The Peel District School Board and White Supremacy (Part 1 of 2)

Radicals vs Moderates

This is an excerpt from The Woke West: The Identity Politics, Cancel Culture, Radical Activism And Forbidden Knowledge Dividing The West...And What You Can Do About It! - A book by James Pew, published serially to The Turn Substack.

The Peel District School Board and White Supremacy

September 2021:

“Sweetheart”

“Yeah?”

“I need to test something.”

“Ok, what?”

“”How would you make fun of the name ‘McCrimmon’?

“What? Why? What are you testing?”

“I’ll explain later, It’s just for fun...’McCrimmon’...make it funny...go”

(rolls eyes) “Ok let me think about it”

Before you read further - and find out what my special lady came up with. Perhaps you would like to play along? How would you alter McCrimmon for comedic effect?  We will return to this later.

Introduction

This is a story of moderates vs. radicals. A story about how radicals tend to over-power moderates and slowly replace them. How, at a certain critical mass, radicals transform an organization into one resembling a cult. The Peel District School Board is a story of a slow and steady descent into radicalism. A school board turned cult.  

In this article I will show how a radical ideology is becoming mainstream. How it is taking over school boards across Canada. What this means for teachers, parents and children. And what possibly can be done to reverse this disastrous course. 

Informed by anonymous conversations with teachers and parents, I will separate the PDSB saga's key players into their respective camps; moderates and radicals. I will discuss their roles in the plot, and discuss how the media often misrepresents them.

In recent years, the PDSB has adopted the ideology known as Critical Social Justice Theory, or more commonly wokeism. It manifests through Critical Race Theory (CRT), Gender Ideology, and the teaching of an ahistorical narrative that frames Canada and other Western countries as little more than oppressors and colonizers, claiming white European descendants (now known as “settler people”) benefit and uphold invisible structures of present day systemic racism. 

The CSJ ideology problematizes whiteness (which it loosely decouples from actually being white). Woke CSJ warriors call anyone who disagrees with them, including BIPOC people, white supremacist. Of course a black white supremacist also gets labelled race traitor (as happened to black trustees for the PDSB, David Green and Gale Solomon-Henry), making things more difficult for BIPOC people who often hold values antithetical to Critical Social Justice.

This story, necessarily, is about the modern struggle between liberalism and illiberalism. Not a struggle between left and right, but one contained within the political left. I will suggest the Critical Social Justice model be returned to the one Lighthouse advocates for, Liberal Social Justice. To call us Liberal Social Justice Warriors would be a little cheesy, but not entirely off the mark. However, to call us critics of Critical Social Justice would be bang on!

I will show what it looks like when journalists are woke. How a controversial story like the PDSB can be given a one-sided treatment and convince readers that assumptions are fact (like claims of systemic racism in the PDSB). 

We will look at the role social media continues to play in the PDSB drama. How it is forwarding Critical Social Justice, but also fighting back against it. I’ll show you how to identify a CSJ warrior by the words used in their Twitter bio and/or Facebook status updates.

I will highlight and explain a few key words and phrases used by CSJ radicals at the PDSB. The holy grail term sitting atop the hierarchy of terms disingenuously co-opted by the PDSB and the Ontario Ministry of Education is Equity!

Equity is most commonly found in a triumvirate of terms. D.I.E or Diversity Equity & Inclusion. It should be made crystal clear that the PDSB’s use of the term equity (and oh boy do they ever use it) refers to equality of outcomes. Which is an entirely different beast than equality of opportunity. Under a Liberal Social Justice model, equality of opportunity is a founding principle, while equality of outcome is something that can only be tampered with through social experiments. A key argument being made by critics of CSJ is: let’s not conduct untested experiments on children. Seems a reasonable request, but CSJ warriors are not known for being reasonable.

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My kids have been attending a PDSB school for a few years now, but admittedly, I knew very little of its contentious history. However, when my early research inspired me to conduct an experiment asking my friends and family the “McCrimmon” question, the results were telling. 

After asking my girlfriend to “Make McCrimmon funny,” I walked out of the room, sat down at my desk and hit start on a stopwatch. At the 23 second mark, from the adjacent room, I heard her say - “McCrimminal.” More on this later.

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Some Housekeeping

I promised to define a few key terms commonly used by the woke at the PDSB. They don’t always use words, even common everyday words, the way regular people do. My use of “regular people” refers to anyone who is not a woke ideologue. Refer back to this “House Keeping” section as you read and encounter the typical polylogism of CSJ warriors.

Mini Glossary

Polylogism - is the belief that different groups of people reason in fundamentally different ways. In other words, the belief in many logics. An environment of multiple logics is of course not real, there is only one logic. But a group wanting to push an ideology that doesn’t make logical sense, seeks to force entry by confusing and confounding people through the use of esoteric terminology and polylogism. 

White Supremacy - CSJ warriors are not referring to David Duke types who wear white hoods. In fact, what they claim is that white supremacy is the default culture that underpins Canadian society. All white & Jewish (and confusingly, sometimes Asian) people benefit from this oppressive system of white supremacy and are therefore complicit in it. It should be noted that the majority of people pushing this nonsense are white progressive types. It seems to me these morally superior white progressives are actively picking a fight with the white majority on behalf of the black minority. How can anyone believe white progressive CSJ warriors are helping the black community? 

Critical - Critical Social Justice warriors are not referring to the “critical” of “critical thinking.” Their “critical” is leagues away from critical thinking. Critical Social Justice is a “Critical Theory.“ Critical Race Theory is a branch of Critical Social Justice Theory. All Critical Theories are bizarre and untested, they share an axiomatic equivalent with Marxism (replacing Marx’s class obsession with cultural obsessions based on physical identity, ie Race, Gender, etc.). 

Critical Consciousness - To have this is to be Woke. The awareness experienced by a Critical Social Justice Warrior. This includes the “tools” only they possess to both identify and dismantle systemic racism. They often refer to viewing things through an “anti-oppression critical lens.”

Diversity - Never diversity of opinion. Always diversity of identity.

Equity / Inequity - CSJ invokes equity more than any other term. What they mean is “equality of outcome.” Liberal societies do not provide for equal outcomes, communist societies do - or at least attempt to, while oppressing and killing millions in the process.

Equity Officer - Racist Hunter. This includes anyone with the word “equity” in their job title.

Identity / Identity Politics - With regard to race, identity refers to immutable physical characteristics of individuals. However, identity is complicated by individuals whose stated gender identity is at odds with their biological sex. In both cases CSJ warriors are obsessed with identity, which for them, functions to categorize one's position in the intersectional framework. 

Intersectionality - A hierarchical framework that divides people into an Oppressor/Victim matrix. White European descendants and Jewish men are considered the worst oppressors. Women and racialized people are assembled below white men in a hierarchy of victimhood. Some people have multiple claims of victimhood, i.e. A black woman is oppressed doubly because she is both a woman and black.

Colonizers - The White European diaspora, and everyone of Jewish heritage. This group is being “othered” by the PDSB. They are being targeted by a new form of systemic racism which claims the “dismantling of anti-black racsim” and “de-colonizing” of white supremacist power structues as it’s goal.

De-colonize - To rid the world of “whiteness.” To “tear down the structures of white supremacy”. This language always equates “whiteness” with “white supremacy,” leading one to the obvious conclusion that they are also talking about “white people,” -  although they will play polylogic word games to confuse you (and most likely themselves too) into believing they are not. 

Settler People  - The term they are using in place of European descendants and Jewish People. Consistent with the “eradication” or erasure of “whiteness” they advocate for. I believe it’s mostly being used on young children before they graduate to the more advanced understanding of settler people as “white supremacist colonizers.”

Gendered Terms - This often refers to both gendered pronouns like he/she, her/him, and gendered words like mother, father, brother, sister. CSJ warriors see the use of these standard gendered terms as transphobic.

Disrupt - What you are supposed to do once you find racism (and according to CRT you definitely will). The Equity Officers believe the system itself is white centred and must be disrupted.

Learn. Disrupt. Rebuild - The terrifying re-education method informed by Critical Race Theory. Radical pedagogues are designing curriculum with the explicit goal of making children feel “discomfort.” Radical teachers think young children should be activists too and therefore also be “doing the work.” As one teacher explained to me - “disrupting' includes silencing, deplatforming and cancelling.”

Transformational - After the discomfort. After the “struggle sessions.” After doing (and during, since it never ends) “the work,” fully absorbing the critical theories and pedagogies, and “disrupting” and “dismantling” the systemically racist structures of the colonial minded, one can claim to be engaged in the “transformational” process of building the CSJ utopian vision of the world.

Oppression / Anti-Oppression - The oppressors are white and Jewish people (especially the men). Anti-oppression work is antisemitic and anti-white. One is fed a heaping bowl of word salad, esoteric terminology and backpedaling when challenging the CSJ use of these terms. In a nutshell; Oppression = Whiteness. Anti-oppression = Anti-Whiteness and Antisemitism.

Anti-Racist - CSJ warriors are referring to Ibram X. Kendi’s definition as laid out in his book, “How To Be An Anti-Racist.” He asserts “The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination.” Kendi’s prescription is to use more racism, just of a different kind; antisemetic and anti-white racism, you know, to level the playing field...sigh. 

Work to be done / Doing the work - Accepting the fallacious assumption that Canada is systemically racist and working to “disrupt and dismantle” it.

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A short analysis of the words used by the PDSB

Now that you know the terms, and how CSJ warriors define them, let's look at how they use them, using the opening paragraph from a document found on the PDSB website intended for parents & students. The words I’d like to direct your attention to, and their new CSJ meanings, are in bold.

From the PDSB document “Empowering Modern Learners: Inspire, Innovate, Disrupt,”

Our Moral and Legal Imperative

Systems, when they remain unexamined and unchallenged, are built to replicate outcomes which advantage some and disadvantage others. Systems are also built to resist change and uphold the status quo. Our moral imperative as educators is to be critically conscious of the way in which systems operate so that we are able to disrupt and dismantle inequities and instead foster practices that are culturally responsive and relevant. If our goal is success and well being for all then learning environments and learning experiences must be centered and rooted in the identities and experiences of the students we serve.

All Peel staff are held accountable for having an integrative anti-oppressive and anti-racist approach that centers the saliency of race and intersectional identities of learners.

The document states “Systems, when they remain unexamined and unchallenged, are built to replicate outcomes which advantage some and disadvantage others.” But what the cult-like environment at the PDSB does not allow is challenge or examination of their methods. They do not hide the fact that they are actively working to change outcomes for the advantage of some. However, the assumptions on which they base the need for CSJ work cannot be examined. And the methods used to achieve their ends cannot be challenged.

In the next sentence the PDSB claims their “moral imperative as educators is to be critically conscious…” Most parents reading this are going to think - “to be critically conscious,” is to use critical thinking.  As defined in the mini glossary, CSJ warriors mean, “to view things through an anti-oppression critical lens.” Not a critical thinking lens. CSJ warriors do not use critical thinking, the people not allowed to challenge them do.

The rationale for their critical consciousness is so they can “disrupt and dismantle” societal inequities. This is of course the primary role of elementary school teachers, everyone knows that. And obviously it’s in the best interests of elementary school students to be political activists first, heavily engaged in dismantling white supremacist structures that most of them apparently benefit from. They might not be able to think, read or write very well, but at least they can repeat woke slogans!

The next buzzword we encounter is identity. They assert - “learning experiences must be centered and rooted in the identities and experiences of the students we serve.” Really, why? Wouldn’t it be easier to structure learning experiences around universally shared themes not constrained by identity politics? And, while some learning experiences centered and rooted in the identities and experiences of students may be beneficial, if every learning experience is crafted in this way, how exactly is this serving the academic needs of students? Presenting facts and evidence objectively, without the critical lens, gives students a chance to think for themselves. This should not be thrown away. Additionally, identity concerns and CSJ tools and lenses should not encroach into academic subjects because they do not require identity or cultural relevance, i.e. Math (it doesn’t care about your identity or sexual preference).

The last line - “All Peel staff are held accountable for having an integrative anti-oppressive and anti-racist approach that centers the saliency of race and intersectional identities of learners.” Peel staff are being bullied and indoctrinated to accept CSJ ideology. The teachers I spoke to were clear about this. 

Here is a sentence from the “welcome back from summer” letter to families (also from PDSB website),

“I’ve learned that we are making great strides in our transformational journey, but at the same time, I’m cognizant of the fact that there is a lot of work to be done.” - Rashmi Swarup, Director of Education PDSB

What do you think most parents think of this sentence? Probably not very much. It seems innocuous, almost like an empty platitude. Does anyone read these things? But it’s actual meaning should send a chill down every parent’s spine. That great strides have been made in the utopian CSJ vision, but there is still much discomfort and disruption left to do. The use of “transformational” and “work to be done” tells us that it is the tools and methods of Critical Social Justice they are employing, and will continue to do so.

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Racism in Peel Region

"Changing the mindset of a society doesn't happen overnight. We need to start looking at our own biases, our own stereotypes, looking at our power and privilege to see how that plays out in education." - Poleen Grewal, Equity Chief, PDSB

In 2018 the PDSB conducted 4 Peel region student focus groups (totalling 44 black students, 11 of which were girls) and combined the results with an early report of the experiences of 87 young black male students (and their encounters with racism) into an updated report called “We Rise Together.” A similar objective to a 2015 United Way study consisting of an online survey of 23 black male students, and strangely outnumbering the students, 30 service providers in the Peel region, which asked them how they “feel” about their experience as a racialized minority at school. 

Before we get to far in the weeds, let me make a few points:

1. 87 boys and 0 girls and then 33 boys and 11 girls are very small sample sizes considering PDSB is the second largest public school board in Canada (next to the Toronto District School Board). The United Way exercise can barely be called a study with only 100 participants.

2. Focus groups and survey-style studies relying on perception data (where you ask people to report on behaviour or feelings) have limited utility. They certainly should not be used as the basis for policy decisions. At best, the basis for conducting more studies - but when people are convinced by, or benefit from, existing cursory conclusions drawn from informal studies with small sample sizes - they are often not motivated to examine issues more deeply.

3. The black students who participated in the PDSB focus group also reported positive experiences in the classroom. Not only are sample sizes small, but messages are mixed, how can systemic racism be anyone's conclusion?

4. The PDSB states clearly that they do not feel racialized groups bear any responsibility or play a role in any of their less than favorable outcomes. Like Kendi, the PDSB’s stance is that disparate outcomes are proof of systemic racism. Suggesting unfavorable outcomes of racialized peoples may be at least partially due to their habits and behaviours is not only forbidden, it is akin to upholding the white supremacist colonial power structure. White people are to blame, that is what we hear on broken-record repeat.

From the Toronto Star November 2020:

“Colleen Russell-Rawlins, PDSB’s interim director of education, said the move to admit qualified Black and Indigenous students directly into the elite programs without having to submit to the random selection process is just the first step. Next, she said, the board will review the entire process of admittance to these specialized programs and figure out why these disparities exist in the first place. In consultation with staff and community members, she said, further adjustments will be made.” 

To me, this is a shocking admission from Russell-Rawlins. As a first step, moves were made to wave the usual prerequisites for everyone except white, Asian and Jewish kids. The next step, Russell-Rawlins explains, is to  “figure out why these disparities exist in the first place.” So in other words we don’t know why there are disparities, but the default assumption is always racism, so we will hold back the Jewish, Asian and white kids, while we go and find the evidence we just based that decision on.

In an email exchange I had with a parent they wrote the following:

“Under Russell-Rawling’s leadership, it was decided that a LOTTERY SYSTEM was a racist way to select kids into elite programs, so now Indigenous and Black children get to bypass the lottery component and take any (competitive and limited) spot they meet the minimum qualifications for. This is a clear racial preference being implemented by policy to bring equity to a situation that is already a colour-blind lottery system. To me, this is an outrage, but the reporter covers it completely uncritically. It's just astonishing to me.”

Another, anonymous of course, conversation I had with a PDSB teacher in early October 2021, digressed into a discussion of Thomas Sowell, James Flynn and Jonathan Haidt & Greg Lukianoff (authors of “The Coddling Of The American Mind). After agreeing with Haidt & Lukianoff’s assessment of “trigger warnings” and ideological “safe spaces” as not being useful in learning envirmonments for students of any age, I brought up questions found in Thomas Sowell’s Discrimination and Disparities (a book that according to Sowell, addresses the fallacy that statistical disparities in socio-economic outcomes imply biased treatment). I asked why do we expect outcomes between people (or groups of people) to be equal? Outcomes are never equal. As Thomas Sowell points out, skewed outcomes should be expected. When outcomes are unequal (as you would expect them to be), it makes no sense to immediately assume it is due to racism. 

The conversation was lively, but I was assured these topics could never be broached at the PDSB. Pressing on, I brought up the work James Flynn has done regarding the effects of subculture on education outcomes for different groups. Sadly, many great ideas often do not enter the thoughts of those who would benefit most from them. Tragically these are often the people making policy, as my new PDSB teacher friend explained.

None of the material we discussed, or the type of thinking it is based on, is permitted in any Ontario school board meetings. These ideas are not allowed to inform education policy. Challenging assumptions gets you called a white supremacist. James Flynn (in the last years of his life) was “cancelled,” and Thomas Sowell is ignored by policy makers writ large. Big mistake. 

Sophisticated and nuanced methods of understanding disparate outcomes between gender, race, and class groups, along with enlightened approaches to collecting and interpreting data, is desperately needed since these matters so heavily inform policy, and therefore the direction we take as a country. The people advising Stephen Lecce, Ontario’s Minister of Education, seem oblivious to the rich literature of education/intelligence researchers and social demographers. What is it going to take to get them to read a few books (not written by Kimberle Crenshaw, Robin DiAngelo, Ta Nehisi Coates or Ibram X. Kendi)?

When the PDSB released the 42 page “Directive 16 – Anti-Racism Policy - Progress Report #2,” in March of 2021 one parent had this to say,

“It's a hard one to stomach. The report actually cites 'parents' as barriers to change and then goes on to suggest that opposing anti-racism in favour of respect and equality is the same as 'denial or indifference' to racism. Ugh..”

The Radical - Poleen Grewal

In 2017, the PDSB appointed its first woman of colour to a senior leadership position. As Equity Chief, Poleen Grewal did exactly what she was promoted to do; find, disrupt and dismantle racism (the assumed source of all inequities for BIPOC people). She found her racism - of course she did, anyone brought in for this purpose is inherently incentivized to. Predictably, what she found she called “systemic” and did her best to stoke a moral panic. 

This point should be lingered on for a second. What would Poleen Grewal do if she had not found or encountered the racism she was looking for? How would she justify her years of Critical Theory education? Hired to uncover and prove the systemic racism already “known” to exist, would her colleagues and superiors have thought her derelict of duty or perhaps having an unfocused critical lens? 

It should be noted that PDSB serves over 153,000 families. By conflating poorly done studies with internal dramas into community wide racial tensions, “dozens” of black community members were mobilized by Poleen Grewal and PDSB’s CSJ warriors. Poleen and many others in the PDSB are actively working to both stoke and spread racial tensions and create moral panic throughout the community. It is the substrate required for their Critical Social Justice approach.

In 2018 Grewal’s first controversy came when she circulated a memo to PDSB teachers suggesting that if they teach the classic novel by Harper Lee “To Kill A Mockingbird,” they should do so through an “anti-oppression critical lens”. This of course means informed by Critical Race Theory. More on that later.

The issue with “To Kill A Mockingbird,” is that it presents the falsely accused black character’s white lawyer as a “white saviour type.” Apparently not acceptable. A recurring pattern I’ve noticed where things that reflect positively on white or Jewish people, or western countries in general, are systematically either banned/cancelled or made to be analyzed through the old “anti-oppression critical lens.” Rather than taking the opportunity to talk about common humanity and progress.

A PDSB teacher explained they had suspected the “To Kill A Mockingbird” debacle had reached a “compromise” when the administrators decided to require teachers, who insisted on teaching the book, to not only teach it through the anti-oppression lens, but also register it with their principal. The net result being; “To Kill A Mockingbird” has since been taught dramatically less often than before the “critical lens” was made mandatory. 

Grewal’s hunt to find racism in the PDSB begins when she, according to the Toronto Star, “reaches out to black educators and black communities,” building on the “We Rise Together” strategic initiative which proudly supports black students. White students of course don’t need support - as oppressive settler kids, and in the name of equity, the PDSB thinks it is historically important they feel the full thrust of guilt, shame and discomfort for the crimes their ancestors committed hundreds of years ago. 

In March of 2019, Grewal filed a human rights complaint citing racism, harassment and a toxic work environment against the PDSB and the sitting Director of Education, Peter Joshua. Several months later another scandal erupted when Grewal was investigated for claims that she abused her position in the school board to unfairly help secure school credits for her son (which she denies). What a mess. 

According to Grewal, she was not abusing her position to unfairly advance her son, she was just being a good parent. And not only that...RACISM! Yep, the people who pushed back against my critical methods are racists! I know because I am the PDSB official racist hunter! And I’m a woman, and some of the pushers back were men...so #Metoo! And I’m a person of color who is claiming to be the victim of racism, arguing with that makes you a white supremacist colonizer. I meet all of the necessary prerequisites to be believed unconditionally. 

John McNair, of McKenzie Lake Lawyers, was hired by the PDSB to conduct an investigation into Poleen Grewal’s alleged conflicts of interest. From the report:

“We found that Grewal engaged in conduct which amounted to a conflict of interest by using her position and influence as a member of the board’s senior administration to secure benefits for her son... ” 

In anonymous conversations I had with PDSB teachers, Peter Joshua was described as a moderate - one of the good guys. A man who generally cared about the PDSB and took his role seriously. Because he was moderate in his views, like most Canadians are, and dared to push back against the CSJ radicals within his own school board, he ended up being cancelled from it. Poleen Grewal, currently on leave for 2 years due to her conflict of interest issues, was described as “radical” by the same teacher. My opinion goes a little further and includes disingenuous.

Critical Race Theory

“Struggle sessions,” which both Ontario teachers and students are subject to, are informed by Critical Race Theory. Children are separated into respective intersectional categories. White/Jewish kids line up with the oppressors, BIPOC kids are separated and considered victims. White and Jewish boys are made to feel particularly bad about themselves, as they are at the top of the oppression hierarchy. It is unclear exactly where Asian children fit. On one hand, they are considered non-white, so oppressed. But they also typically do a lot better in school than children in other groups, as a result they are subject to anti-Asian racism when held back in the name of equity.

Intersectionality’s Seven Intersecting Axes Of Privlege And Oppression. Photo taken by me of the pages of “The Coddling Of The American Mind.”

The bottom line is white, Jewish and Asian kids are being subject to racism at the PDSB and other Canadian school boards.  It may not be a common or popular thing to say, but the systemic racism currently most prevalent in Ontario schools is the kind directed at whites (including Jews) and Asians. CRT is the mechanism that makes this happen. 

The school administrators, at the behest of the Ontario Education ministry, are systematically rolling out a “re-education” plan that divides and demoralizes students by focusing on physical identity. White (including Jewish) students are “othered” as oppressors, but all students are made to feel bad about themselves and their classmates. My kids are mixed race, so for all kids who are like them (and there are many), this means an extra layer of confusion, discomfort and unnecessary guilt to contend with. 

The previous paradigm, which most people are still operating in, did of course see the majority of racism flowing from white to black. We are all familiar with segregation and the “Jim Crow south.” But this new paradigm is the opposite. This movement's hero is Ibram X. Kendi, author of “How to be an Anti-Racist,” he states - “the only way to combat racism is with more racism.” To be clear, - “anti-black racism” is about combating historical racism with new present day racism directed at white, Jewish and Asian people (who the PDSB now refers to as “Settler People” or “colonizers”). 

Boys are a big target according to the “intersectional” rules worshipped by woke “anti-racists” and “de-colonizers.” This means a white/Jewish boy is slightly more awful than a white/Jewish girl, and a black girl is slightly more victimized than a black boy. Unfortunately, this is the logic PDSB cult is running on. Individual characteristics are irrelevant.

Instead of teaching kids personal responsibility (and about individuality), white/Jewish kids learn they are “children-stealing oppressive colonizers” and BIPOC kids learn they are helpless victims of their oppressor classmates. One parent (from the TDSB) told me that their seven year old bi-racial child came home from school upset by a film about residential schools the teacher had shown in class. They were convinced that Native children were forced to “shower with a chemical that turned them white.” 

Having recently moved to a TDSB school, from a PDSB school, this parent  (who like me has bi-racial children) told me of an experience they had after they and their child had participated in a school march against anti-black racism in the wake of the Geroge Floyd murder. This child was upset and confused and told her white parent that they (the parent) would be safe, but the child thought of themself as in danger of being shot because they are black. Where did this child get this idea from?

Children are too young to understand what teachers want from them. The messages are mixed at best, and children are understandably upset and confused by it. For this reason and others, including the use of “Settler People” and/or “colonizers” over “European’s,” my kids stayed home on “Orange Shirt Day” this year.

Answers to the “McCrimmon” Question

“Hey Buddy-boy let's play a game that is kind of like a riddle a little bit…”

“OK”

“So I’m going to tell you a name of a person and you are going to do something to make it funny...ok”

“What’s the name?”

“McCrimmon. What would you do to make the name McCrimmon funny?

(Roughly ten seconds of kid thinking)

“Oh oh I got it”

“Ok let's hear it”

“Well I think I would put his face on a wanted sign because he’s...a McCrimminal!”

“Awesome! You are so funny! You should have a travelling comedy show”

“Or how about a Youtube channel!?”

Most teachers and parents I speak to, must remain anonymous. Why is that? Can’t teachers & parents have opinions about the school their children attend or the place they work? Only if you agree with all the decisions the administration makes - yep it’s basically North Korea at the PDSB - dissent is not tolerated. In fact, if you suggest that perhaps the problems with racism in the PDSB may be individual cases (not something that realistically will ever be dismantled completely), due to the moral failings of individuals, you will be fired (or cancelled in some way) for causing harm to the black community. 

Only victims of racism can be believed, and they don’t need compelling evidence, they just need personal accounts (and If they cry while they tell their stories, the board will hire extra anti-black racism and equity consultants at taxpayer expense). But worse, we don't seem to need very many personal accounts to extrapolate a conclusion that racism is in fact systemic.

Later I will go into some detail about how the media is often biased in reporting race issues at the PDSB. It is my firm belief that our country and communities are full of traitors. I’m not being hyperbolic. The PDSB administration, and the ministry of education, are being swallowed whole by this ugly divisive ideology that sees racism absolutely everywhere. These agencies, responsible for overseeing the education of children, have been infected by a relatively small faction of woke Critical Social Justice Warriors. Unfortunately, that’s all it takes for this dangerous ideology to take root and spread.

Like any good contagious virus, wokeism does not require much exposure to penetrate institutions and societies. The CSJ warriors in the PDSB and ministry of education have many allies in the media. Couple that with the general culture in Canada where people (especially white people) feel they need to “walk on eggshells” whenever issues of race and gender come up. People are afraid to say the wrong thing and become the target of a mob. This is not consistent with the Canada I grew up in. People used to say “it's a free country” and speak their minds. Canadians do a lot less of that now.

Before I get into the seedy details of the PDSB’s McCrimmon Elementary School scandal, I’d like to share a little background I received from a parent who walked by McCrimmon everyday for years (including the years relevant to this story). This parent explained to me that McCrimmon is not a “black” majority school (like the media reported), the students there are mostly of South Asian descent. The “McCrimminal” scandal was all about disingenuously characterizing an innocuous comment as racist on the false premise that McCrimmon Public School has a large “black and brown” population. And, as you will see, this is how many in the media chose to frame it. 

All the kids at McCrimmon (unless there is something wrong with them) refer to their school jokingly as “McCrimminal.” Because some jokes literally write themselves, and Canadian children and adults (regardless of their ancestral background) usually agree on what is funny.

However, the laughs stopped in October of 2020 when PDSB trustee’s Kathy MacDonald and Nokah Dakroub publicly threw fellow trustee William Davies under the bus. In a private meeting between Davies and MacDonald, Davies whose children also attended McCrimmon, jokingly referred to McCrimmon as his kids referred to it; McCrimminal.

William Davies was fired for this (How disingenuous and petty can you get?). He is a moderate and refused to apologize and “admit” his comment was racist. It was simply not a racist comment. Good for William Davies for standing up for himself. Shame on Kathy MacDonald and Nokah Dakroub - since finding racism is incentivized at PDSB, I’m sure they both advanced their careers. But I wonder if William Davies and his family are ok?

From Shree Padakar regarding McCriminal Will Davies,

“Trustee Will Davies could have just apologized as soon as McDonald called him out in private, or when she called him out publicly, or when the community pressed for an apology. Instead, the board dug in its heels, the case went to an integrity commissioner who exonerated him to widespread fury in the community. The commissioner’s contract was recently terminated.”

Another recurring pattern happens when CSJ warriors lose a battle, as they did when an integrity commissioner exonerated Will Davies. CSJ warriors can not accept a loss. They increase the volume and intensity of their protest and ultimately bully their targets. I wonder, if the Integrity Commissioner had ruled the other way, would his contract not have terminated so suddenly?

Another one from Shree Padakar,

“The meetings showed that the trustees themselves had only received half a day’s anti-racism training, the chair of the meetings was unable to define the term anti-Black racism when asked to in the first meeting, and was unable to agree that the “McCriminal” remark could be deemed racist.”

Why are trustees, or anyone else for that matter, made to agree that the innocuous “McCrimminal” remark is racist? Especially when common sense says it certainly is not.

The PDSB’s official statement on the McCrimmon issue. “What we have learned, and what we know now, is that not issuing a statement resulted in members of our community, especially members of the Black community, feeling unsupported and abandoned ... We recognize the severity of the hurt and harm that this reference has caused for members of the Black community.”

Give me a break. A common joke absolutely everyone in the neighbourhood was in on - for years, was used to ruin a man's career. CSJ warriors play dirty.

Thanks for reading!

Part 2 is here - The Peel District School Board and White Supremacy (Part 2 0f 2).