“Our thoughts are with members of the African diaspora within our community and beyond,” a Carleton University statement from May 31 reads.
“We must continue to take significant steps . . . to ensure that all members of our communities feel safe, welcome and supported,” Carleton President Benoit-Antoine Bacon said in a different statement from June 9.
On August 13, another statement from Bacon: “Disengagement and polarization will not make the world a better place. What is needed is dialogue, exchanges, open debates and mutual understanding.”
The university has issued statement after statement expressing its commitment to anti-racism in the months following the murder of George Floyd. However, Carleton has failed to back up its words with actions and dissolve its contract with Aramark—a company that profits from prison labour in Canada and the United States.
Aramark, a multinational food service company, manages most dining establishments on campus through Carleton Dining Services. In addition to its use of prison labour to supply its clients, the company has an extensive history of problematic practices in its management of food services in prisons.
As Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) make up a significant number of prisoners in both Canada and the United States, Aramark’s poor food service and use of prison labour result in a system where BIPOC individuals are both underpaid and underfed at a disproportionate rate. Additionally, its taking particular advantage of Black labour has struck many as a means of production that is uncomfortably close to slavery.
In Michigan, the Detroit Free Press documented prisons under Aramark’s management suffering from meal shortages, maggots in the kitchen and drug smuggling by employees, among other issues. In July, 2015, the state of Michigan ended its contract with Aramark a year and a half early.
Earlier this year, eight current and former inmates of the Santa Rita Jail in California sued Aramark, among others, for profiting off of “uncompensated labor of prisoners.” The inmates argue that their work in the Santa Rita kitchen was forced labour.
“Santa Rita and therefore the county are stealing the wages that have been earned as a result of the work of the prisoners,” one of the lawyers in the case told Mother Jones.
Aramark’s business practices contribute to the existing systemic racism that plagues Canada’s criminal justice system. By maintaining its contract with the company, Carleton University is failing to stand by its statements, and by extension, the students of colour that attend Carleton.
By supporting Aramark financially, the university is complicit in the systemic racism it vows to combat.
If Carleton truly wants to make good on their words and make sure every member of the university community feels “safe, welcome and supported,” it must dissolve its contract with Aramark. Otherwise, the feel-good words of solidarity from the last three months mean nothing.
Featured image from file.
