The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) has announced it is shelving a controversial student census full of heavily sexualized and race-based content, following reporting on the issue by True North.
“We have temporarily paused the release of the TDSB Student Census to allow time for further review,” reads an email sent out to parents Thursday evening. The announcement was buried among news about a current education workers’ strike.
The student census included asking elementary students if they knew about transgender practices such as breast binding and tucking, where males contort their genitals to hide them and appear more feminized. These controversial elements were first reported on by True North columnist Sue-Ann Levy.
There were different versions of the census crafted for elementary school and high school student, but all of them included sexualized and race-based components.
Another True North article on the census highlighted how the census was being slammed for how it appears to be driven by the controversial ideology known as Critical Race Theory.
“The TDSB’s student census is clear, irrefutable evidence that critical race theory is being practiced in Canadian public schools by administrators and school board officials,” said Jamil Jivani, a former advisor to the current Ontario government and current President of the Canada Strong and Free Network, in an interview with True North.
The TDSB’s announcement doesn’t make it entirely clear what the motivating factor was for shelving the census, although they state it went public without proper review. “Materials, including a Guiding Research Principles document, meant to provide context into how the census was developed, were posted without an internal review and approval,” the announcement reads. “As a result, the TDSB is disappointed that we must pause the release of the census itself until the review process can be conducted.”
The census was released on November 1, and was supposed to be live for the entire month. It was shelved after only three days.
“It outrages me as a lesbian to read how the TDSB would endeavour to ram such concepts down the throats of vulnerable students,” Levy wrote in a column. “Schools are not a social science experiment. Kids are there to learn academics, not to have highly sexualized and, in many ways, fringe concepts shoved at them.”
On Day 16 of the Emergencies Act hearings, the main organizer of the Freedom Convoy Tamara Lich took the stand for the first time since her bail hearing in late July.
Lich was asked about what her life had been like after her arrest in Ottawa on Feb 17.
“I’ve lost my job, I’ve lost my freedom of speech, I’ve lost my freedom to communicate with my friends,” said Lich tearfully.
Convoy organizer Tamara Lich tearfully describes how being arrested has affected her life, from losing her job to losing her ability to talk to friends (due to bail conditions) to not wanting her daughter to be seen with her. pic.twitter.com/tAEuIDAAAR
“I have to be very careful about every move that I make,” she continued. “My trial’s not until next year… I have to live under these conditions for a year.”
Lich talked about a live video she posted the night before her arrest asking protesters to be respectful to the police. She said she did not resonate with the “F— Trudeau” flags and that she was sympathetic towards Trudeau because he, like her, has three children.
Tamara Lich describes the hours leading up to her arrest near the end of the Freedom Convoy protests. pic.twitter.com/B8xHaKj5bn
“I was seeing families torn apart,” Lich recalled in her testimony. “There were so many suicides in my hometown that they stopped counting them.”
“My grandmother was inside alone for two years,” Lich continued.
When asked about reports of harassment during the protests, Lich said she never witnessed it herself.
“It was a love-fest,” she said.
Despite saying that the horns were “getting a bit much to me,” Lich says she did not hear them at her hotel.
Lich said she was amazed to see Quebeckers and Albertans hugging and getting to know each other. She recalled that seeing Canadians from all walks of life get along led her to cut ties with the Maverick Party, a party that advocates for a separate Alberta.
Earlier in the day, Benjamin Dichter, who was the main organizer of communications, took the stand.
Dichter said Tamara Lich first reached out to Dichter on January 15th to get involved with media relations and start crowdfunding campaigns. He met her for the first time in 2017 in Medicine Hat.
"Legacy media seems to be wanting to make these people who have very little or nothing to do with the convoy into celebrities," convoy spokesperson Benjamin Dichter says of people like Pat King, James Bauder, and Jeremy MacKenzie. #POECpic.twitter.com/6FTRHEZWfI
Dichter took aim at the legacy media, saying he wanted to talk to “current media,” which he defines as “media that has been successfully able to leverage alternative media platforms.”
Dichter said he did not want to talk to the legacy media because the Toronto Star had put out cartoons defaming the Convoy.
"Legacy media seems to be wanting to make these people who have very little or nothing to do with the convoy into celebrities," convoy spokesperson Benjamin Dichter says of people like Pat King, James Bauder, and Jeremy MacKenzie. pic.twitter.com/3bDNorn6ud
Dichter was asked about the deal made with the City of Ottawa to move trucks. Dichter was under the impression that there was no deal in place to end the protest and thought there was “some ulterior motive” that would provide no benefit to the truckers.
Convoy lawyer Brendan Miller and Convoy spokesperson Benjamin Dichter clash over tweets from Dichter about the deal between convoy organizers and the City of Ottawa. pic.twitter.com/lkZUJi12qQ
Dichter and Lawyer Brendan Miller got into a tense exchange when asked why Dichter had access to Lich’s Twitter account.
“You posted something you knew was a lie,” said Miller. “You knew that they had done this deal.”
“No,” Dichter scoffed. “I didn’t go into her account, I was using her account from the very beginning.”
Dichter said Lich had asked him to be the director of all communications. Lich confirmed this. Dichter didn’t agree with the strategy for trucks to start leaving.
On Feb 18, Dichter said road captains came to his room and told him truckers were starting to get arrested and that he should leave.
“If the police are getting violent, maybe it’s time to leave,” said Dichter.
Convoy lawyer Keith Wilson reached out to Dichter and recommended that he leave because the police may arrest him and give him a “gag order.”
“Someone needs to be able to speak up for freedom,” Dichter said, recalling Wilson’s comments.
Government lawyers suggested to Dichter that protesters misunderstood which mandates were being protested. Dichter understood that the target was the federal mandates and hoped provinces would later follow suit.
James Bauder, the founder of Canada-Unity, a group which advocates for rights and freedoms in Canada, also testified. He said he found Covid restrictions and mandates to be unlawful.
Bauder said he started planning a “Convoy for Freedom” in August 2021 and later made a post on Facebook calling for people to participate in a convoy after seeing increasing Covid restrictions in Australia.
James Bauder talked about the division in Canada, and saw his movement as a way to unify the country. “Hence, Canada-Unity,” he said, referring to the name of his organization.
Canada Unity's James Bauder claims his Memorandum of Understanding "isn't a legal anything. It's just words." #POECpic.twitter.com/AevdXg52rT
When asked about the controversial Memorandum of Understanding, Bauder said it was not drafted using any legal assistance. He described the document as “just a bunch of words” and that it didn’t mean anything.
Bauder was under the impression that the Government of Canada had committed treason during the pandemic and with the Emergencies Act.
Democracy Fund lawyer Ross Kitredge asked Bauder how it felt to inspire others across the world. He responded emotionally that he was thankful and grateful that Canada was able to send a message of freedom and unity around the world.
“We chose unity over division,” said Bauder.
Bauder had no intention of causing violence or overthrowing the government.
Hearings will resume on Friday November 4 at 9:30 am ET. Tamara Lich is expected to finish her testimony. In addition, live streamer Jeremy MacKenzie and Convoy organizer Daniel Bulford are expected to testify.
True North will continue to have daily coverage of the ongoing Emergencies Act hearings.
Alberta Justice Minister Tyler Shandro says the federal government is withholding official communication about a recent federal-provincial meeting because Alberta requested that Ottawa name provinces opposed to its gun grab scheme.
The 2022 Federal, Provincial and Territorial Ministers Responsible for Justice and Public Safety meeting occurred on Oct. 13-14. Such meetings typically conclude with a communiqué summarizing the meeting discussions and decisions.
However, Shandro said the federal government has informed the provinces and territories it’s withholding the communiqué “due to ‘lack of consensus on language.’”
“The disagreement over language centred on Alberta’s request that provinces opposed to taking police officers off the street to confiscate firearms be listed by name in the communiqué,” Shandro said in a statement.
In May 2020, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced he was banning more than 1,500 models of firearms, including guns explicitly used for sport shooting and hunting.
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino then wrote to the provinces and requested the help through their police.
As previously reported by True North, New Brunswick, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba called on the federal government to stop its plan to use provincial RCMP as confiscation agents at the federal-provincial meeting three weeks ago.
In a statement following the meeting, Manitoba Public Safety Minister Kris Austin said New Brunswick’s provincial RCMP resources are spread thin as is.
“We have made it clear to the Government of Canada that we cannot condone any use of those limited resources, at all, in their planned buyback program,” Austin said.
Shandro and Saskatchewan Chief Firearms Officer Bob Freberg had already revealed they wrote to their provincial RCMP and told them the gun grab program was not a provincial priority.
Manitoba Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen also said he told Mendicino the program cannot erode finite police resources which are needed to investigate violent crime.
“We will be bringing these concerns, along with the shared concern of Saskatchewan and Alberta, directly to the federal government next month in meetings of Ministers of Justice and Ministers of Public Safety,” Goertzen said in a statement on Facebook in September.
Now that the ministers have brought their concerns to Ottawa, the federal government appears unwilling to relate them back in the official communiqué.
Shandro said Quebec is routinely mentioned in a communiqué when it’s opposed to a particular federal initiative.
“Apparently, a lack of consensus for the same courtesy to be extended to other provinces and territories was enough for the federal government to decline to issue a communiqué,” he said.
“Alberta has asked over and over again to be treated as an equal partner in Confederation, on par with Quebec. The federal government made it clear that it is unwilling and disinterested in even taking a small step in that direction.”
The minister also said the government’s unilateral decision to cease discussions on the release of the joint communiqué undermines the ability of Canadians to learn about key justice and public safety initiatives.
Irvin Studin is President of The Institute for 21st Century Questions, Chair of the Worldwide Commission to Educate All Kids (Post-Pandemic), Editor-in-Chief & Publisher of Global Brief magazine, and Co-Chair of the Canada Science & Policy Committee to Exit the Pandemic. His new book is “Canada Must Think for Itself – 10 Theses for our Country’s Survival and Success in the 21st Century.”
The closing of schools is a policy crime. Full stop. This may not be well understood today, but it will be, in a felt way, within the next five years.
For the consequences of this policy crime, whoever its author, will reverberate well into the next several decades, bleeding into all facets of our once-stable society.
Of course, it is the school closures suddenly announced across Ontario’s public schools – this time as a result of union strikes – that bring this painful subject back to the fore of public and political debate. And for the record, I am strictly agnostic on the content of the labour negotiations that led to this particular round of school closures – or indeed “who’s to blame”.
A plague on all their (and our!) houses, I say – for it is our beloved Canadian society, once the most admired in the world, that has allowed this policy pathology to take hold and become commonplace.
Canada now appears to be a country that, having presided over the longest and most catastrophic school closures in the Western world, is patently unable to keep its schools open even if it tries. This is a degenerate failure of adult understanding and responsibility vis-à-vis our youth – the future of the country, if we wish to have one.
As I, for one, wish for our country to have a great future, let me argue that Canada must shift decisively – immediately – to become the very first country in the world to commit in law and public understanding never again to close our schools for the balance of the 21st century. Ever.
But first, let us see clearly what has happened at our feet, while we were tweeting.
The mass school closures of the last two-plus years had two capital consequences for the youth of the world: first, half a billion children, rich and poor alike, were permanently ousted from all forms of schooling; and second, those children who remained in formal schooling systems suffered massive learning losses.
We have come to call children in the first “ousted” category “third bucket kids” – that is, kids who, as soon as the schools shuttered, ended up in neither physical school (“first bucket”) nor virtual or online school (“second bucket”).
These “third bucket kids” are not homeschooling or podschooling – nay, they are, for a variety of complex, very human reasons, in a Dickensian “no school at all” state, at all ages, with no prospect or plans to return to education.
If India suffered many millions of third bucket kids – young girls married off once the schools closed, or young boys and girls who entered the work force full-time – then Canada, too, saw tens of thousands of our students leave school altogether, permanently, once school closures began to stretch for months.
Ontario, which controls 20% of the national student population and had the longest school closures in North America, evidently had the largest number of third bucket kids in the country.
Ontario also arguably led the country in learning loss. Recent Grade 6 standardized test math scores saw less than half of the students in Canada’s largest province performing at grade level, with just over half of Grade 9 students performing at grade level. Literacy and social skills also suffered massively during the serial closures.
What have we done?
Lest there be any doubt, our country’s third bucket kids and education-compromised youngsters will, before long, meet the kids of other, smarter countries in the theatre of life, and they will get crushed.
For those smarter countries – Central European and Scandinavian countries, Southeast and Northeast Asian countries – did not close their schools at all, and when they did close their schools, their leaders and systems provided the requisite energy, outreach and resources to ensure that leakage or ouster from the system was stanched, and that the overall system stayed whole.
Very soon we will understand – I think and hope! The schools must never be closed – ever. Not for a snow day, not for reasons of labour or other adult disputes, and not for reasons of incompetence, caprice or temporary mania. Zero school closures. This is the major first lesson of Canada’s multiple pandemic-period catastrophes – if we dare to think, and if we wish for our kids and our country to survive and succeed in a more fastidious tomorrow.
Irvin Studin is President of The Institute for 21st Century Questions, Chair of the Worldwide Commission to Educate All Kids (Post-Pandemic), Editor-in-Chief & Publisher of Global Brief magazine, and Co-Chair of the Canada Science & Policy Committee to Exit the Pandemic. His new book is “Canada Must Think for Itself – 10 Theses for our Country’s Survival and Success in the 21st Century.”
Saskatchewan rural communities want to lobby Ottawa to reconsider its demand that farmers reduce emissions from fertilizer use by 30% at a time of uncertain global food supplies and skyrocketing agriculture input costs.
The Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) recently passed a motion to lobby the federal government to reverse course on the voluntary reduction plan citing “detrimental effects” that the policy has on the farming economy and food production.
“The Federal Government is planning to reduce fertilizer emissions by 30% by 2030 for Canadian agri-businesses,” the motion reads.
“Saskatchewan is an agriculturally based province, and such a reduction will have a major impact on food production and farm viability.”
The motion goes on to cite how nitrogen fertilizer is an essential input for Saskatchewan farmers and claims that the “farm sector has been singled out for emission reductions.”
First introduced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in his government’s 2020 climate plan, the targets have caused friction between Ottawa and some farmers groups who have concerns that such a reduction would negatively impact yields.
As exclusively reported by True North, Ontario Federation of Agriculture President Peggy Brekveld told the Commons agriculture committee last month that farmers were “very nervous” about availability of fertilizer inputs while citing the Liberal government reduction targets.
“One thing I will say is that farmers are very, very nervous about the potential of losing the ability to use inputs, including fertilizer,” said Brekveld.
“There has been clarity that the government is looking to reduce emissions, and I understand that, but on the other side, many farmers see that if we measure using fertilizer, we’re probably making a mistake, because when we use fertilizer, if we don’t use enough, we actually degrade the soil.”
Saskatchewan has already taken steps to carve out some autonomy from the federal government when it comes to greenhouse gas emission regulations. This week Premier Scott Moe unveiled Bill 88, also known as The Saskatchewan First Act.
Bill 88 would allow the province to decide the “regulation of environmental standards and the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions and other emissions; and the source of fuel for electrical generation, including renewable and non-renewable resources.”
Similar to SARM’s motion, early in October, a motion before the Manitoba Legislative Assembly also called on the federal government to scrap its fertilizer emission targets citing harm to Canada’s food security.
“(We call on) the federal government to abandon their fertilizer reduction strategy that will hurt Manitoba farmers, producers and families, and additionally ensure that there are no penalties or exclusions from federal programs for farmers who do not meet these arbitrary targets,” the resolution read.
This is the second part of Rupa’s must-watch interview with Criminal defence attorney Ari Goldkind.
The Trudeau government’s rationale for invoking the Emergencies Act to quash the Freedom Convoy has fallen flat on its face. Based on testimonials given at the Public Order Emergency Commission in recent weeks, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the use of never-before-used act was not justified.
Ari joins The Rupa Subramanya Show to share his thoughts on the inquiry and what Canadians can expect when the commission makes its ruling.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland gave Canadians a snapshot of the country’s finances by unveiling the 2022 Fall Economic Statement on Thursday.
Despite warning of a “mild recession in the first quarter of 2023” and “a high degree of uncertainty” in its economic forecast, the government is promising $30.6 billion in new spending over the next six years.
The costly plan proposes to permanently eliminate interest on federal student debt, tax credits for clean technologies and incoming housing legislation.
“What we’re announcing today is to strike a balance between necessary compassion and support for Canadians, and fiscal responsibility,” Freeland said in the House of Commons.
The federal government is projecting a $36.4 billion deficit in the current fiscal year and forecasting a budget surplus of $4.5 billion by 2027/28.
One of the major takeaways from the economic update is that the Liberals will make Canada Student Loans and Canada Apprentice Loans interest-free forever “including those being repaid.”
The plan will cost taxpayers $2.7 billion over a period of five years with an estimated $556.3 million ongoing cost. Prior to the announcement, student-loans were already interest free until March 31, 2023 due prior pandemic policies.
The government also plans to spend $2.5 billion in targeted support for low and modest income households in the form of an additional GST credit payment up to $467 for people with two children. The Liberals also pledged to provide an additional $4 billion to the Canada Workers Benefit over the next six years to be dished out to Canadians who qualified for the plan in prior years.
On housing, the Liberals unveiled several pieces of legislation they hope to table including the creation of a Tax-Free First Home Savings Account, a doubling to the First-Time Home Buyers’ Tax Credit and a new Multigenerational Home Renovation Tax Credit.
Other initiatives include lowering credit card transaction fees for businesses and more support for provinces hit by Hurricane Fiona in 2022.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) slammed the Trudeau government, claiming the government is spending over budget.
“The government received a boat-load of extra cash from taxpayers and the government is still racking up more credit card bills.” said Federal Director for the CTF Franco Terrazzano.
“Freeland is pinky promising a balanced budget eventually, but even that relies on taking an extra $129 billion from taxpayers.”
The CTF believes the government needs to stop spending and raising taxes amid the inflation crisis.
“Canadians can’t afford gasoline or groceries because the government is spending like crazy and raising taxes,” said Terrazzano.
“Freeland needs to stop wasting so much money and cut taxes now.”
The Montreal Economic Institute (MEI) also chimed in on the economic update on Thursday urging the federal government to return to a balanced budget as soon as possible.
“The federal government should show some humility before taking credit for the reduction of the deficit. It’s not so much due to the responsible administration of public funds, but rather to the dramatic increase in tax revenues thanks to inflation being higher than expected,” said MEI economist Olivier Rancourt.
“Every dollar spent to service the debt is a dollar that will neither serve to fund services nor be returned to Canadian taxpayers. The government has every reason to return to a balanced budget very quickly, before interest rates make it that much harder to do so.”
A Liberal MP who wants to hold a government-wide pandemic review responded to the news that former Reform Party leader Preston Manning was chairing a citizen-led inquiry into federal and provincial Covid-19 responses by doubling-down on the need for an independent legislative process.
Beaches–East York MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith told True North that while any review needs to be transparent and non-partisan, he thinks the legislated review process initiated by parliament was the path forward.
“Any review process needs to be transparent, non-partisan, credible, and involve feedback and lessons learned from independent experts as well as decision-makers at all levels of government,” said Erskine-Smith.
“For my part, I continue to think that a legislated review process with support from all parties is a good idea and that the focus should be on learning lessons for future prevention and preparedness efforts.”
On Wednesday, Manning announced the launch of the National Citizens Inquiry (NCI) which seeks to examine a swathe of consequences that resulted from government public health measures.
“The inquiry will examine the consequences on public and personal health, rights and freedoms, on specific demographic groups such as the aged and our children, and the economy,” wrote Manning in a press release yesterday.
“Those testifying before the Inquiry will also be asked for recommendations for how Canada’s response in matters as this could be better managed in the future.”
Erskine-Smith has sponsored Bill C-293, also known as An Act respecting pandemic prevention and preparedness, which is set to be debated in the House of Commons beginning on Nov. 15.
Much like the NCI, Erskine-Smith’s bill also seeks to study the “effectiveness” of pandemic measures and relevant “health, economic and social factors” but through a more official process involving government appointees.
Erskine-Smith has been vocal about a need for “accountability and transparency” when it comes to how governments handled the past few years.
“We need a greater level of accountability and transparency. And so in this case, we need the Health Minister ideally to identify the key drivers of pandemic risks, describe how Canadian activities contribute to that risk, and then put in place measures to mitigate that risk,” said Erskine-Smith in October.
A student census scheduled to be given by the Toronto District School board (TDSB) during the month of November asks Grades 9-12 students 108 questions contained in 31 pages, many of them about racial identity, whether they’re trans and what they know about breast binding and penis tucking.
It is so long that on page 19, TDSB census officials advise students to take a “wellness break” and perhaps take two class periods to complete it.
The survey is rife with many of the same intrusive and obscenely sexualized questions contained in the Grade 7-8 census.
These questions include those on mental health and feelings, safe school spaces, whether respondents identify as trans and know about breast binding, packing, tucking or padding options.
There is the same question about whether teachers use a student’s preferred name and correct pronouns.
Students are also asked if they are members of any of four black groups and five different Indigenous groups. White as a racial group is located near the bottom of the list.
They are also asked to indicate whether they are a member of the LGBTQ2SIA+ community and if so, what category they fall into from selections that include asexual, pansexual (a student enjoys sex with a variety of genders and gender identities) and intersex (a student born with both female and male traits).
But the high school survey goes somewhat further with a bizarre question – Number 72 – about whether a student has learned about a variety of types of racism and anti-casteism.
Anti-Palestinian racism is separated out as if all Arabs are Palestinian, suggesting the ignorance of the survey creators about the Middle East.
Near the end of the survey, students are asked if school staff have discouraged them from taking university level courses or applying to post-secondary education.
This is a direct reference, in my view, to critical race theory which posits that our institutions are inherently racist and that black students are oppressed (not given the same opportunities) by those of white privilege or the oppressors.
Parents have reacted with outrage – as they should – with the release by True North of the details of the Grades 4-6 and 7-8 voluntary surveys.
Although November was originally heralded on their website as Census Month, officials at the TDSB have hidden all reference to the controversial census – amid contentions that it is not compliant with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA).
Most of the survey does not address disabilities. This is simply a lame attempt to pretend it doesn’t exist.
I’m not sure what TDSB officials intend to do with the answers, especially if parents advise their kids not to respond to it.
The touchy feely survey is so out of whack with what is actually occurring in high schools, it is surreal.
In short, students don’t need safe spaces because someone doesn’t like their gender identity or their pronouns. They need protection from the criminal element.
The survey was released one day after a violent school shooting at Scarborough’s Woburn Collegiate left an 18-year-old dead. Police confirmed he did not attend the school.
Yet the survey asks no questions about whether students feel unsafe due to ongoing violence, drug dealing, the lack of consequences (few suspensions or expulsions) and the fact that police officers were banned from schools in 2017.
It shows how far the TDSB has descended into a state of woke rot where officials care little about educating kids on the basics and even less about protecting them.
This is all about advancing radical ideologies using school kids as pawns.
The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) is being slammed for a controversial student census that incorporates critical race theory and gender ideology.
Jamil Jivani, President of the Canada Strong and Free Network, and Samuel Sey of SlowToWrite.com – two prominent black voices who have spoken out against the perils of critical race theory – told True North how the student census demonstrates the TDSB’s commitment to administering critical race theory.
“The TDSB’s student census is clear, irrefutable evidence that critical race theory is being practiced in Canadian public schools by administrators and school board officials,” says Jivani, a former advisor to the current Ontario government.
“The TDSB has been bragging about using critical race theory and “anti-racism” – better described as racism – for several years,” says Sey. “This TDSB census, however, is a more radical mission to infringe on parental rights and indoctrinate students.”
The board recently released the research principles that will be guiding their 2022 census and the frameworks include anti-oppression theory, anti-racist and critical race theory, and decolonial theory.
These progressive theories of viewing the world typically assert that white people have created and perpetuated a system to benefit themselves at the expense of Blacks, Indigenous peoples and other racial minorities.
For example, the census will use Quantitative Critical Race Theory, also known as QuantCrit, which prioritizes black people’s and other racialized minority’s interpretation of data over white people’s.
“QuantCrit acknowledges that data are open to numerous subjective (and conflicting) interpretations and QuantCrit foregrounds knowledge of racialized people of color and other marginalized communities to inform research, analyses, and findings,” reads the document.
Jivani notes that “when Canadian have expressed concerns about CRT in the school system, proponents of the ideology have often said CRT is not being taught in schools.”
“The problem has always been both the practice of CRT in schools as well as the placement of CRT in curricula. Defenders of CRT cannot deny this,” Jivani adds.
While the TDSB has committed itself to combatting all types of racism, the board specifically targets anti-black and anti-indigenous racism.
“Although different forms of racism are deeply connected…centring and finding solidarity with Indigenous Peoples and Black lives is essential in the work of recognizing, confronting and disrupting” all forms of systemic oppression, the document notes.
The TDSB’s commitment to so-called anti-racism has led them to abolish the practice of streaming, which divides classes based on their difficulty level to better cater to the individual student’s level of skill and knowledge.
Jivani says that class streaming can disproportionately affect minorities but is a result of class inequality and can be alleviated with alternative measures.
“The solution is to ensure kids are not locked into one stream of academics too early on in their time as students, but also ensure kids are being challenged according to their abilities,” he says.
The TDSB is also being criticized for its embrace of gender identity ideology from parents rights organizations.
Esme Vee, a founding member of the Canadian Women’s Sex-Based Rights (caWsbar), told True North that educators informed by university-level gender theories are “hypersexualizing the learning environment.”
“For the most part, anyone who’s advocating for gender identity ideology and teaching it to children believes they’re doing the right thing,” Vee says. “But, they are not aware of the wider implications of making children confused about their sex.”
In the student census given to children in grades 4-6, students are asked to “best describe your current gender identity.” The census given to students in grades 7-8 lists options such as genderfluid and genderqueer.
Vee says that while she has observed a shift toward embracing gender identity ideology in the past decade, parents are only now starting to realize what is being taught in schools because children were subjected to at-home learning during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The parents during the time of Covid got to look over their kids’ shoulders…and I think that was sort of a catalyst for parents to start looking more closely at what’s going on.”
Children don't need adults' gender identity ideology. They just need to be kids. pic.twitter.com/G1fwqzfHx2
— Canadian Women's Sex-Based Rights – caWsbar 🇨🇦 (@cawsbar) September 28, 2020
Samuel Sey says that the TDSB’s teaching and learning materials “show they’ve been using critical race theory since at least the 2014-2015 school year.”
As word of the TDSB census document circulated on social media, parents expressed concern with the school board’s direction.
“My kids are in the TDSB, I can’t sell my house and move,” one parent wrote on Twitter. “I have no idea what the hell to do.”
My kids are in the TDSB, I cant sell my house and move. My trustee is uber woke and won by a landslide. I have no idea what the hell to do
