I encourage readers/listeners of BIOPOLITICAL PHILOSOPHY who have followed discussions around these events to watch/listen to the captioned video (linked below) that Timothy Snyder made and posted to his Substack today. In the video, Snyder identifies and responds to several criticisms that many commentators have made about him and Marci Shore since the public announcement of their move from Yale to the University of Toronto.

I, for one, was glad to hear Snyder directly address the people who already lived in Canada before their arrival. For the arguments that hitherto both critics and supporters of Snyder, Shore, and Stanley (and, to some extent, Snyder, Shore, and Stanley tacitly themselves) have advanced with respect to the Yale/US to Munk School-U of T/Canada move(s) have treated Canada as a sort of terra nullius, implicitly extending and reconfiguring the legacy of settler colonialism in Canada.

If I had the opportunity to say something directly to Snyder, Shore, and Stanley, furthermore, I might say this:

“I hope you will notice the lacunae in the research and other activities of the Munk School. In particular, I hope you will notice that *core* faculty (as opposed to affiliates) who specialize in research, analysis, and public policy with respect to disability and to First Nations in (so-called) Canada are glaringly absent from the roster of faculty that the Munk School comprises. Indeed, I hope you will use your tremendous influence to urge the Munk School to redress this grievous state of affairs which is a manifestation and consequence of the ableist and racist injustices that circulate in your new home.”

Timothy Snyder’s latest (captioned) video is here: https://snyder.substack.com/p/last-years-move-to-toronto