A radical anti-racism activist who enjoys significant backing from schools, universities, municipal governments and even the federal government celebrated Canada Day by accusing the country of “settler colonialism, genocide, enslavement, oppression, violence, extraction, [and] exploitation” in a viral post.
An immigrant from Ethiopia — a country with an extensive and ongoing record of ethnic cleansing, human trafficking, and modern slavery – Debs has made a career of condemning Canadian institutions as fundamentally white supremacist and calling for reparations for historical injustices in Canada. In comparison to Ethiopia’s ongoing human rights violations, slavery of Indigenous and mainly black peoples in Canada was abolished in 1834.
Ethiopia has engaged in slavery for over a thousand years, only formally abolishing the practice in 1942 under Emperor Haile Selassie. Even then, enforcement was weak. Debs remains silent on the ongoing oppression in Ethiopia today.
This isn’t the first time she’s courted controversy. In 2022, she led a racially segregated yoga class at the University of Guelph, restricted to “Black-identifying” students and faculty. The university co-organized and promoted the class as a “safe and sacred space” from “the white gaze.” When challenged, Debs called criticism of the event anti-Black racism. Guelph officials defended the program, denying that segregation had occurred, and citing the “diversity” within the Black community as justification. The university later described it as a healing space, without explaining why mixed-race settings on campus posed a threat.
Debs stands out not just for her rhetoric, but for the institutional support she enjoys. In 2022, she received $11,865 in federal funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council for “tuition fees and seminars.” At the same time, she was actively working with school boards and social institutions across Canada.
A Toronto District School Board vice principal publicly endorsed the program, describing it as “exceptional” and praising Debs for helping educators “decolonize our thinking.” His testimonial, published on Deb’s website, applauds her efforts to “shift our language” and propel schools into action to build the “communities we want to live in for future generations.” At least one TDSB school, Forest Hill Collegiate Institute, appears to have delivered Debs’ anti-racism training.
This is not limited to one school or one board. The Waterloo Region District School Board invited her as a featured speaker in its parent engagement programming. The University of Guelph and the City of Kitchener have highlighted her as an exemplary activist. The Manitoba College of Social Workers, a regulatory body, has also celebrated her work.
In a 2024 panel on DEI and Palestine, Selam Debs argued that mainstream diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts have been “co-opted, whitewashed,” and reduced to a tool that reinforces white supremacy under the guise of institutional reform. She described modern DEI work as corporate propaganda designed to preserve the comfort of white people rather than dismantle power structures.
Terms like “diversity” and “inclusion,” she claimed, serve to uphold a racial hierarchy that centres whiteness as the norm. In her view, any approach to DEI that does not confront colonialism, Islamophobia, anti-blackness, and Zionism is inherently complicit in systemic oppression. She urged listeners to stop protecting the feelings of dominant groups and instead prioritize “redistribution of power” even at the personal and professional costs.
During that panel, Debs described a corporate training session in which she linked Indigenous land rights to Palestinian liberation. The company’s Jewish CEO interrupted and asked her to stop discussing Palestine. Debs refused. Addressing the organization directly, she said she had been hired as a human rights educator and would not alter her message to protect institutional sensitivities.
Selam Debs insists that Canada as a nation must be “unlearned.” As a proponent of decolonization, she believes that current DEI frameworks don’t go far enough because they’re complicit in white supremacy. And still, public bodies including school boards, continue to allow her to train educators, parents groups, and most concerning, students.
While Canada ranks among the world’s most inclusive democracies, with strong protections for minority rights, Debs singles it out for condemnation.