In a newly released eight-minute video, the Waterloo Region District School Board’s (WRDSB) activist education director Jeewan Chanicka claims that from now on, students will be placed at the centre of all board decision-making – or at least some students

Chanicka’s video on the board’s new Strategic Plan – a dizzying word salad of wokeisms – makes it clear that Indigenous, black or racialized and 2SLGBTQIA+-identified will get special attention.

He talks about the concept of an “Ethical Core” which puts students at the centre of policy and planning, around which gravitate staff, families, global partners and community partners.

“The circle is anchored in the wisdom of Indigenous peoples… we are stronger together,” he says.

“Circles bring us in … they erase hierarchies even though some of us may hold greater responsibilities.”

He says students are at the top of the organizational chart, which in its new incarnation looks like a colourful whirling top.

Quite frankly Chanicka made my head hurt as he repeatedly claimed this “work is hard and necessary,” as if reading from a progressive handbook.

But bear in mind this is the same education director who produced an eight-minute video on menstruators, in which he claimed that men menstruate too.

If one looks beyond Chanicka’s bafflegab, however, it is clear his strategic plan is in lockstep with the ideologies promoted by his black activist colleague, Toronto District School Board (TDSB) education director Colleen Russell-Rawlins.

In fact, the strategic plan comes across as a roundabout way of ramming Indigenous and Critical Race theories down the throats of WRDSB students and dumbing down the curriculum.

The plan calls for de-streaming from Kindergarten to Grade 12. They also propose reducing the number of expulsions and suspensions.

Their plan vows to “disrupt anti-Indigenous racism and Indigenous erasure” so that First Nation, Metis and Inuit students have a sense of success and belonging in Canada, formerly known as Turtle Island.

To do so, the WRDSB will ensure students from K-Grade 12 learn about Treaties, the contributions of Indigenous peoples and residential schools.

In the 2022-23 academic year, the Grade 11 English requirement will transition to English: Understanding Contemporary First Nation, Metis and Inuit Voices.

The idea, according to the plan, is to make students “caring and compassionate global citizens” by having them understand the contributions of the original inhabitants of Turtle Island.

Talk about pandering to political correctness. Statistics from the Waterloo region show that only 1.7% of all residents identify as Indigenous. 

The plan, while not going as far as to name Critical Race Theory, states that WRDSB administrators will work with 90 schools over the next five years to empower them to “notice, name and disrupt anti-Black racism.”

This will help schools, teachers and administrators to better support “Black brilliance”, the plan says.

“We will continue to engage in system-wide learning on the ways anti-Black racism shows up throughout society and in schools with the goal of Black students being able to see and feel their identities, abilities and lived-in experiences,” the plan states. “We recognize that anti-Black racism pervades all systems in our society.”

This plan makes it abundantly clear that black students, who have been treated differently (in other words, oppressed) in the school system, will get preferential treatment.

Not only is this plan a perfect example of reverse racism but it dangerously assumes that black and Indigenous (if there are any in the board’s schools) students should take no responsibility for such allegedly racist acts as not choosing to go to university or for being allegedly targeted with more suspensions and expulsions.

It just waters everything down to the lowest common denominator and will create classrooms where achievement (at least by those not considered to have preferential status) will be frowned upon.

It’s indoctrination at its finest.

Chanicka’s parting word salad is proof of that:

“The work is hard, and necessary… (as we) prepare students for their futures…We all want to create a public education system where every student knows they belong, feels supported and is able to achieve their fullest potential in learning and in life.”

You know as do I that won’t happen.

If this woke philosophy continues under an education director who should never have gotten the job in the first place, those able to do so will leave the public board. 

Those who don’t, will graduate knowing all about Treaties and how to communicate as an Indigenous person but ill-prepared for both higher learning and the world of work.