TDSB Betrays the Trust of Parents
...And can't resist indoctrinating children
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There were some parents who opted out of allowing their children to participate in a Toronto District School Board (TDSB) sanctioned field trip to observe (not participate) in a public protest. Parents were informed that the event at Grange Park in Toronto involved the Grassy Narrows First Nation’s decades-long struggle with mercury contamination caused by industry. However, they should have taken this proposed field trip as a major red flag. Indeed, according to Spadina-Fort York MP Kevin Vuong, “What the TDSB teachers did was deceitful and unconscionable.”
When I was a kid, my school never attended a protest. And before last Wednesday, I’ve never heard of any school ever planning such an inappropriate field trip – that ended up being used by the ultra-woke TDSB as an excuse to indoctrinate children into social justice activism (which entails the labelling of all white/Jewish children as racists, colonizers, and settlers on stolen land). How many TDSB parents were even aware of what they were signing up for? It appears that many knew of the general shape of things – which had something to do with Grassy Narrows and mercury poisoning – but no parent could have known about the anti-Israel / anti-Semitic component (a mainstay of social justice), which appeared to be the focal point, eclipsing anything to do with Canadian First Nations.
Indeed, the email from the TDSB explained that the protest event was an “educational opportunity … to learn about Indigenous activism, environmental justice and human rights.” The red flag would have been enormous and flapping vigorously in a strong wind for those parents who are initiated into the tenets of critical social justice theory. To those parents, participation in woke activism is a hard hell no. However, many families are still oblivious, or maybe have misunderstood the intentions of the TDSB, or maybe just don’t quite get what critical social justice is. They are unaware that far too many school administrators, trustees, and teachers have decided that their priority is transforming society through a cultural revolution, not educating the young. This, of course, involves transforming children.
The letter to parents assured them that their children would not be participating in the protest. Students would be on site only to observe. However, videos have emerged on social media of middle school aged children marching alongside anti-Israel protestors. Understandably, many parents now feel betrayed. In my view, they should have seen this coming. The TDSB is literally infested with anti-Semetic black radicals and other such woke activists who follow the same identity politics playbook which entered North America through the period of violent 1960s era black radicalism. (I refer the reader to Cedric Robinson’s volume Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition. And, to Dr. Scott Miller’s essay published in these pages A Moral Chimera: Diversity, Illiberal No-White-Male Policies and the Power of the Black Radical Tradition. And lastly, if you want to see black radicals in action, read my piece, Exploring The Grievance Pathway Of Anti-Racism, on a Parents of Black Children meeting I attended).
Concerning those videos of the protest which circulated social media sparking outrage amongst parents, according to the Toronto Sun, “footage showed students marching alongside flag-waving Elementary Teachers of Toronto members, while a masked woman in a white ‘Justice for Grassy Narrows’ shirt shouted anti-Israel chants into a megaphone.”
CG Idit Shamir (Consul General @IsraelinToronto) posted the following to X (I completely agree with her sentiment):
“Shocking. 7th and 8th graders from public schools in Toronto were taken yesterday on a Toronto District School Board (TDSB) -approved field trip—not to a museum, but to march in a political protest where they chanted pro-Palestine slogans. Adults in keffiyehs and face coverings led the way, while young minds were subjected to a one-sided political narrative.
“The @tdsb has crossed a line. Children get sent to school to learn; they should NEVER be forced to participate in political protests. It’s not just that they’ve taken a side—it’s that they have utterly disregarded the rights of pro-Israel and Jewish students and staff, along with any commitment to truth and balance. This isn’t education; it’s indoctrination—it’s an affront to the very purpose of education.”
MPP Goldie Ghamari, also had a strong reaction:
“What the actual f**k is going on with @tdsb educators in Toronto?
This isn't 1944 Nazi occupied Germany.
This is 2024 in Canada.
This antisemitic behaviour is unacceptable.
If you stay silent after reading this, you're part of the problem and need to hang your head in shame.”
The Toronto Sun quoted two questionable lines that need careful examination from the TDSB’s response letter to outraged parents:
“Students should not be participating in organized protests as part of a field trip, and this clarification will be shared with the system,” the statement read. “The TDSB will also be reviewing its field trip procedures to provide guidance that upholds the safety and well-being of students.”
I implore parents not to accept this from the TDSB. The correct response should have been “Students should not be attending organized protests as part of a field trip.” And, that the review of their asinine procedures will ensure that no protest event ever again converges with a field trip in which TDSB students are involved.
It should also be noted that the response (not apology) letter from TDSB was from a TDSB spokesperson and was not signed by any trustee’s or the education director. Again, this board feels they are accountable to no one!
Twenty-two TDSB trustees were contacted by the media, but only the trustee for Ward 12, Willowdale, Dr. Weidong Pei responded and agreed to be interviewed. Greg Brady of AM640 called the other 21 Trustee’s cowards who seem to feel they are not accountable to parents and the public. Dr. Pei has been a strong advocate for parents and a desperately needed voice of reason at the TDSB. Here is an image of the non-apology:
And here is Dr. Pei’s comments concerning the TDSB as posted to X:
“Our board has issued an apology for the harm that some students may have experienced as a result of attending a political protest last week.
In my opinion, this apology needs to be followed by a thorough review of the entire situation.
Our board must be accountable for what happened to students and parents in this situation and we must put in place a policy that prevents such an incident from happening again.”
Dr. Pei, like many parents, does not feel the TDSB statement is enough. He is calling for a full investigation into what happened. Previously, Dr. Pei brought two motions to the board in which he communicated parents' wishes to leave out geo-political discussions (read social justice indoctrination) from the classroom. Not surprisingly, both motions have been voted down. Dr. Pei brings a third on October 9th. You can read about the details of the motion in an X post by Dr. Pei. (keep your eye on these pages for an update on how Dr. Pei’s third motion against indoctrinating TDSB students is received).
Yesterday, as more video and eyewitness accounts emerged, the Toronto Sun reported on a Jewish student who was asked by her teacher to “wear a blue shirt” to the protest in order “to identify her as a ‘colonizer’.” After the student “approached her teacher at the rally to express her discomfort once the anti-Israel chants began. The teacher told her, ‘You’ll get over it’.” (Ugh…sometimes this Woke Watch Canada gig makes me sick to my stomach).
Toronto City Councilor James Pasternak told the Sun, “It is very frustrating that elements of the anti-Israel mob are using their positions as educators to drive this agenda on impressionable children who know nothing about this conflict in the Middle East. Our education system must nurture young minds in a positive way and not teach them to demonize those they don’t agree with.”
Richard Robertson of B’nai Brith Canada said the TDSB has “endangered students by exposing them to potential indoctrination to a caustic situation and an atmosphere conducive to sowing division. The TDSB clearly didn’t perform proper due diligence, and compounded the failure by not reacting once it became clear the event was morphing into something other than what its organizers had advertised.”
If you don’t know about the M.O. of radical woke activists, you might think that no one at the TDSB has any common sense. But you would be wrong. The TDSB knows exactly what they are doing. For years they have fostered anti-Semitism. All the talk about providing safe and inclusive spaces for students from minority ethnic communities has never applied to Jewish students.
Dr. Scott Miller’s essay found in these pages, Fulcrum and Pivot: The New Left Remaking of Toronto School Policy, is the best place to start in order to get the full backstory on the far-left ideological subversion of the TDSB.
Also, a couple of years ago, the late Richard Bilkszto helped me develop a story about the TDSB. Richard had done the math and discovered that all the talk about equity was smoke and mirrors. In practice, what seemed (and still seems) to be taking place at the TDSB is a radical black power takeover. The piece was called The Race Essentialism of Ultra Woke Ontario Schools and it illustrated how “42% of TDSB Superintendents are Black yet 11% of TDSB Students are Black. 14% of TDSB Superintendents are Asian yet 40% of TDSB Students are Asian.”
It has never been about equity, diversity, or inclusion, it has always been about far-left radical identity politics, aka cultural Marxism. As uncomfortable as this may be for the average Canadian to accept, black radicalism is at the root of it.
In the fall of 2021, True North reported on “TDSB principals and vice-principals,” who “were left ‘shocked, angry and hurt’ at the accusations of racism and oppression levelled at those who attended a mandatory series of seminars given by ‘anti-racism’ activist Desmond Cole.” Cole was paid $16,000 for four sessions on Sept. 20 and 23 of that year. During those sessions, he claimed that Israel was an “illegal occupation of Palestine territories,” and several times repeated the mantra “Free Palestine.”
Cole is a black radical – exactly the type described by Cedric Robinson. His twisted world view, entirely consistent with critical social justice theory, is that both Israel and Canada are guilty of “theft of land” and “settler colonialism.”
Another black radical who has infiltrated the TDSB, is education director Colleen Russell-Rawlins. In 2021 she did not take responsibility for hiring the disgraceful racist Desmond Cole, and in 2024 she has thus far not taken responsibility for betraying the trust of parents by involving TDSB students in radical social justice activism, which yet again, deliberately spreads anti-Semitic hate.
Before assuming her directorship at the TDSB, Russell-Rawlins served as interim director at the then severely embattled Peel District School Board. In fact, Russell-Rawlins oversaw the black power takeover of that board. I explored this in 2021 in my two-part essay, The Peel District School Board and White Supremacy.
Russell-Rawlins’ black radicalism and reign of social justice terror at the TDSB is finally over. She is retiring from her position as education director. In a departing letter to trustees she praised their “ethical stance” at “effective governance in public education.” In the letter, she writes how her time at TDSB ended on Wednesday September 18, the day the TDSB betrayed parents. I wonder how effective those parents feel Russell-Rawlins governance has been?
Jon Kay had a good comment on this:
“Absolutely fitting that Colleen Russell-Rawlins @TDSBDirector should end her disastrous tenure as @tdsb education director amid yet another scandal. I’m guessing she’ll now be named visiting education scholar at @OISEUofT or equally lucrative sinecure”
Apparently, Ontario Education Minister Jill Dunlop is “deeply disappointed,” over the breach of trust to parents of TDSB students. This is good. So are many students and parents who rightly feel let down and betrayed by the TDSB. Minister Dunlop went on to say, “Compromising the security and safety of students is unacceptable. I expect TDSB to conduct a thorough review and to ensure accountability and clear communication with parents and students to prevent such incidents in the future.”
And on a final note, yesterday MP Kevin Vuong told the Sun, “The TDSB cannot hide behind an unsigned ‘sorry not sorry’ statement. Is anyone going to take accountability for the breach of trust? Children were put at risk. The first step to restoring trust is holding those responsible accountable for their failure. There must be consequences.”
Off with their heads.
Thanks for reading. For more from this author, read Dumb People and the Dreaded "N-word"
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James Pew writes, “When I was a kid, my school never attended a protest.” The reason is less safety than the manipulation of children into a political cause they know about from only one side, and then only superficially. The TDSB is a cover name for woke radicalism. It’s an insidious educational shell company. Its ultimate goals are to corrupt our youth and use them to dismantle western, democratic society.
This is a brilliant analysis. I'd like to add one more point. One thing I find particularly outrageous about this event is that a publicly funded school board in Canada allows students to echo the term "Turtle Island," a term which, for one thing, was not universally used by Indigenous peoples, as it is rooted in the pagan myths of only some native peoples, but a term whose intent is to erase the legitimacy of Canada by erasing our nation's name. A public school board should, without glossing over some of our nation's misdeeds, instil a degree of pride in our country. I arrived in Canada in 1968, and thought I'd landed on my feet in a pretty good place. It breaks my heart to see public schools teaching kids that Canada is better off erased.