All individuals attending OPIRG Brock events must help to maintain a safer space by managing their own behaviour including but not limited to complying with the following guidelines. There is a collective understanding that all people are in ongoing self-education processes on many of these issues and have the ability to be challenged and learn from mistakes and causing harm. However, working under a model of multi-step transformative justice that allows for recovery and repair means that the emotional and physical safety needs of those harmed will be prioritized as a means of preventing and/ or minimizing harm.

Recognize that the land we currently organize on has been colonized (forcibly taken) from the Indigenous people of Turtle Island. Recognize that the violence of colonization is not confined to solitary events, but is an ongoing process that continues to impact Indigenous peoples. For example, Indigenous people and cultures face a continued push for erasure and assimilation and we challenge the Canadian nationalism that reinforces the celebration of colonization.

Show respect for individuals of all sexual orientations. E.g., don’t use the word ‘gay’ as an insult or use gay, queerphobic, biphobic, or panphobic slurs

Show respect for individuals of all gender identities, gender expressions, and gender performances. E.g. don’t use words such as ‘tranny’ and ‘trans’ or use transphobic or gender-based slurs (unless using it as a reclaimed word to describe yourself).

Show respect for individuals of all abilities and disabilities. E.g., do not assume what abilities a person has or does not have. Remember that not all disabilities are visible.

Show respect for individuals of all races. Do not fetishize, dismiss or isolate people of colour. E.g., do not use racial slurs or stereotypes.

Acknowledge the deeply pervasive nature of white supremacist, cis, ableist, patriarchal and capitalist society – through exposure to both theory and community organizing, as well as lived experiences.

Show respect for individuals or all gender identities and all gender expressions. E.g., Don’t use words such as ‘slut’ or ‘bitch’ (unless you are using it as a reclaimed word to describe yourself). Remember that people of all genders can perform all tasks. Remember that there is nothing wrong with a person of any sex being ‘feminine’ or ‘masculine.’

In all of our activism, events, team education, and community partnerships, we must be prioritizing voices and priorities of Indigenous people, as the historical and still ongoing colonization of the region is foundational to the oppressive settler state of Canada from which all injustices unfold. In practice, this means listening and responding to Indigenous led calls to action locally, provincially, nationally, and globally.

In all of our activism, events, team education, and community partnerships, we must be prioritizing the fact that anti-Black racism has deep colonial roots that continue to permeate our interactions, community spaces, and activism. We must be cognizant and combat how Anti-Black racism results in increased cultural appropriation, exclusion, erasure, stereotyping, targeting, gaslighting, violence, murder, and genocide for Black people and communities. We must also be vigilant on how centuries of anti-Indigenous and anti-Black racism inform and perpetuate discrimination against other people of colour, and be vigilant about addressing these systemic issues at a personal, interpersonal, and structural level.

Show respect for individuals of all classes. E.g., be mindful of your class privilege and do not assume resources that are accessible to you are accessible to everyone.

One means of committing to challenging racism in our practices is shifts which voices and experiences we feature and prioritize for positions of leadership, governance, and programming. We must be moving in a direction where our work prioritizes the voices, experiences, and initiatives from Indigenous peoples, Black peoples, Peoples of Colour (BIPOC). Taking an intersectional approach and thinking about how compounding experiences of oppression can increase exclusion, we must also look at prioritizing peoples with various gender expressions, presentations and identities, peoples with various sexual orientations, disabled peoples/peoples with disabilities (visible and invisible), peoples navigating mental health concerns (diagnosed and undiagnosed), addiction(s), and/or navigating recovery processes, peoples with no and/or precarious immigration status, survivors of/peoples with experiences of sexual violence, domestic violence, stalking, emotional abuse, ritual abuse, or physical abuse, poor people/low-income peoples, peoples with no and/or precarious housing, sex workers, peoples who use drugs, incarcerated peoples and peoples with criminal records, pregnant peoples, parents, and caregivers, fat peoples, peoples across age cohorts, and peoples from a wide range of cultural and faith backgrounds.

Respect the boundaries and autonomy of others. E.g., Ask for consent before touching anyone. Accept ‘no’ for an answer. Do not pressure others to engage in behaviours that they are not comfortable with.

Have background in anti-oppression and anti-racism training or must plan to attend such trainings as they are offered by community groups in conjunction with OPIRG Brock.

In all of our activism, events, team education, and community partnerships, we must be pushing pro-choice politics and narratives that work for reproductive justice. Our work must align with the values that ensure that, as well as having access to abortion, everyone has the right to have children under the conditions they want to have them and raise them in a safe and healthy environment. This means that reproductive justice is deeply connected to other forms of justice, including decolonization, racial justice, prison and police abolition, immigrant justice, environmental justice, economic justice, disability justice, among many others.

Understanding of the fluid nature of allyship, not a self-determined noun but a verb that can be assigned by a community and is not constant.

We strive to make our organization, events, and campaigns as accessible as possible to all types of disabilities, mental health diagnoses, mental illnesses, and experiences of trauma. Increasing accessibility for disabled and non-disabled folks requires that we meaningfully examine the following elements in our organizing:

● Physical spaces (e.g. entry/exit, navigation, washrooms, access to water)

● Signage

● Languages/ translations options

● Providing food and water

● Sensory environment (e.g. flashing lights, loud noises)

● Ensuring access to a sharps container and narcan/ Naloxone

● Presence of security

● Options for a quiet environment, if needed

● Option of mental health supports, if needed

● Proximity to public transit

● Providing childcare/caretaking

● Timing (start time & end time) and dates of events

In doing social, economic, and environmental justice work, we cover a wide range of topics that can be triggering. Within meeting spaces, we encourage people for both their mental and physical needs to take breaks, stand up, and move around as needed. However, in doing this, we ask that you keep in mind this can be distracting and come in conflict with other people’s needs, and to be as respectful of this as possible.

We believe in a harm reduction approach to substance use, which means that an abstinence only approach is not . We therefore strive to make our organization, events, and campaigns accessible and safe for people who use substances

We aspire to create organizing environments where people can talk about, address, and incorporate our organizing team's needs, boundaries, scheduling commitments, and concerns. Some people’s needs and schedules may come in conflict with others, and it is through discussion that we can best find a solution that works for everyone.

Through our policies and practices, we believe in and support the safety needs and voices of survivors of violence, including, but not limited to, intimate partner violence, gender based violence, and state violence. If a safety need or consideration is brought forward, it will be handled in accordance with the processes outlined in this process, and kept confidential to those whom it concerns. If the person with the concern chooses to file an OPIRG Brock Incident Report to the OPIRG Brock Accountability Committee, they can choose to do this.

There is a collective understanding that all people are in ongoing self-education processes on many of these issues and have the ability to be challenged and learn from mistakes and causing harm. However, working under a model of multi-step transformative justice that allows for recovery and repair means that the emotional and physical safety needs of those harmed will be prioritized as a means of preventing and/ or minimizing harm. Depending on the needs of those impacted and through our policy applications, we are committed to using the call-ins, call-ons, and call-outs, as a means of team education and collective liberation, when applicable and safe to do so

In all of our activism, events, team education, and community partnerships, we must be respecting and supporting the fact that wex work is real work. OPIRG Brock calls for the full decriminalization of sex work as well as rights, safety, and respect for all sex workers. All types of labour under capitalism, including sex work, is the selling of one’s skills, knowledge, and body.

We believe in a world where all people have control over their own bodies. This includes the ability to self-prescribe abortion, estrogen, testosterone, and birth control and access these resources for free. We do not believe in gender policing, including any form of transmedicalism, trans-exclusionary radical feminism, or transphobia, and are committed to these forms of discrimination and judgement within our activism, events, team education, and community partnerships.