Drawing from years of scholarship, activism, and experience, this panel challenges the belief that policing can be reformed to deliver justice or safety. It reveals how reform often expands criminalization, colonialism, and state violence—undermining Black, Indigenous, and migrant justice movements. Centering abolitionist and transformative frameworks, and stories of alternatives to policing. The panel calls for rejecting carceral and colonial logics and envisioning collective paths toward real safety and justice beyond policing.
Books Celebration:
Policing Black Lives (Revised & Expanded Edition) by Robyn Maynard
Not Your Rescue Project: Migrant Sex Workers Fighting for Justice by Chanelle Gallant and Elene Lam
Abolish Social Work (As We Know It) edited by Craig Fortier, Edward Hon-Sing Wong, and MJ Boryga
Speakers: Audrey Huntley, Chanelle Gallant, Dr. Elene Lam, Dr. Robyn Mayard, Terri Monture
Registration: Registration link
Learn more about the event and our speakers: For more information
Contact: Elene Lam (she/her), School of Social Work — elenelam@yorku.ca
Co organized by
York University
Centre for Feminist Research
Critical Disability Studies
Critical Trafficking and Sex Work Research Cluster (CFR)
Harriet Tubman Institute
Mad Studies Hub
School of Social Work
Social Work Association of Graduate Studies
York Centre for Asian Research
Butterfly (Asian and Migrant Sex Workers Support Network)
HIV Legal Network
No More Silence
The Toronto Art Therapy Institute
