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Articles by Robyn Maynard
Hunted and Banned
March 25, 2026 In January I watched Nasra Ahmed, a twenty-three-year-old U.S. citizen of Somali heritage, testify about her experience at the hands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Minneapolis a few weeks prior, when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), then under the command of Kristi Noem, ordered a massive raid on the city.
Community policing: expanding the carceral web
As a response to growing movements against racism and police brutality in the 1960s and 1970s, a package of police reforms began to be marketed as “community policing.” Based on a co-operative model, the philosophy of community policing generally contrasts with the military-bureaucratic model of policing, which relies on hierarchy and the use of force.
In the genocide in Sudan, Canada has a hand in the violence
We have passed a grave tipping point in the war in Sudan: The RSF paramilitary has captured a key Sudanese army stronghold in Darfur, trapping civilians inside the city of El Fasher and committing massacres so widespread that pools of blood are visible in satellite images from space. Behind Sudan’s catastrophe lies a web of international enablers, and Canada is one of them.
Why we boycott Israel: ‘One day everyone will have always been against this’
Over the past year, the world has watched in horror as the first live-streamed genocide has unfolded before our eyes. For those of us who see life as precious, feelings of rage, pathos, overwhelm and powerlessness have been fixtures of witnessing.
Disability Politics and Theory, Revised and Expanded Edition
Gary Kinsman, queer activist, sociologist and the author of The Regulation of Desire, Third Edition: Queer Histories, Queer Struggles.
No Human Animals: On Black Solidarity with Palestine and the Defense of Life
This lightly edited speech was written for the November 4 Free Palestine: National Day of Action in Montreal that was organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement. I am standing here in solidarity with the Palestinian peoples who are today demanding an end to genocide, occupation, and apartheid. I am standing here, with all of you, in defense of life. It is not the first time many of us have come together in defense of lives made not to matter.
Beyond Do No Harm: Health Justice and Abolition
Maria Thomas of Interrupting Criminalization reflects on the importance of health justice in abolitionist organizing, the Black Panthers and Young Lords, and her work to bring together healthcare workers and organizers to craft solutions to end the use of the healthcare system as an extension of the carceral states.
Anti-capitalism and Abolition: For a Liberation Economy
The following are edited excerpts from remarks shared by Maurice BP-Weeks, founder of The Action Center on Race and the Economy, and Solana Rice, a founder of Liberation in a Generating, during the Abolitionist Organizing Network Gathering on the relationship of our economy and abolition.
Abolition as a Transnational, Anti-colonial Struggle
The following is an edited and expanded version of opening remarks from Robyn Maynard at the 2022 Abolitionist Network Gathering. Robyn provides context for the abolitionist movement in Canada and explains how deeply intertwined international systems of oppression make it necessary to create an intertwined international abolitionist movement. The organizers asked me specifically to talk today a little bit about the transnational contours of abolition and anti-colonialism.
Six Books That Will Make You Feel Less Alone
Anytime I’ve felt adrift or lonely, literature has been a bridge leading me back to other people. When I moved to a new country after living in the same city for three decades, I sought out literary events to meet fellow artists. Back when I was a disillusioned law student, frustrated with the limitations of the curriculum, I convened a reading group that addressed the gaps in our education and breathed new meaning into my degree.
Episodes - Crackdown Podcast
Last month, Crackdown Editorial Board member Greg Fresz passed away. As usual, we held a memorial for our comrade at VANDU. Sadly, we do this a lot. But for the revolutionary, death is not the end. Last month, Crackdown Editorial Board member Greg Fresz passed away. As usual, we held a memorial for our comrade at VANDU. Sadly, we do this a lot. There’s nothing really that makes this constant death feel better, but at least we can feel “not better” together. That camaraderie?
Occupation: Organizer
"Occupation: Organizer sets out to be a comprehensive guide and assessment to the world of community organizing. For those interested in pursuing a career in community organizing, Occupation: Organizer is an essential read. It provides an in-depth understanding of the work involved and explores its historical and societal significance.
Torontonians imagine a police-free city, while Tory defends status quo
“The families of those who have been killed by the Toronto Police Service are outside right now,” a community member told the City of Toronto’s Budget Committee at a meeting Tuesday, before being kicked out by security. Outside, the group who had disrupted the meeting was welcomed by hundreds of supporters.
from Rehearsals for Living
Dear Leanne, About five years ago now, I sat down with a copy of your book, As We Have Always Done. I’d planned to flip through the first few pages over my morning coffee. In the end, though, I stayed put, reading almost the whole text in one go, and was suddenly overcome with a strong feeling that I wanted to know you. Your words beckoned me to join you in what you called “constellations of co-resistance”: constellations that affirmed life and world-making in a time of acute racial violence.
Why Solidarity is Not a Finite Resource
Rehearsals for Living is an epistolary project that began between friends Robyn Maynard and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson in 2020. The below is an excerpt from one of Maynard’s letters to Simpson. * Dear Leanne, I’ve always been a nerd. Specifically, a sci-fi nerd. And more specifically still, the kind of sci-fi nerd who, as a child, tried to learn to speak Klingon from her father’s Klingon Dictionary. And so as you can imagine, Star Trek TNG has been a balm to my pandemic insomnia.
Rehearsals for Living
Rehearsals for Living by Robyn Maynard and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson Foreword by Ruth Wilson Gilmore Afterword by Robin D.G. Kelley A revolutionary collaboration about the world we're living in now, between two of our most important contemporary thinkers, writers and activists.
International: 30 bestselling books for the week of June 18
Article content NEW RELEASES Advertisement 2 This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content 1. The Book of Form and Emptiness: A Novel, by Ruth Ozeki. 2. Rehearsals for Living, by Robyn Maynard, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. 3. Horse: A Novel, by Geraldine Brooks. 4. Unreconciled: Family, Truth, And Indigenous Resistance, by Jesse Wente. 5. The Hotel Nantucket, by Elin Hilderbrand. 6. Wish You Were Here: A Novel, by Jodi Picoult. 7.
International: 30 bestselling books for the week of June 18 Original
Article content 5. Horse: A Novel, by Geraldine Brooks. 6. The Lincoln Highway: A Novel, by Amor Towles. 7. Time is a Mother, by Ocean Vuong. 8. Hey, Good Luck Out There: A Novel, by Georgia Toews. 9. Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel, by Anthony Doerr. 10. When We Lost Our Heads: A Novel, by Heather O’Neill. NON-FICTION 1. Freezing Order, by Bill Browder. 2. Happy-Go-Lucky, by David Sedaris. 3. The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse, by Charlie Mackesy. 4. Atlas of the Heart, by Brene Brown. 5.
International: 30 bestselling books for the week of June 18
Article content NEW RELEASES Advertisement 2 This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content 1. The Book of Form and Emptiness: A Novel, by Ruth Ozeki. 2. Rehearsals for Living, by Robyn Maynard, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. 3. Horse: A Novel, by Geraldine Brooks. 4. Unreconciled: Family, Truth, And Indigenous Resistance, by Jesse Wente. 5. The Hotel Nantucket, by Elin Hilderbrand. 6. Wish You Were Here: A Novel, by Jodi Picoult. 7.
International: 30 bestselling books for the week of June 18
Article content NEW RELEASES Advertisement 2 This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content 1. The Book of Form and Emptiness: A Novel, by Ruth Ozeki. 2. Rehearsals for Living, by Robyn Maynard, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. 3. Horse: A Novel, by Geraldine Brooks. 4. Unreconciled: Family, Truth, And Indigenous Resistance, by Jesse Wente. 5. The Hotel Nantucket, by Elin Hilderbrand. 6. Wish You Were Here: A Novel, by Jodi Picoult. 7.
International: 30 bestselling books for the week of June 18
Article content NEW RELEASES Advertisement 2 This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content 1. The Book of Form and Emptiness: A Novel, by Ruth Ozeki. 2. Rehearsals for Living, by Robyn Maynard, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. 3. Horse: A Novel, by Geraldine Brooks. 4. Unreconciled: Family, Truth, And Indigenous Resistance, by Jesse Wente. 5. The Hotel Nantucket, by Elin Hilderbrand. 6. Wish You Were Here: A Novel, by Jodi Picoult. 7.
International: 30 bestselling books for the week of June 18
Article content NEW RELEASES Advertisement 2 This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content 1. The Book of Form and Emptiness: A Novel, by Ruth Ozeki. 2. Rehearsals for Living, by Robyn Maynard, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. 3. Horse: A Novel, by Geraldine Brooks. 4. Unreconciled: Family, Truth, And Indigenous Resistance, by Jesse Wente. 5. The Hotel Nantucket, by Elin Hilderbrand. 6. Wish You Were Here: A Novel, by Jodi Picoult. 7.
Rehearsals for Living
When much of the world entered pandemic lockdown in spring 2020, Robyn Maynard, influential author of Policing Black Lives, and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, award-winning author of several books, including the recent novel Noopiming, began writing each other letters—a gesture sparked by friendship and solidarity, and by a desire for kinship and connection in a world shattering under the intersecting crises of pandemic, police killings, and climate catastrophe.
Rehearsals for Living - Quill and Quire
REVIEWS « Back to Book Reviews A balm for despair, Rehearsals for Living is an epistolary dialogue between Robyn Maynard and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson that takes stock of our collapsing society and imagines what we might build from the wreckage.
Opinion | After the 2020 protests, we were told things would be different. So why are police budgets and powers still expanding?
By Robyn MaynardContributor Mon., Dec. 13, 2021timer3 min. read We are living through a violent, institutional backlashin the wake of historic protests in defence of Black life. Things, we were told, would be different this time: it was a racial reckoning. After the protests of 2020, political leaders — including Toronto Mayor John Tory and Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger — assured the public that they had heard the demands that drew tens of thousands into the streets for weeks and months.
Opinion | After the 2020 protests, we were told things would be different. So why are police budgets and powers still expanding?
By Robyn MaynardContributor Mon., Dec. 13, 2021timer3 min. read We are living through a violent, institutional backlashin the wake of historic protests in defence of Black life. Things, we were told, would be different this time: it was a racial reckoning. After the protests of 2020, political leaders — including Toronto Mayor John Tory and Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger — assured the public that they had heard the demands that drew tens of thousands into the streets for weeks and months.
20 books by Black Canadian authors to read in honour of Emancipation Day 2021
In recognition of Emancipation Day on Aug. 1, CBC has special programming to celebrate, educate and reflect on what freedom means. On August 1st, watch a CBC Arts special celebrating freedom. 0:25 Emancipation Day commemorates the abolition of slavery across the British Empire on Aug. 1. On that historic day in 1834, the Slavery Abolition Act came into effect, freeing more than 800,000 people of African descent in Canada and throughout the British Empire.
Toward a police-free future in Canada
It’s been one year since the police publicly executed George Floyd in Minneapolis, and from New York to Toronto to Lagos, we have witnessed Black-led uprisings and mobilizations against anti-Black racism, policing, and the racial and economic injustices exposed by COVID-19.
Register now for the Dean's Lecture on Information + Society: Robyn Maynard & Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
SFU Library invites you to an evening of conversation with Robyn Maynard and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. Robyn Maynard is a Black feminist author and activist-scholar based in Toronto.
Episode 23: Cop Free Future — Crackdown Podcast
After 113 years, things might be changing in Vancouver. Mayor Kennedy Stewart has written to the federal government, asking for an exemption from Canada’s Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. If he gets it, the city could decriminalize the simple possession of drugs. In light of this announcement, Crackdown is taking a look at the birth of the drug war in Canada. When and why did it start? And what is it going to take to finally end it?
Opinion | Six months later, the public reckoning over policing and incarceration is ongoing
By Robyn MaynardContributor Wed., Feb. 17, 2021timer3 min. read updateArticle was updated 28 mins ago We are now six months past this summers’ historic protests in defence of Black lives. While the headlines may have moved on, the political landscape has been dramatically altered. So has the public’s imagination for what is possible. Across Canada, many people are questioning — some for the first time — the role played by policing, jails, and prisons in Canadian society.
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