Today at noon, the pan-African flag will be raised at Mount Allison university in a virtual ceremony that will kick off the school’s first Racial Justice Symposium.

Here’s Ivan Okello, Mount Allison’s Black Student Advisor and Diversity Educator, talking about the event on Tantramar Report:

The Racial Justice Symposium is open to the public, and features three days of talks and panels from Black leaders and researchers in Atlantic Canada.

Today’s keynote speaker is Dr. Ornella Nzindukiyimana, Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Kinetics at St. Francis Xavier University. Okello says Nzindukiyimana’s work deals with the experience of the Black Canadian community in sports. “It’s one of the pieces that is not considered so much in the inclusion conversation within Canada,” says Okello.

Tomorrow, the keynote speaker is Dr. OmiSoore H. Dryden, Chair in Black Canadian Studies at Dalhousie University. Dryden’s research focusses on Black LGBTQI people and HIV vulnerability within Black diasporic communities in Canada.

Her focus on health issues is timely, says Okello. “Since the pandemic began, we’ve had a lot of information that keeps coming up around the disproportionate effects of COVID-19 on the black community,” says Okello. “There’s no better person to speak to this kind of work than Dr. OmiSoore Dryden.”

The event also features panels discussions, including a roundtable exclusively for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of colour) communities to share, “stories of resistance and healing” around anti-Black racism.

Okello says the idea is to, “allow a platform where people can bring their lived experiences, and be accepted for what those lived experiences are. And just be allowed to feel safe.”

The symposium is offered in collaboration with the Maple League of Universities, including Mount Allison, Acadia, St. Francis Xavier, and Bishop’s. But sessions are also open to members of the public.

“We really love to have members of the Sackville community as well join us, because we believe this is a very important conversation that needs to be had on campus, but also in the community,” says Okello.

You can find more information and links to the sessions here.