Political Protests Now Fair Game for School Field Trips
Please don't jump to conclusions - the whole thing was just a huge misunderstanding and the teachers are the real victims here. Also, let this serve as your sarcasm trigger warning...
Last week was the second annual Million March 4 Kids. I have no idea how many people showed up for it, or whom I can even trust to tell me. Also, I never even heard about it until the day of, so I'm guessing most media was ordered to say nothing about it until it was over. It happened anyway and drew all the expected buzzwords and accusations of hate and intolerance from all the expected places.
According to their website, the mission of the organizer, Hands Off Our Kids includes this statement:
Our mission includes safeguarding children’s rights and nurturing their growth in a safe environment by removing sexualized content in the classroom and ensuring that topics of learning are discussed in an age-appropriate manner that does not violate the ministry of Education’s guidelines.
This is now what's known as hate and intolerance by anyone who's part of the many counter protests that inevitably arise at these marches, even though the same website states very clearly that their purpose is “not to fight back against the LGBTQ community,” and that:
We firmly believe in the rights of adults to make their own choices regarding their lifestyles.
This protest is directed mainly at the school system and is fueled and funded by concerned parents, also known as fascists, according a leaked video from the Ontario Federation of Labour.
The sarcastic bit
So, the protest happened, and what perfect timing, since it turns out the march this year came only days after some Toronto area schools decided to take their students to be part of an anti-Israel protest. Now before you get overly concerned, the school did send home all the required paperwork informing the parents of the planned “field trip” and requiring all the appropriate signatures. They stated that the students would simply be there to observe a protest, not to take part. And it was an indigenous protest so obviously it would be completely pure and nonconfrontational - only peace and love and a concern for the environment at a protest like this.
And obviously parents needn’t worry about activist teachers going rogue and exposing middle-school students to questionable entities with controversial ideals. These are simply rumors of the far-right used to stir people up and divide us. Obviously.
Nor should parents worry that the kids (some as young as eight) were told to wear shirts that identified them as “colonizers" because they're only there to observe anyway, right? I’m not sure if that part made it into the permission slips that were sent home to the parents, but if not, I'm sure it was just an oversight.
And when this peaceful indigenous protest suddenly morphed into an anti-Israel protest, like a beautiful Sunday afternoon abruptly being overcome by an angry thunderstorm, I'm sure the teachers were completely blindsided by that as well, so you really can't blame them. I mean, we're all either colonizers or colonized here anyway so it makes perfect sense that a colonized indigenous population would identify with a colonized Palestinian one, right? Not much of a surprise there to the critical thinkers among us. And when the kids started chanting From Turtle Island to Palestine, Occupation is a Crime, under the encouragement of a megaphone wielding protester, that was just a natural extension of the peaceful indigenous activism they went there to witness. Because as we all know, this country (like Israel) is completely illegitimate and deserves to be pushed into the sea.
Really nothing to see here. At all.
And while we're busy not worrying about these little things, I suppose we should also try very hard not to get our toques in a knot over the little Jewish girl who felt a little uncomfortable with being encouraged to chant anti-Israeli slogans. She just needs to "get over it," according to her teacher. I wonder if she was able to get get her hands on one of those “Zionism kills" stickers they were handing out…
And that kid from India where they've endured centuries of colonial rule, well, if he doesn't like being branded a "colonizer," then I guess he can just "get over it" as well. Isn't this just what we do in a multi-cultural civilization? As I said, nothing to see here, just hard working teachers going out of their way to indoctrinate, **ahem, I mean educate** your children.
Now, for the record, I'll state that I'm thankful for the teachers we have here in rural Manitoba - we have a fair number of really good ones. But if you think that means we as parents can just sit back and let stuff happen and expect it all to turn out alright, you have never been more wrong. The people who brought you this fiasco in Southern Ontario exist throughout the country and indeed one of them is currently steering the ship in Ottawa.
So having said this, do you really need to ask why the Million March for Children was happening last week? And are you still wondering why it is that parents all over this country appear to be suspicious of their schools?
Seeing as these particular schools literally surround our federal seat of power, I'm getting a little tired of people acting as though parents have no reason to be skeptical of the schools and the teachers in this country. It's actually more than a little insulting.
If it's really just a couple of bad apples that are spoiling the bunch, then toss them out. And do it now. The problem is that it's not just a couple of bad apples. It is entire school divisions that need tossing. And yes, the other ones, innocent or not, will now need to work that much harder to maintain whatever respect and trust they have because that's how these things work. This is not the fault of the “far-right", or any kind of hate group, or Pierre Poilievre, or the Conservative Party. It's the fault of spineless leadership that has done nothing to reign in out of control ideologues in their school systems. Now this same leadership will be doing damage control for the next few weeks while they figure out how they can get out of it without firing anyone and possibly hoping that by then everyone will have forgotten about the affair. And if, as usual, there are no heads rolling because of this, you can expect more of the same. Over, and over, and over because that's also how this works and that's precisely how it has been working for years now.
Every teacher and administrator who was involved in this fiasco should be fired immediately, and probably the whole school board as well.
Great point, Ned. I agree with most of that. The one issue I take is your assessment of the nature of the conflict, because what's also true here is that the goal of Hamas has always been to completely obliterate Israel. Is that acceptable? And does it become less acceptable when those being threatened happen to me much more powerful than those doing the threatening? I'm not saying Israel is completely innocent on every count (who is?) but simply that they ought to have the right to defend themselves. Also remember that it's not other countries that are coming to aid Hamas, but other known terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad.
Wow, that Toronto Sun looks like a real classy publication huh Lol.
If you're more upset about about protests than you are about the actual genocide that's being protested against, it might be time for a re-evaluation.