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Black History month has been celebrated every February for decades. This year, the Students of Colour Collective (SOCC) is holding four events intended to educate and celebrate Black identity and history on the lands known as Canada and North America.
The Students of Colour Collective is an advocacy group that aims to “promote and support cultural diversity on campus.” Ruth Nakalyowa, the current coordinator of the Students of Colour Collective, says that although the group focuses mostly on students, there has been a move recently to support the Greater Victoria community as a whole.
“We work to represent and support the BIPOC community, Black and Indigenous Persons of Colour, and we prioritize UVic students, but we are branching out and supporting folks in the BIPOC community in Greater Victoria,” Nakalyowa said.
“It’s scary,” said Jacobs, who works for the Victoria-based Support Network for Indigenous Women and Women of Colour. “It makes you feel really, really unsure. It makes you feel afraid of who are my neighbours.”
The white supremacist message a statement against the Black Lives Matter anti-racism rallying cry was spray-painted on the wall of a building under construction on West Shore Parkway near Landing Lane. It was reported to West Shore RCMP on Jan. 21. The next day, the department was informed that swastikas and racial slurs had been painted on trees at Royal Roads.
West Shore RCMP spokeswoman Const. Nancy Saggar said police have not identified any suspects or direct witnesses in either incident. Investigators are not certain that the two incidents are related, so they are being investigated separately, Saggar said.