Anti-Racism Task Force
The Anti-Racism Task Force, established in 2022, included diverse members from across the university who have been active in advancing racial justice and decolonization throughout the university through their leadership, experience, subject matter expertise and community involvement.
UM’s Anti-Racism Task Force recommended areas for immediate action focused on education, policies and processes, and aimed at eliminating all forms of racism across all areas and levels of the institution.
The Task Force’s work gathered voices from across our campuses, while building on decades of community anti-racist activism at UM. This work included creation of the roles of the Vice-President (Indigenous) and Vice-Provost (Equity), President’s Task Force on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, and Rady Faculty of Health Science’s Disruption of All Forms of Racism Policy.
Recommendations to address racism
The Task Force produced an interim report in November 2022 that presented recommendations for immediate action, based on the lived experiences of the task force members and on the significant work already done by community members, key constituency groups and offices within UM. These are foundational recommendations — focused on education, policies and processes — aimed at laying the groundwork for the process of dismantling racism in all its forms throughout the UM community. Four of the recommendations are implemented, with ongoing work. Three recommendations are in progress and expected to be implemented in 2026.
The Task Force recommended:
- UM define measurable targets, develop clear accountability structures and provide dedicated resources to lead the implementation of these and future recommendations in a manner that supports transparency and accountability and ensures that intersectionality is considered. (Implemented and ongoing)
- UM establish an overarching anti-racism policy. (In progress)
- All UM Board of Governors and Senate approved policies and procedures be reviewed via Racial Equity Impact Assessments (REIA) with an intersectional lens. (In progress)
- UM educate decision makers to inform the appropriate application of an anti-racism lens to internal decisions and processes. (Implemented and ongoing)
- UM adopt and provide common terminology to engage in anti-racism work at the University of Manitoba, and that this terminology be reviewed regularly to reflect community recommendations on evolving language in anti-racism work. (Implemented and ongoing)
- UM develop and implement a communication plan, beginning with a website dedicated to educating the university community and promoting the elimination of racism. (Implemented and ongoing)
- UM establish a process to collect and distribute demographic data to identify and close diversity gaps. (In progress)