July 2025 marks nine years since Prof. Aimé Avolonto, a Black professor of French Studies at Glendon College, first raised concerns about anti-Black racism in his workplace.

Nearly a decade later, his experience has become one of the most well known cases of alleged systemic anti-Black racism in Canada’s post-secondary sector.

Related to Prof. Avolonto’s case is that of Lydia Dosu, a Black employee at Glendon for 24 years who was fired from her job in 2023, following her own complaints about anti-Black racism.

Both Aimé and Lydia are fighting York University’s attempts to silence them, to deny their experiences of racism at Glendon, and to terminate their employment, and are in the process of having their discrimination claims adjudicated by the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario.*

For the last several years, the Campaign Against Anti-Black Racism has been building public support for Aimé and Lydia. At this critical moment in their fight, we are relaunching our fundraising appeal, with the goal of raising $100,000 to cover ongoing legal costs.**

Our fight is solely funded by the generous support of donors and volunteers.

By contrast, York University, which remains in the midst of an unprecedented financial crisis, has spent millions of public dollars attempting to deny Aimé’s and Lydia’s experiences. In addition to York’s in-house legal teams, at least two other external law firms, based in downtown Toronto, are working against Aimé and Lydia.

We need resources to win. And a win for Aimé and Lydia will be a win for everyone else at York who has made a complaint about anti-Black racism and has been silenced or faced retaliation.

Your support can help make the difference between a worthy case and a winning one!

Thank you in advance for your solidarity.

Resources:

* Aimé’s and Lydia’s allegations remain before the HRTO and have yet to be proven or tested.

** All donations will be managed by the Campaign Against Anti-Black Racism and transferred to Franklin Law, the human rights law firm representing Aimé and Lydia, on an ongoing basis until the fundraising goal has been reached. For more information, contact Franklin Law.