Educating Canadian Children in Toronto

"We are DONE with the constant Jew hate! You have until the end of the day on Monday to fire every single teacher involved in this. They should be charged with Criminal Negligence [s219]."

"If you don't fire them all, we will be at your offices on Tuesday!"

"Fire them now!"

Tafsik Organization, Jewish advocacy group

"We can't allow TDSB [Toronto and District School Board) to do whatever they want with our children, abuse them, humiliate them, without any consequences."

"We're hoping that the teachers responsible will be fired. We're hoping that their teaching licence is taken away."

"They're not to be trusted around children, as their primary duty is to protect our children, not to expose them to danger."

Amir Epstein, executive director, Tafsik Organization

"The #TDSB's recent apology under pressure from CIJA (Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs] and the Friends of SimonWiesenthal Center is a prime example of anti-Palestinian racism."

"The Board has chosen to bow to organizations spreading misinformation and spying on our children. This is not leadership -- it's complicity."

Nigel Barriffe, teacher, vice-president Elementary Teachers of Toronto chapter of Ontario union

 

 

The recent school field trip comprised of students from 18 different schools from within the Toronto District School Board, which happens to be the largest such board in Canada, when students from Grade 3 to High Schoolers were bused to Grange Park in downtown Toronto ostensibly as a learning experience focused on Indigenous issues in Canada; specifically to learn of the Grassy Narrows First Nation's historical battle over a pulp mill that operated in the 1960s, responsible for contaminating its drinking water with carcinogenic mercury. 

Antennae should have been raised among the parents who were advised of the upcoming trip that would take their student-children to a protest. For there is no protest of any type at all these days that does not attract the attention and opportunistic presence of 'pro-Palestinian' groups. All the more so when the focus of a protest is environment or Indigenous peoples where invariably 'colonialism' and 'human rights' are entangled; an absolutely perfect environment for Palestinian grievances and victimhood.

 

According to screenshots of emails posted to social media, parents were informed their children would be merely observing, not taking part in the protest. The organizers of the field trip, however, had different priorities and had planned and executed an event where the students were props on the one hand, and recipients of a 'pro-Palestinian' 'educational' opportunity to be exposed to that very special 'truth' of Israel as a destroyer of Palestinian dreams of nationhood, intending to execute a genocide on Arab Palestinians.

 

 

And so, the students marched among other people committed to championing Palestinian terrorism and Israeli slander, urging the students to shout out anti-Israel slogans like "from Turtle Island to Palestine, occupation is a crime". In one malicious statement, slurring both Canada as a settler-colonial entity that robbed Canada's aboriginal populations of their ancestral heritage -- and Israel as a settler-colonial entity that has taken land Arab Palestinians earmarked for their future state. Despite the land that both Israel and the Palestinians claim is in actual fact, ancient ancestral Judean geography.

Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies characterized the event as an "egregious violation of parental trust" over which they "expressed outrage" for "the harm caused to students". For one thing before setting out on the jaunt at the protest students were told to wear blue shirts which would identify them as 'settlers'. Blue, of course, is the colour of the Israeli flag. The students were made complicit without their realization, of identifying themselves as colonizers, stealers of land. A child who expressed discomfort over the situation was told by her teacher that she would "get used to it".

 

 

The schoolchildren marched along while a chant of "From Turtle Island to Palestine, occupation is a crime" repeatedly rang out, the students encouraged to chant along. Students held political signs. Some brought home with them stickers reading "Zionism kills". To which, when outrage was expressed through social media and contact with the school board, the board responded with its boilerplate statement: 

"This excursion was organized as an educational experience for students to hear from Indigenous voices about the ongoing challenges faced by the people of Grassy Narrows."

"[The Board apologizes for the harm] some students may have experienced [as a result of the event]"

"[An investigation was launched and the TDSB will review] field trip and relevant procedures with our staff and reiterate our expectations."

Toronto and District School Board