Infiltration of Malign Propagandists at Ontario School Boards : Changing the Dial on Public Education

"We have some boards that are working very well -- they're focused on the main mission, and there are boards where I have trustees who think that they're supposed to be writing curriculum, trustees who think that it is their job to mediate global conflicts."

"What I want trustees to do is to focus on putting the resources that we provide them ... into educating our kids. Teachers shouldn't have to be going to Dollarama to buy pencil cases or crayons for their classes, and, when boards take trips and waste money and do things that is not in their mandate, I think parents rightfully get upset."

"Teachers get even more upset, and it's time for the Ministry of Education to step up to the challenge and take its responsibility a bit more seriously."

Ontario Education Minister Paul Calandra

 

"This is not education reform, it's authoritarianism cloaked in the language of accountability, designed to deflect blame, suppress dissenting voices and tighten political control over a public education system this government has failed to adequately fund."

Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario

 

"The Toronto District School Board controversially embraced “anti-Palestinian racism” policies in 2024, a move that Jewish activists say puts the country’s largest school board on a collision course with its own antisemitism policy — and offers a case study of a broader, divisive discussion unfolding across Canada."

"'Jewish children are being victimized in our schools at unprecedented rates, and the TDSB response has been to actively work towards the exclusion of Jewish identity in schools', TDSB parent Aaron Kucharczuk told National Post. Kucharczuk is part of a growing coalition of community groups worried about the TDSB’s support for a term they say advocates removing guardrails protecting Jewish students."

"The most popular definition of anti-Palestinian racism (APR) — created by the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association (ACLA) in 2022 — defines the term as “a form of anti-Arab racism that silences, excludes, erases, stereotypes or dehumanizes Palestinians.” Examples of such discrimination include failing to acknowledge Palestinians as an indigenous group to the region and “defaming” activists with accusations of antisemitism or being “a terrorist threat/sympathizer.”

"The neighbouring Peel District School Board has used the ACLA’s precise definition, as have the Thames Valley District School Board and the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, according to documents shared with the Post."

"Claims that Jews are overreacting to or politicizing the anti-Jewish hatred could come from a lack of understanding of the definition of antisemitism itself,” Deborah Lyons, Canada's envoy on antisemitism told the Post in a written statement. “It is needed now, more than ever, given that Canadian Jews — who make up only one per cent of the population — are the target of 70 per cent of all reported religiously motivated hate crimes."

Ari David Blaff, National Post 

Rally outside of the TDSB headquarters on Yonge Street on Tuesday Sept. 24, 2024. Photo by Peter J. Thompson/National Post

 

The Minister of Education for the Province of Ontario is preparing to place school boards under supervision and require more boards to place police officers in schools in response to the mass issues of dysfunction in some school boards supervising and approving of sponsored events within schools that are clearly political and canted toward support of 'pro-Palestinian' groups who have infiltrated the school narrative and have been influential in persuading for the use of propaganda to 'inform' school children with respect to a conflict between Israel and the Hamas terrorist group, portraying the latter as freedom fighters and the former as 'oppressors' and genocidaires.

 

Social media video shows students on a field trip marching in a rally where the crowd’s chanting, “From Turtle Island to Palestine, occupation is a crime,” in Toronto on Sept. 18. Photo by @mayahoodblog /X

 

In the wake of warnings issued by the Education Ministry that boards are expected to focus on educating Ontario's children in the traditional hallmarks of civilized education revolving around literacy, science, nature, numeracy and history, the pushback by the boards and teachers' federations has impelled the Minister of Education to spell out in no uncertain terms that what currently prevails in Ontario schools is beyond the purview of the boards in their failure to promote learning, rather than propaganda.

 

In April it was announced that the province had appointed a supervisor over one school board with respect to financial "mismanagement", with an investigation launched of three others, actions that effectively served to place on boards "on notice". In one board four trustees spent $190,000 on an 'art buying' trip to Italy on the public dime. The reaction of the Ontario Public School Boards' Association was that appropriate processes must be in place to address inappropriate board activity, but that it was underfunding that was the culprit. 

"It would be helpful if these conversations included a discussion about the funding necessary to support students in Ontario in 2025-26. Let us be clear: the real issue here is that the system is under financial strain. We're always willing to engage in conversations about accountability." 

The proposed legislation would give the minister power to direct school boards to publicly post trustee, director of education and others' expenses publicly. The province would require school boards to implement a program for school resource officers if one was offered by local police services. Such programs are present on a voluntary basis at some school boards; others ended their programs when some students reported feelings of discomfort or intimidation, and some racialized communities raised their concerns.

 

According to the Ontario Human Rights Commission, police presence and surveillance within schools made a disproportionate impact on Indigenous, Black and other racialized students: "Police in schools may subject Black and other racialized children, and particularly Black boys, to a higher level of surveillance that could ultimately significantly impact their mental health and education". Or, conversely, their presence could convince those that 'act out' to modify their behaviour to more accurately reflect civilized manners.

 

Citing increasing interest among “community voices,” Toronto District School Board trustees voted in June to enshrine anti-Palestinian racism within its broader anti-discrimination strategy. Photo by Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press/File 

"We've seen specifically in the city of Toronto, in the Toronto District School Board, they have wasted thousands of dollars trying to ascertain whether they should change the name of three schools, whereas at the exact same time they're telling me that they have to maybe close school pools down or they have to fire teachers."

"I firmly believe that having school resource officers in the classroom is extraordinarily important."

"I disagree with those who suggest that it's not ... I think it builds not only safety and security in a school, but also mutual respect."

Ontario Minister of Education 

DEI Permanently Inscribed at the Toronto District School Board

"The introduction of a mandatory certification on equity, diversity and anti-racism for all K-12 teachers in Ontario would ensure that teachers are better equipped to support racialized students and educators effectively"

"Ongoing professional development on equity and diversity will help ensure teachers are equipped with current best practices to further an inclusive classroom."

Toronto District School Board (TDSB) motion 

The school board of Canada's largest city has distinguished itself as representing the most passionate among all school boards in Canadian cities for permanently installing a life-and-values system in the education of the city's students that exemplifies the last word in commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion policies. And despite a loud blowback from parent groups and the outraged opposition to this commitment by many factions within the city the TDSB feels it has not sufficiently entrenched its program, to the effect that a committee within the board voted to forward a request to the provincial government making DEI certification mandatory for educators.

 

Academic performance among students in the TDSB has deteriorated at an alarming rate of late under a curriculum that has been socially politicized; basic education has been eviscerated in favour of focusing on woke values that have nothing whatever to do with delivering and acquiring an education preparatory to producing the next generation of intelligent, civil and engaged adults to enter the workforce as responsible members of society.

This, even as society is moving steadily away from the always-controversial Critical Race Theory, 'woke' agenda that has become the signature of the progressive left, sponsored in part by the federal government under Justin Trudeau's Liberals, trickling down to lower-scale governments, unions, academia, corporate interests, driven by a liberal-left that has demonized and scorned antediluvian attitudes expressed in rejection of transmania, light sentencing of criminality, 'safe' injection sites, assisted suicide -- all dressed in the mantle of a kindler, gentler society. 

A kinder, gentler society where by sheer coincidence, Canadian Jews have been aggressively hounded, threatened and isolated in consequence of a drive by Canadian Muslim groups aided and funded by foreign interests to mount virulent anti-Israel campaigns seeking to delegitimize and demonize a nation fighting back against Islamist Palestinian terrorist attacks threatening to destroy the tiny Jewish state in an orgy of rape, murder and abductions, portrayed through a Jew-hating campaign as aggressors of victimized Palestinians.

The TDSB found merit in allying itself with these groups, just as labour unions and university boards, teaching staff and students have been persuaded by Islamist Jew-haters among them to harass and threaten Jewish members of their organizations. At a time when the general public has become sufficiently fed up with loud and threatening demonstrations by 'activist' groups, a majority of Canadians responding to polls reject and oppose diversity quotas as divisive, hostile and bullying.

Private companies and public institutions alike are moving away from hiring quotas and support of divisive activist groups promoting DEI ideals. Influential large corporations like Walmart, McDonald's, Ford and Meta are among major companies reversing their own DEI programs. Yet there is the TDSB proposing and asking the province to make it mandatory for teachers to undergo DEI certification before entering a classroom, and to ensure that this becomes standard throughout the province.

 

The Toronto District School Board’s head office on Yonge Street in Toronto, Ont. on Jan. 15. Gabe Oatley/TorontoToday

The decision to remove auditions and applications based on merit and use random selection to specialized art, music, math, science and sport programs at the TDSB came as a result of anti-black racism and equity initiatives.

Through the board’s Centre of Excellence — which was added in 2021-22 at a cost of $2.3-million a year — specialized camps, basketball programs and mentorships have been offered to black students only.

These anti-racism initiatives saw the removal of student resources officers — specialized cops — in the board’s schools and eliminated consequences for bad behaviour, most specifically suspensions and expulsions.

As a result, some TDSB schools have become war zones.

Sue-Ann Levy, True North

 

Virulently Racist Palestinians Accuse Jews of Anti-Palestinian Racism

"Antisemitism has been a huge problem at the Toronto District School Board [TDSB]. Their own data says that last fall incidents of antisemitism tripled."

"The only definition of anti-Palestinian racism that I've seen, and it's one that is frequently cited among advocates, says denying the Nakba or trying to silence or exclude Palestinian narratives, is a form of anti-Palestinian racism."

"Adopting this definition of anti-Palestinian racism also means you're going to have to adopt Nakba Day because any resistance to the idea that it should be taught in schools is racist; is a form [purportedly] of anti-Palestinian racism. So they are linked in that way."

"If anything, there's lots of data to support lots of anti-Israeli sentiment in schools, and not really data to support anti-Palestinian sentiment in schools."

Aaron Kucharczuk, Jewish parent of TDSB students

Some parents want to see the addition of anti-Palestinian racism to the board's equity policy and an assurance that students or staff won't be punished for supporting Palestinian human rights.  (Martin Trainor/CBC)

"Jewish children have been clearly targeted in TDSB schools and the national hate crime data makes it very clear that Jews are the most religiously targeted group in Canada."

"CAEF [Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation] strongly urges you to send this report back to staff with an eye to addressing issues of antisemitism and anti-Israeli racism in our schools."

"Do not ignore the issues at hand; do not adopt an anti-Jew bias; do not fail to consider  how this bias played out just 75 years ago in Europe."

Andria Spindel, executive director, Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation

Palestinians' beloved state of victimhood centres around what they term the Nakba; in essence the creation of the modern State of Israel, born out of the ashes of the diaspora nightmare of the Holocaust when the ashes of incinerated Jews lifted from the chimneys of the ovens installed at the death camps that Nazi Germany built in Europe to contain Jews for slave labour, medical experimentation, and the killing machines that exterminated six million of Europe's Jews. 

Under the 1947 United Nations' Partition Plan offered to Jews and to Palestinians, Jews were happy to have the world's permission to re-establish a Jewish State on a small portion of their ancestral heritage geography, prepared to live alongside a Palestinian state. Those identifying themselves as Arab Palestinians were not prepared to live alongside a Jewish state, preferring instead to wait the few weeks it would take for a combined Arab army to destroy the nascent Israel of 1948.

That tiny Israel, assembling a core battle group of self-preservation, ill-equipped and -trained as they were, still managed to prevail, preventing its annihilation and with it the lives of Israel's Jews taught the world that Jews could and would protect themselves from another Holocaust-in-the-making. A triumph of preservation for Jews and Israel, a 'disaster' for Arab Palestinians. Anyone celebrating the Nakba as an event worth recognizing, by that recognition automatically mourns the creation of Israel, considering it 'illegitimate'; in effect approving of the 'resistance' call: 'From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free'. A call for Israel's destruction.

The Toronto District School Board appears to have recognized the merit of recognition of 'anti-Palestinian racism' that activists insist be included in the anti-racism strategy of the district. It has its counterpart in Ontario's Education Ministry recently reaffirming a need, reflecting the rising tide of antisemitism -- fuelled mostly by the Palestinians in Canada and their supporters -- to formally include the history of the Holocaust in the curriculum. One, a horrific event in world history, the other a plaintive fiction of deprivation.

The strategy released by the TDSB under Combating Hate and Racism: Student Learning Strategy Update 2024, featured the term 'anti-Palestinian racism'. And what might that conceivably be, a bemused audience might ask. Try this on for size: denying the actuality of the 'disaster' that befell Arab Palestinians when -- although they were offered equal opportunity to establish a state of their own and they curled their collective lips in disdain -- Israel established itself as a reborn homeland for the world's Jews.

A vote must yet take place to adopt the resolution to adopt the term 'anti-Palestinian racism' as a portion of the strategy at the Board against hate and racism. Palestinians view the acceptance of Israel as a major symptom of hateful racism against themselves. Any who recognize the utter absurdity of the proposal are ipso facto racists. Criticism of Arabs taking onto themselves the mantle of 'Palestinians' when historically the identification was that accrued to Jews during the Roman era, and questioning Arab claims to ancestral Judaic lands represents the philosophical crime of 'racism'.

 

Along with the Toronto District School Board, neighbouring Peel District School Board decided to commemorate the Nakba as a significant date on the board's calendar. A TDSB school, Faywood Arts-Based Curriculum School, was the venue of a Jewish student subjected to vicious harassment from immigrant Arab/Palestinian students, leading to hundreds of neighbouring adults escorting the child to class in a show of support against bullying threats, as a symbol of rejection of actual racist antisemitism. 

 

The young student had been intimidated and threatened that his persecutors would "do to him what Hamas did to Israel. We need to kill you all, and you need to bow down to us". Students at the school took part in anti-Israel walkouts, chanting "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free". Teachers observed the events, doing nothing to apprehend their repetition. Thousands of parents signed an open letter demanding the TDSB "be held accountable for ensuring the safety and well-being of all students in their care".  

The atmosphere prevailing was decidedly antisemitic, with handouts in classrooms advocating for the sanctioning of Israel. Classrooms were decorated with Palestinian scarves. Jewish students within the Board represent 3.5 percent of the student population, while incidents of antisemitism comprise 15 percent of total incidents. "It makes me feel like the TDSB has no interest in keeping my kids safe", said Aaron Kucharczuk, a parent of students attending the Board's schools, where every day's events bring yet another level of uncertainty and apprehension within the Jewish community.

Antisemitic incidents comprise 15 per cent of total incidents within the TDSB despite Jewish students making up just 3.5 percent. Photo by Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press/File

 

Bullying, Threatening Jewish Children in Toronto

"They told him, we need to kill you.They started shoving and kicking him. And he was really vulnerable and by himself in that situation. The vice-principal who was outside in the playground, she was standing probably far away, so she couldn't hear what was transpiring, but when it started to become physical, she went to defuse the situation."

"And when my son told her, 'Can I please share with you what happened? [she told him 'I don't have time for this'."

"We were at a bit of [a] loss, but that same evening, a parent knocked on our door saying, 'I've heard so-and-so happened from my child. I want to just make sure that  you're all OK'."

"They [the Faywood Arts-Based Curriculum School, North York, Toronto] need to do something. They're doing literally nothing. They say they're doing stuff but nobody knows what they're doing."

Adi Cohen, mother of four school-age children, Israeli doctor in Canada on fellowship

A community support walk was held earlier this week to allow the bullied boy to walk safely to school. Photo by Larry Maher

A visiting Israeli family of two parents, both doctors working temporarily in Toronto in the medical profession is unimpressed with the Toronto District School Board having taken no discernible action relating to the ongoing, serious and threatening antisemitism their two oldest children, in Grades 8 and 5 are experiencing. Their two other children, in Grade 3 and senior kindergarten have not yet suffered any of these worrisome indignities.

 

Repeated bullying suffered by the two older children predates the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, but since then the confrontations have escalated. Death threats have been uttered against both children. Three police reports were filed by the family, owing to the school's inaction in creating a safe environment for their Jewish students. Incidents serious enough to alarm other members of the community some of whose children had experienced similar bullying.

Their concerns resulted in a "community support walk" that took place one Friday morning a few days back, a symbolic move that sent a message that all is not well. There was one incident when the second oldest child in the Cohen family was accosted while his older brother was elsewhere. A group of students uttered death threats mocking that his older brother wasn't available to protect him. After the incident the older brother approached the group and a physical altercation ensued.

 

Hundreds of community members gathered to walk Eitan Cohen, 13, to his school – Faywood Arts-Based Curriculum School – in North York to ensure the Jewish boy didn't get bullied on Friday, May 17, 2024. Supplied

The Cohen parents went to the school to speak with the vice-principal and principal the following day when an investigation was launched concluding that "comments were made on both sides". When the school administration was pressed for details, Adi Cohen was informed her son had told the group to "go back to their homeland"; a clue that the group was comprised of Muslim youth. Her son, however denied that statement, correcting it that he had really said, "go to your room lunch".

"He has a pretty heavy [Israeli] accent. and they took the aggressors' words for what happened without even asking and the aggressors denied everything that happened." Following another meeting with parents and representatives of the school board the investigation was reopened. She was informed by another principal the second investigation found the incidents occurred just as her son described, yet she was left with no impression that the other students faced any consequences, as a result of privacy laws.

Citing another incident, the older boy was bullied on video that was shared on social media, where a substitute teacher failed to intervene. Her son felt provoked to action and attempted to snatch the phone from another student. "The school is doing nothing, the teacher was doing nothing, they just let it happen. At some point, he got so frustrated, he tried to physically take the phone away and then they wanted to suspend him for violence", she explained.

In yet another incident sticks, stones and a water bottle were thrown at her son as he walked to school. The boy has been warned by other students that they would "do to him what Hamas did to Israel". A WhatsApp community group organized a day of support walk for the two boys, sending out a flyer to garner support, reading: "Our community must act. If school can't keep our kids safe, we will." The flyer also read: "No megaphones, no flags, this is about our children's safety".

The visiting Israeli mother's activism inspired other families of other students at the school who are "terrified" to thank her for speaking out publicly and bringing attention to the situation where Muslim students are preying on Jewish students in a situation where those in authority appear to be sitting on their hands and ostensibly waiting for things to calm down; in the process of doing nothing, signalling that the threats and bullying can continue without disciplinary action being taken.

 

In Toronto, community members come to walk a boy to school whose family says he has faced ongoing antisemitic bullying, May 17, 2024.

"I do believe that he feels that he's not alone. And it gives him the courage and the strength to keep on standing up for himself and for others. [The walk, and support offered by other families is] very helpful."

"I just need this to stop. I need to know that my son is going to school and that he's safe and that he's been taken care of."

"And that I won't get a phone call from the hospital saying something has happened."

 

Mutual Respect, Tolerance, Quality Education Merit-Based

"The suicide of former school principal Richard Bilkszto is an appalling tragedy and a warning that unless we stand up to woke, moralizing, antagonistic bullies who seek to shame Canadians then we are all complicit in such deaths."

"It is regrettable that the majority of sensible, pragmatic and well-meaning people in this country have been cowed into silence by the vocal, angry, shrill hectoring of ideologues who preach nothing but destruction: destruction of institutions, society, history and people."

"All in the name of what? What vision do they offer? What better world do they proclaim? What glorious future awaits us once our guilt has been cleansed, our penance done? Except for the woke lecturers, our guilt can never be forgiven, our repentance never done and our remorse never enough."

"Stand up to these people and you will be shamed, singled out and bullied. It happened to Richard Bilkszto, and if you take a stand it will almost certainly happen to you. Be aware of that and be prepared. Because the alternative to not taking a stand is terrifying and is already happening. We have become a nation where good people are afraid to speak their mind; where silence is chosen when colleagues are savagely abused by these hostile fanatics, and where people avert their gaze so they do not have to see what is happening before their very eyes."

"What happened to Richard Bilkszto is a stain on the conscience of this nation."

National Post Editorial 

Powerful coalition this morning calling for increased supports and resources for equity and anti-racism in #OntEd and denouncing the racist attacks on ⁦Kojo Institute  James Campbell/Twitter⁩

 

"Richard Bilkszto was a great man. He contributed so much to the fight for quality education, for fairness and a better school system, and we are all so much poorer for his loss."

"Our heart goes out to his family, friends and the thousands of students and colleagues he knew, and loved, and who loved him in return."

SOS Toronto District School Board

"Our hearts go out to Richard's family and loved ones."

"He was a strong advocate for students -- particularly those in adult and alternative education, and worked tirelessly to create an environment that fostered student success for students of all ages."

Ryan Bird, spokesman, Toronto District School Board

"We are saddened to learn of the passing of the late Richard Bilkszto, a lifelong educator and former principal with the TDSB."

"We send our deepest condolences to those who knew and loved him, and share in mourning his loss."

Grace Lee, spokeswoman, Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce

The anti-racism trainer who stands accused of denigrating Toronto principal Richard Bilkszto, at a sensitivity training session contracted for by the Toronto and District School Board, and made mandatory for attendance of all its employees, claims to welcome a review that the provincial education minister has launched. The allegations against her, she says are false and totally mischaracterize what had occurred during two training sessions, when Kike Ojo-Thompson, founder and CEO of a diversity consultancy group insulted and humiliated an experienced principal who had taught in classrooms in the U.S. and Canada throughout his long career in education.

This was a man who was also dedicated as a committed advocate against racism as a member of the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR), an organization dedicated to civil rights and anti-discrimination and had in fact been involved in establishing a Toronto chapter. He was also a member of SOS TDSB, an organization that works to preserve the merit-based admissions systems for specialty programs (which deplores a recently instituted a student admission lottery system).

"Richard's passing serves as a sobering reminder of the importance of community and supporting those around us who are courageous enough to stand firm in their beliefs", a statement from FAIR elucidated after news of the suicide of this man who dedicated his professional life to furthering education for students. Richard Bilkszto had gone into a deep depression after suffering the indignity of being charged as a "white racist" by Kike Ojo-Thompson during a mandated sensitivity training session, when he challenged her assertion that Canada is a racist country.

"You, in your whiteness presume to correct me on racism?" she said witheringly to him in front of his colleagues. No one present came to his defense, although another trainer from the KOJO Institute lectured him that the session was not a place to be an apologist for either the U.S. or Canada in their institutionalized racism. But it was Ojo-Thompson's "We are here to talk about anti-Black racism, but you in your whiteness think that you can tell me what's really going on for Black people?" that devastated Mr. Bilkszto. As well as another scathing put-down in a follow-up session by Ojo-Thompson.

A superintendent from the TDSB in attendance, congratulated Ms. Ojo-Thomson on her handling of the situation, saying that discomfitting and facing up to the racism in all white people is a necessary prelude to instilling full understanding in them of their white superiority imposed upon Blacks. Richard Bilkszto was completely shattered by the treatment meted out to him, a man who had dedicated himself to ensuring superior education to students, who himself was deeply involved in anti-racism.

Ms. Ojo-Thompson, whose overbearing superiority and maliciously false accusations haven't deterred her organization from obtaining richly-remunerating contracts from governments, school boards, private industry and elite corporations all invested in demonstrating good citizenship by committing to the new mantra of 'diversity, equity and inclusion' issued a statement extending condolences to the Bilkszto family. His death, she averred, was weaponized to discredit and suppress diversity, equity and inclusion work.

"While the coverage by right-wing media of this controversy is disappointing and led to our organization and team members receiving threats and vitriol online, we will not be deterred from our work in building a better society for everyone", she wrote. Her better society is to be built on the wreckage of any society that is  historically 'white', whose heritage, history and culture and social structure must be destroyed before her 'better society' can rise to the full grandeur of its reversal denoting Black supremacy and white deference.

Parents of Black Children (PoBC), which says CRT (Critical Race Theory) is one of its core principles, advocates against the presence of police liaisons in schools and for “decolonized” curricula, the inserting of “Black Canadian experiences” into math and for all academic streaming to be abolished.

Wokeness, Racism and Anti-Semitism : Toronto District School Board

TDSB Trustee Alexandra Lulka. Photo by TDSB

"[The materials were] virulently anti-Israel and even anti-Semetic [and justified] suicide bombings and other forms of terrorism [against Jews]."

"I was outraged to discover that some of this material justifies suicide bombings and other forms of terrorism."

"This is reprehensible. These materials were provided by an employee from the TDSB equity department, the very department that should be countering anti-Semitism and violence, not fanning the flames."

"I made the statement after hearing concerns from constituents who felt traumatized by the incident. Given the concern over this incident, it is reasonable that a public statement be issued by an elected representative."

"I believe that to be within the scope of my responsibilities as a Trustee."

Toronto School Board Trustee Alexandra Lulka

"[Links included in the material] support the use of violence and terrorism against Israeli Jews; specifically, including a link to the website of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine [a group that is currently on Canada's Listed Terrorist Entities], documentary and resources about Leila Khaled who was involved in plane hijackings, and an interview with Ghassan Kanafani, who was involved in violent actions against civilians."

Toronto District School Board Human Rights Office

A Toronto District School Board logo is seen on a sign in front of a high school in Toronto. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn

The issue of which the TDSB Trustee speaks is that of two teaching manuals focusing on the Middle East, produced with the ostensible purpose of aiding teachers in discussions relating to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians in a classroom setting. The manuals had been circulated through an opt-in mailout. When the trustee was contacted by some parents in the school system to express their consternation over the material included in the manuals, she spoke of her condemnation of the material.

The school board's human rights office was brought into the controversy that followed, to investigate the matter and they concluded that links within the material were indeed as Trustee Lulka described them; anti-Semetic and excitation to 'justifiable' violence in support of the Palestinian 'cause' against a purportedly oppressive Israel squatting on Palestinian land.

The material included a statement that Palestinians "have been legitimately resisting racism, colonization and genocide since the 1920s to the present day by any means necessary: general strikes, demonstrations, armed struggle, and martyrdom operations called 'suicide bombing' by Zionists". Slanderous incitements to anti-Semitism and violence, in other words; raw, repellent and slanderous, canted toward isolating and defaming Jews.

The Jewish students and their families who would be exposed to this alternate version of history and irreconcilable hostility, rage, victimhood storytelling, vicious contortions of reality to suit a Palestinian narrative of justification for never-ending attacks on Jews and Israelis had good reason to complain that the Toronto and District School Board was hosting anti-Semetic diatribes reflecting an agenda of deliberate delegitimization of a democratic, legal state, and placing Jews in Canada in danger.

Prior to this incident, a scheduled invitation to Nadia Murad -- a Yazidi woman who escaped sex slavery under the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and told her horrendous story across the world of the atrocities committed by the Islamist-deranged ISIL against her people in mass murder, rape, recruiting of children for military training and assaults and sex-enslavement of women and girls -- had been cancelled.. The board saw fit to cancel that speaking engagement by the Nobel Laureate in the fear that her story would arouse sentiments of Islamophobia.

For bringing the situation to the attention of the public, Trustee Lulka was placed under a probe by the board; her behaviour brought to a vote on whether to condemn and censure her. An equity adviser, Javier Davila, had prepared the manuals in question. Davila included links to information about anti-Semitism and critical dialogue on Israel and Zionism, along with Canada's role in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Resources were included directing readers to Palestinian writers and academics.

The school board has not seen fit to explain why it is in a Canadian school curriculum meant to teach reading, writing, arithmetic, history, geography, science it would be seen as critical to a child's development and reasoning skills to be exposed to an ongoing violent dispute taking place in a far-off region, featuring Palestinians and Israeli Jews. According to the board investigation by Integrity Commissioner Suzanne Craig, the manuals had not been approved by anyone at the school board.

Davila, the author of the manuals in question, now claims himself to be a victim of "harassing and hateful messages" following the publication of Trustee Lulka's statement in describing the manuals. A campaign was underway, he complained, to have his Ontario College of Teachers licence revoked. He was temporarily suspended following the distribution of the manuals, but soon after reinstated.

When, subsequently the school board's Human Rights Office looked into the manual's materials, they found links that "could be reasonably considered to contain anti-Semitic materials and seen to be contributing to anti-Semitism". The recommended resources in the manual dismissed the historical connection between Jews and the land of Israel; they lump all Israelis together, claiming "martyrdom operations" represent a legitimate means of resistance.

Even so, the investigation found that the statement made on Twitter by the trustee violated the TDSB's Board Member Code of Conduct, falling into the definition of discrimination. That's right: a complaint about blatant discrimination represented discrimination in and of itself. The finding was that the original statement by Trustee Lulka perpetuated negative stereotypes about Palestinians and Muslims "when it stated that the materials which included Palestinian voices and perspectives 'justify suicide bombings and other forms of terrorism', equating a Palestinian perspective as one that would 'justify suicide bombings and other forms of terrorism'."

This, despite that the manuals included materials themselves that did just that; justified martyrdom assaults as noble acts of 'resistance' against the 'illegal occupation' of Palestinian land, upon which Israel sits. The conclusion of the investigation stated that Ms.Lulka be censured as "a strong condemnation of an action or statement of a Trustee who has been found to have breached the Code".

 

Toronto District School Board (TDSB) sign on the headquarters building in Toronto. JHVE Photo/Shutterstock

"This outrageous process is just the latest manifestation of the institutional anti-Semitism afflicting the TDSB, Not only is the investigation and its findings unjust, but it’s ridiculous that the person who calls out a transgression is being punished, but the person responsible for the transgression was not."

:It is critical for TDSB to continue to address discrimination in all its forms, but that must include anti-Semitism, which sadly has not received the same attention as other forms of hate."

"We call for the development of a comprehensive action plan on anti-Semitism that will value the voices of Jewish staff, students and families in the TDSB community—action that is long overdue."

Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, director of policy, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center