Monday: Aimé Avolonto to speak at arbitration hearing on March 30

Dear friends, 

The latest arbitration hearing for Prof. Aimé Avolonto will take place online, via Zoom, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. EDT on Monday, March 30.

This will be Aimé's first opportunity to speak at an arbitration hearing and share, in his own words, what has happened to him.

We strongly urge friends and supporters to attend and show Aimé your support.

The most important time to be present will be the first two hours of the hearing (10:00 am to 12:00 pm EDT), but please feel free to attend whenever it's convenient for you. You may attend as much or as little as you wish.

If you would like to attend, please register at this link.

After you register, you will receive a Zoom link by email.

After Monday, the next scheduled hearing date is Monday, April 13. More details about this hearing will be posted soon.

The hearings are open to the public, as is required by the York University Faculty Association collective agreement.

NOTE: This hearing represents a second termination process initiated by the York University administration, in response to Prof. Avolonto’s attempts to seek urgently needed mental health care from a Black francophone health provider.

One of Prof. Avolonto’s applications at the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO) deals with York University’s alleged failure to accommodate Prof. Avolonto’s deteriorating mental health and ensuing disability, which had the effect of excluding his perspective, experience, and evidence from the investigation.

Prof. Avolonto's concerns about the conduct of the investigator are the subject of a separate HRTO complaint.

York’s first termination process remains stalled since February 29, 2024–25 months ago–when it called a single witness (Barry Miller) in its case against Prof. Avolonto. No other witnesses have been named and no further hearing dates have been scheduled in that arbitration.

It is incumbent upon the York University administration to make a timely case against Prof. Avolonto, but it has failed to take the next step for over two years.

Systemic Anti-Black Racism

The Avolonto case highlights how large institutions such as York University have responded to allegations of systemic Anti-Black Racism in their workplace: to target and blame its victims, leading to their discipline, termination, and removal from campus.

Prof. Avolonto’s experience was documented in the ground-breaking documentary “Black on campus,” produced by the CBC’s Fifth Estate. Watch the documentary here.

Prof. Avolonto’s allegations are detailed in this 2021 press conference, featuring Prof. Avolonto, his legal counsel Ron Franklin, and eyewitnesses and supporters from the York University community.

Background

Prof. Avolonto is a professor of French literature and linguistics at York University’s Glendon College, where he first complained about Anti-Black Racism in 2016. When he requested an investigation into his experiences, the administration instead compiled complaints against him and has been trying to fire him since 2020.

The administration has claimed that Prof. Avolonto invented all his complaints, that he did not experience a single incident of Anti-Black Racism, and that his complaints represented harassment of white and non-Black colleagues.

Among other things, the administration claimed that a public speech that Prof. Avolonto delivered in his capacity as a York University Senator, during which he broke down and cried while describing his experiences of Anti-Black Racism at Glendon College, was an effort to harass and threaten white faculty.

Prof. Avolonto has four active applications at the HRTO, the first of which was filed in 2018.

You can read Prof. Avolonto’s full account of his experience in his “Letter from a Black Colleague.”

More information about Prof. Avolonto’s case, including media coverage, is available at this website.

For more information, please email againstantiblackracism@gmail.com.

Against Anti-Black Racism is a network of students, faculty, trade unionists, and community members in support of Prof. Aimé Avolonto.