For the first time in ten years, Social Justice Week at Ryerson University is happening online. CJRU spoke with Kiké Roach about their ten online events, running from Oct. 26-30. Roach is the Unifor National Chair in Social Justice and Democracy. In her role, she works to create a hub of interaction between social justice activists and academics at Ryerson. This year’s theme is “Beyond Walls, Beyond Borders” and she hopes that their conversations will inspire, educate and reach global audiences.

“We will be welcoming speakers from across Turtle Island, from Canada, the United States, Trinidad and Tobago, Brazil, South Africa, Hong Kong. So we’re really going to take advantage of listening to what other people’s experiences are around the world … dealing with multiple pandemics really,” she says.

Social Justice Week will be presenting free, online events that span a number of social issues. Their highly-anticipated feature event is “Beyond Pipelines and Prisons: Infrastructures of Abolition” with Professor Ruth Wilson Gilmore and Anishinaabe leader Winona LaDuke. Throughout the week, there will be conversations around justice, critical geography, democracy, political mobilization, labour, global resistance, and feminist activism. The full schedule and registration links can be found on their website. Roach explains that there’s something for everyone and adds that ASL and captioning will be provided for all sessions.

To hear more about each event of Social Justice Week, listen to the interview with Kiké Roach below.