OPIRG Toronto and OPIRG York created this zine which explores how we can keep our communities safe in the midst of COVID and other health and safety risks from a disability justice and abolitionist perspective.

Download the Zine here.

Why a Community Safety Zine? 

It has been over four years since the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite considerable evidence of public health and safety measures to save lives, our governments and institutions have “returned to normal”, halted clear communications about the ongoing spread and impacts of COVID-19 and its long term impacts – particularly for those who are marginalized – and reversed life-saving public health measures. 

As a result, the burden of advocating for safety measures has largely fallen on these very marginalized communities, particularly disability justice advocacy groups. Their recommendations for safety measures such as masking, vaccinating, and now even self-isolating, are increasingly being ignored.

Vision for the Zine

In this zine, we sought to re-centre the voices of those most impacted by COVID. We wanted to interrogate our society’s abandonment of community care, and to look at how people have mobilized to care for each other in the face of government negligence. Some guiding questions for this Zine include (but are not limited to):

What happens when you stop isolating despite professional advice from health experts?

What are the motivations and larger systems at play behind the government’s reversal of COVID safety precautions?

And, most importantly, how can we approach these situations in a way that rejects carceral approaches and policing, and instead draws from conflict transformation and compassion?