complex [37] [38] [39] .
Pride Toronto is an annual event held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in June each year. A celebration of the diversity of the LGBT community in the Greater Toronto Area, it is one of the largest organized gay pride festivals in the world, featuring several stages with live performers and DJs, several licensed venues, a large Dyke March, a Trans March and the Pride Parade. The centre of the festival is the city's Church and Wellesley village, while the parade and marches are primarily routed along the nearby Yonge Street, Gerrard Street and Bloor Street. In 2014, the event served as the fourth international WorldPride, and was much larger than standard Toronto Prides.
The University of Toronto Students' Union (UTSU), legally known as the Students' Administrative Council of the University of Toronto, Inc., is the representative student government of full-time undergraduate students at the University of Toronto - St. George campus. It is Canada's second largest student union and the third largest in North America.
Helena C. Guergis, is a Canadian politician of Assyrian descent. She represented the Ontario riding of Simcoe—Grey in the House of Commons of Canada from 2004 to 2011, and was appointed Minister of State on October 30, 2008, following the October 14, 2008 Canadian federal election. Soon after starting her parliamentary career, she became involved in several controversial situations, and these increased with time in both number and severity.
Public protesting and demonstrations began one week ahead of the 2010 G20 Toronto summit, which took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on 26−27 June. The protests were for various causes, including poverty and anti-capitalism.
Nicholas Marcus Thompson is a Trinidadian-Canadian social justice advocate and union leader known for organizing the landmark $2.5 billion Black Class Action lawsuit against the federal Government of Canada for systemic discrimination against Black workers. He is the Executive Director of the Black Class Action Secretariat, a national non-profit organization that works to dismantling systemic discrimination in all sectors of Canadian life. Thompson is also the host of the Union Matters show, where he advocates for the elimination of racial discrimination in Canada's public service and labor unions.
Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police brutality and racially motivated violence against black people. It started following the killings of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Rekia Boyd, among others. The movement and its related organizations typically advocate for various policy changes considered to be related to black liberation. While there are specific organizations that label themselves simply as "Black Lives Matter," such as the Black Lives Matter Global Network, the overall movement is a decentralized network of people and organizations with no formal hierarchy. The slogan "Black Lives Matter" itself remains untrademarked by any group. Despite being characterized by some as a violent movement, the overwhelming majority of its public demonstrations have been peaceful.
Janaya Khan is a social activist from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Khan is a co-founder of Black Lives Matter Toronto as well as an international ambassador for the Black Lives Matter Network. Khan identifies as black, queer, and gender-nonconforming. Much of their work analyzes intersectional topics including the Black Lives Matter movement, queer theory, Black feminism, and organized protest strategies.
Melina Abdullah is an American academic and civic leader. She is the former chair of the department of Pan-African Studies at California State University, Los Angeles, co-founder of the Los Angeles chapter of Black Lives Matter and Black Lives Matter Grassroots, where she is also the co-director.
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Black Lives Matter Plaza is a two-block-long pedestrian section of 16th Street NW in downtown Washington, D.C. The plaza was renamed by Mayor Muriel Bowser on June 5, 2020, after the Department of Public Works painted the words "Black Lives Matter" in yellow, 35-foot-tall (11 m) capital letters, along with the D.C. flag, during the series of George Floyd protests taking place in the city.
Shortly after protests seeking justice for George Floyd, an African-American who was murdered during a police arrest, began in the United States, people in Canada protested to show solidarity with Americans and to demonstrate against issues with police or racism in Canada. Vigils and protests of up to thousands of participants took place in all 10 provinces and all 3 territories of Canada.
8 to Abolition is a police and prison abolition resource created during the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 following the murder of George Floyd.
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The Black Lives Matter street muralin Indianapolis is a large, colorful mural reading "#BLACKLIVESMATTER", with a raised fist, that 18 artists painted across a downtown roadway in August 2020, as part of the George Floyd protests. The mural is located on Indiana Avenue, the historic hub of the city's Black culture, on the same corner as the Madam C. J. Walker Building.
Many artworks related to the Black Lives Matter movement were created in New York City, during local protests over the murder of George Floyd and other Black Americans.
Indira Sheumaker is a politician and activist currently serving as Ward 1 City Council Member for Des Moines, Iowa. She is the youngest member on the Des Moines City Council.
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