Letter to Member of Provincial Parliament
From Canadian teacher, Igor Stravinsky
Early this week I posted three template letters created by Canadian author and retired teacher, Marjorie Gann, concerning a controversial (and racist) document called Facilitating Critical Conversations, which was being used to indoctrinate Toronto District School Board teachers into the identity politics of Critical Race Theory and Antiracism. Ontario Minister of Education, Stephen Lecce, has retracted the document. However, the removal of one document is far from enough. The woke rot runs so much deeper.
I am asking Woke Watch Canada readers to turn on the pressure and write letters to the leaders who are letting activists install divisive identity politics into Canadian schools. Canadian parents want their children educated, not indoctrinated. So please let the Trustees, MPPs, and both Stephen Lecce and Ontario Premier, Doug Ford, know that you are outraged at the woke nonsense. (Refer to Thursday’s post for more info, including example letter templates and addresses).
Today, regular Woke Watch Canada contributor, and teacher, Igor Stravinsky, shares a letter he wrote to Member of Provincial Parliament, Graham Gregor. (See below). -
Letter to Member of Provincial Parliament
By Igor Stravinsky (Teacher, commentator)
Dear MPP Graham McGregor,
I am a constituent of yours and a teacher with the Peel District School Board. Igor Stravinsky is a pseudonym I have to use because if the board found out I was reaching out to you on this subject I would face discipline and a referral to the Ontario College of Teachers discipline committee.
I want to thank Education Minister Lecce for ordering the Toronto District School Board to retract their directive "Facilitating Critical Conversations" which was sent out to board staff. Sadly, this is but a drop in the ocean of this type of material teachers are presented with on a daily basis. In fact, Critical Theory, which holds that people are to be treated according to their group identity rather than their individual character, has become the norm in school boards across Ontario. This principle has also been fully adopted by the Ontario College of Teachers and all Ontario labour unions, including teacher unions.
While a step in the right direction, retracting one document will not even put a dent in the ideological fortress that has entrenched itself into all of these institutions. I implore you to urge your government to address this issue head on. So far you have been using a tactic of appeasement with the activists who are pushing this ideology, hoping to keep a lid on the issue and avoid confronting them. I hope you now realize that strategy is failing and our institutions are starting to crumble.
Academic achievement in schools is dropping fast as expectations keep getting lowered more and more to ensure high credit accumulation and graduation rates. School tone is appalling with big spikes is violence and blatant criminal activity such as drug dealing and use right under the school administrations' noses. Nothing is done about it because the boards do not want the statistics to show escalating discipline as the schools spiral out of control. When crimes, even violent ones like stabbings, occur at school, principals are forbidden to call the police.
Your government needs to clearly establish operating principles for school boards that will lead to academic success and school safety. I urge you to direct school boards to operate on the following:
1) The foremost objective of the board must be to strive to promote student excellence in academics and all other aspects of school life such as the arts, sports, etc.
2) Academic programs shall be set up to meet the needs of all learners and match their prior learning, knowledge and skill levels.
3) All students are to be treated as individuals with the same rights and responsibilities irrespective of any of their immutable characteristics.
4)There shall be no discrimination against individuals based on group identity such as race or any other characteristic found in the Ontario Human Rights code. Everyone will be made to feel welcome and find connections to others based on our common humanity.
5) Schools shall be free of crime and violence. Discipline shall be progressive and be based on the student's behaviour and actions without regard to immutable
characteristics or group identity.
6) A diversity of religious and ideological views shall be accepted and supported, but none will be presented as endorsed, correct or superior to others. Respectful dialogue and debate shall be encouraged. Expressions of hatred in any form shall be prohibited.
7) Discussions of sexuality and gender identity must take place at an appropriate age. Student expressions of their gender identity should be accepted but neither immediately affirmed nor refuted. The message should be that they are young and their identity will evolve in numerous ways and it is okay to be unsure.
8) Schools should not be promoting gender transition. This is a decision to be made by the child and his or her parents with the support of medical, child welfare, and other professionals. The role of the schools should be to facilitate connections to those professionals. Decisions made by the student and parents after such consultations shall be supported by the school.
I hope I have given you something to think about. Thanks for taking the time to read this,
-Igor Stravinsky
___
Thanks for reading. For more from this author, read Is Doug Ford’s PC Government Finally Standing Up to Woke Lies?
BREAKING NEWS: James Pew has contributed a chapter to the new book Grave Error: How The Media Misled us (And the Truth about Residential Schools). You can read about it here - The Rise of Independent Canadian Researchers
Also, for more evidence of the ideological indoctrination in Canadian education, read Yes, schools are indoctrinating kids! And also, Yes, The University is an Indoctrination Camp!
There are now two ways to support Woke Watch Canada through donations:
1) By subscribing to the paid version of the Woke Watch Canada Newsletter for - $7 Cdn/month or $70 Cdn/year
2) By making a contribution to the Investigating Wokeism In Canada Initiative, which raises the funds necessary to maintain and expand Woke Watch Canada’s research and investigation into Dysfunctional Canadian School Boards, Education, Indigenous Issues, Free Speech, and other areas of Illiberal Subversion and the Canadian Culture Wars.
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Good letter BUT stop beating around the bush and just tell Lecce bluntly " They are going after Whites only, they want to insult and abuse our children in the worst ways possible. Time to ask ourselves why we are allowing these people in from countries still living as in the middle ages to come here and hold teaching positions as well as standing on OUR streets yelling insults at us and our lifestyle. Given what is going on perhaps we need to tell our children not to take this and to stand up for themselves and their rights, throw a few insults back at these stupid ignorant idiots. Perhaps it is time we as white Canadians attend these hateful rallies in great masses and shout back at them lets return a few truthful slogans such as if you can not integrate here and think it is so bad go back the the country you came from. Lets face it every Canadian is asking themselves why if you love your country so much and want to live a restricted life just jump on a plane and leave, watch the door does not hit you in your ass as you go.
I have sent the following letter to the OCDSB, with cc to all Trustees and Lecce:
Dear Director Buffone,
It has recently come to my attention that the Toronto District School Board
(TDSB) issued (and was then obligated to retract) a teacher-training
document titled *Facilitating Critical Conversations*, circulated by its
Equity, Anti-Racism and Anti-Oppression Division.
Although this document is Copyright TDSB 2024, and was presumably a
semi-private document meant for internal use only, it is now available in
various public fora. You can see it here:
Read the Toronto District School Board’s “Challenging Oppression” guide for
yourself—and our critique - Aristotle Foundation
<https://aristotlefoundation.org/reality-check/read-the-toronto-district-school-boards-challenging-oppression-guide-for-yourself-and-our-critique/>
It is disappointing, to say the least, to see an institution like the TDSB
trafficking in such conspiratorial and radically ideological training
material. For examples of the radical nature of this document, consider the
following extracts from the opening Core Beliefs page of the document:
- Schooling in North America is inherently designed for the benefit of
the dominant culture (i.e., white, middle-upper class, male, Christian,
*cisgender*, heterosexual, able-bodied, *neurotypical*, etc.).
- Education is a *colonial* structure that *centres whiteness* and
*Eurocentricity* and therefore it must be actively *decolonized*.
- *Race matters* - it is a visible and dominant identity factor in
determining peoples’ social, political, economic, and cultural experiences.
- *White Supremacy* is a structural reality that impacts all students
and must be discussed and *dismantled* in classrooms, schools, and
communities.
The document is replete with revolutionary language. I have underlined some
of the ideological neologisms in these Core Beliefs that are sourced from
theories of Critical Social Justice.
While it is readily possible to refute the assertions made in these
examples and the document overall, for the sake of brevity I will refrain
from doing so here. Refutations are available by various authors including
those at The Aristotle Foundation link above. What is clear is that this
document is ideologically driven, socially divisive, and explicitly
revolutionary in intent.
Can you please confirm that the OCDSB has not used, and will not use,
similar documents, based on the same ideologically driven agenda, for
employee training?
Thank you. I await your reply.
Respectfully,