The Ontario College of Teachers Issues an Advisory to Members on Addressing Hate and Discrimination

But what those terms mean to the OTC is not what you might think

Ontario College of Teachers via True North

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By Igor Stravinsky (Teacher, commentator)

The Professional Advisory Addressing Hate and Discrimination (included below) which teachers found in their email inboxes recently is chock full of all the usual identity-based jargon we have become accustomed to in the past few years. There are sections on “diversity”, “equity”, and “inclusion”, of course, along with “oppression”, “intersectionality”, and, laughably, “microaggressions”.

Oct Advisory Hate Discrimination

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The OCT definitions and examples of these things are consistent with what has been coming from the Ministry of Education, School Boards, and Teacher Unions for years. It’s all about group identity-based “positionality” on an imagined hierarchy of privilege. This is all old news at this point and few regular teachers take it seriously. Keep your head down. Every day is a minefield to be navigated lest you trigger someone by saying the wrong thing. If you do, apologize profusely and confess your ignorance and privilege.

It is an advisory supposedly addressing hate and discrimination. But what are those things, according to the OCT?

Hate

The dictionary definition of hatred is “intense dislike or ill will”. It would be a fairly simple matter to identify hate speech based on this definition, for example saying

• Black people are obnoxious

• Gay people are disgusting perverts

• Muslims are terrorists

• Etc.

But of course, if we were living in a common sense-based society, we would not need an OCT advisory on hate. It is precisely because the looney lefties who have taken over our institutions want to control speech that the definition of hate, like so many other things, has been repurposed.

The Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC), which is based on our Canadian Constitution (Article 15), says hatred is “expressions of bias, prejudice, and bigotry” toward “stigmatized and marginalized groups in communities”, when it’s “intended to affirm and secure existing structures of domination and subordination”. Thus, it is okay to express feelings of intense dislike or ill will as long as it is directed at the right people, namely people who are members of groups which are deemed not stigmatized and marginalized. They are fair targets for expressions of bias, prejudice, and bigotry. This, for all intents and purposes, means straight White people, especially males, and since Jews are regarded as white (which is absurd) and (since they are doing well for themselves) not marginalized, they too are acceptable targets.

Then there are the alleged “structures of domination and subordination”. Sounds sinister! But what are these structures, exactly? The advisory is mute on this point. It is easy to imagine such structures: There could be laws prohibiting people who are members of certain “marginalized” groups from voting, or owning property. Perhaps these structures are of a more subtle nature, for example making it so difficult for members of some groups to take advantage of opportunities that few of them will do so.

I, personally, am not aware of any such structures, though. I would welcome any information about them. I would be the first to oppose such things. The fact that no one has been able to provide any examples— not the government, not School Boards, not my Union, not even individual colleagues, makes me suspect that these structures don’t actually exist. If you ask about that, you will be pointed to statistics of disparate group outcomes (lower graduation rates for Blacks, for example). But if you point out that differing outcomes could be the result of many things and there is no convincing evidence that racism is the main factor, you risk being called “racist” and shunned. This can be a career damaging situation as you can forget about any kind of promotion or even a lateral move to another school as you will be effectively blacklisted and may even face discipline from your employer and the OCT.

Discrimination

Discrimination simply means “recognition and understanding of the difference between one thing and another”, but this definition has fallen to number two on some dictionary lists because the word is used so frequently to mean unjust discrimination between human beings based on stereotypes. Thus, the OHRC, rather than defining it, has described it as being characterized as follows: Discrimination has occurred if

1. An individual has a personal characteristic that is protected under the Code, such as race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, family status or disability.

2. The individual has experienced an adverse impact within a social area protected by the Code.

3. The protected characteristic was a factor in the adverse impact.

As you can see, under the OHRC a straight white male simply cannot be discriminated against based on this characterization. This has been affirmed by Human Rights Tribunal rulings such as this.

So, this OCT advisory serves as a reminder to teachers that they should not object when White kids are excluded from educational opportunities, nor should they object when their employer discriminates against White employees or has discriminatory hiring practices which adversely impact White candidates. In such cases, they can also expect no support from their union as it is also completely aligned with the OHRC and is not the least interested in lobbying for changes. The union leaders are comfortable in their very well-paid jobs and are not about to rock the boat on a matter of principle.

Specific advice from the OCT with regard to hate and discrimination

The list of advice for teachers reads like a “how to” manual from a Critical Theory think tank. Among the suggestions:

• Reflect on your identity

• Think about how your “lived experiences” impact your teaching

• Think about how privileged you are (if you’re not a member of a stigmatized and marginalized group)

• Don’t discuss stereotypes (even though Critical Theory is entirely based on them)

• Etc.

The Professional Advisory Addressing Hate and Discrimination is really a directive on how to adhere to the prevailing ideology in the system so as to avoid discipline from your employer or the OCT. If you don’t agree with the ideology on which the system is based, too bad. You might have thought that teaching was a profession in which ideas can be debated based on facts and reason, but if so, you’re out of luck.

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Thanks for reading. For more from this author, read Who is Youth Mental Health Canada?

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