News

Canada’s relationship with the Caribbean came into sharp focus at the recently held Canada-Caribbean Institute Symposium (CCIS), hosted by The UWI Cave Hill campus.  

The February 23-24 event was held at the Sagicor Cave Hill School of Business and Management under the theme ‘Decoloniality: Past, Present and Future Directions’.  

Vice-Chancellor of The UWI, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles said the second CCIS was timely, given Ottawa’s unique position within the discourse about colonialism and modernity, and Barbados’ recent decision to transition to a republic by replacing the British monarch with a president as its head of state.  

“Canada is the only significant industrial nation in the north Atlantic that did not send armies out into the world to conquer people,” Beckles stated.  

 

“(However) there was a conquering domestically of the indigenous people; there was also the enslavement of African people in Canada. So while on the one hand it was not an imperial nation with its own domestic development, it was a critical part of the rise of that Atlantic system of capitalism, slavery and indigenous conquer, which creates an interesting tension for academics to interrogate,” he added.  

 

Principal of the Cave Hill Campus, Professor Clive Landis hailed Canada’s relationship with the post-independent Caribbean, and added that the discussions were critical to the continued development of scholarship in both regions. 

 

“These kinds of multi-country symposia and academic discourses have the deepest traction when they are allied to meaningful exchanges in staff, students and research between the institutions involved.  It therefore pleases me to report that the majority of our international students here at Cave Hill do in fact come from Canada, and the reverse is also true since the largest proportion of our exchange students travel to Canadian Higher Education Institutions,” Landis said.   

 

The CCIS was founded by Brock University and The UWI to connect scholars from Canada and the Caribbean to partner on matters of mutual interest, including the environment, social and economic development, however Brock University recently handed over to McMaster University as the lead partner the CCI.  

 

President and Vice-Chancellor of Brock University, Dr Lynn Wells, pledged her institution’s continued support for the CCIS. 

 

“Brock University is committed to diverse activities with our partners in the Caribbean and we are so pleased to see that commitment displayed at this symposium,” Wells said.  

 

President and Vice-Chancellor of McMaster University, Dr David Farrar said he looks forward to working with members of the CCIS on matters of mutual interest.  

 

“McMaster’s values, goals, collaborative approach are closely aligned with the CCI and its member institutions and all that is represented here today,” he said.  

 

Topics covered at the symposium included Alternative Livelihoods and Economies; Decoloniality and Indigeneity across Contexts; Decolonising Educational Practice; and  Decolonising Regional Politics.  

The next symposium will be held in 2024.