Two trustees with the Waterloo Catholic District School Board (WRCDSB) left their positions over what one calls the board’s domination by a “newly created religion of Wokeism.”
According to school board chair Melanie Van Alphen, trustee Kevin Dupuis handed in his resignation on Saturday.
Dupuis told the Waterloo Region Record that he had some concerns regarding the recent decision by the board to fly a rainbow flag at its schools for pride month in June.
“The Pride flag is a part of what I feel is happening in our society where we are creating identity politics that makes victims out of absolutely everyone,” said Dupuis.
According to Dupuis, he also has concerns about the notion of “white privilege.”
“It scares me when we are teaching our children to be ashamed of their skin colour,” said Dupuis.
“This is a form of racism in itself … I don’t see how exchanging one form of racism for another benefits anyone.”
Dupuis also stated that the result of identity politics in the school creates division instead of unity.
“If this board wishes to continue down this newly created religion of Wokeism, I will be resigning because I don’t want to have to defend the path that the board has decided to take,” wrote Dupuis in a statement on the matter.
“Identity politics divides our youth into various subcategories of race, ethnicity, religion and gender when we should be uniting everyone as equals and as children of God. We need to provide an environment where everyone feels welcome and not divided by our differences.”
After a push by activists earlier this year, a number of school boards including the WRCDSB voted to raise pride flags for the first time.
Similarly, according to the Cambridge Times councillor Greg Retizel also handed in his resignation with the board on Monday.
“I applaud the sentiment behind flying the flag, I understand a genuine want to bring healing to one of the many marginalized communities in our midst; however, I believe this attempt is misguided,” said Retizel.
“If we are to fly a flag to let people know that all are welcome and respected here I would suggest that we have flags made up with the Sacred Heart of Jesus and devote the month of June to the Sacred Heart.”
