The students, aged 12 to 14, were told to chant ‘from Turtle Island to Palestine, occupation is a crime’
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Parents have reported that a contingent of Toronto school kids were taken by their teachers to a downtown political protest on the grounds that they were going on an Indigenous-themed field trip.
A smartphone video posted on social media showed several dozen students aged 12 to 14 being ushered through a crowd chanting “from Turtle Island to Palestine, occupation is a crime.”
“At a (Toronto District School Board) sanctioned field trip,” read a caption by Maya Fitzpatrick.
A parent, identified as Melissa, called into AM640 to describe accompanying the field trip. Melissa said teachers dismissed letters from parents saying the excursion was “not a good idea,” and emphasized that children were being taken to a “gathering.”
“I’ve been to many protests in my life, and if this was not a protest I will eat my hat,” Melissa said in an interview with Toronto Today host Greg Brady.
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The protest was part of the Sept. 18 River Run, which culminated in the Walk for Mercury Justice, a demonstration at Queen’s Park regarding extremely high rates of mercury poisoning at the Grassy Narrows First Nation outside Kenora, Ont.
But the procession had no shortage of radical elements, including delegations from the Communist Party of Canada, as well as Toronto’s usual coterie of anti-Israel organizers, including the Palestinian Youth Movement, a group that has repeatedly celebrated terrorist attacks against Israel and called for the annihilation of the Jewish state.
Amidst posts memorializing the Hezbollah “martyrs” killed by exploding pagers earlier this week, PYM put out an official call for its followers to join the Grassy Narrows demonstration and help “foster Indigenous resistance across Turtle Island.” (Turtle Island being a “decolonized” name often used by activists in place of the word “Canada” or “North America.”)
Toronto-area MP Kevin Vuong also weighed in on the field trip during a call to AM640. “TDSB teachers lied; they lied that this would be about Grassy Narrows … they lied that they would be observing and learning – they were made to protest,” he said.
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Israel’s Toronto consul, Idit Shamir, similarly accused TDSB of “indoctrination.”
“Adults in keffiyehs and face coverings led the way, while young minds were subjected to a one-sided political narrative,” she wrote on social media.
The TDSB said in a statement that the “educational experience” was meant to expose students to Indigenous voices.
“We understand that issues beyond the main focus of this event were raised and that some students may have been negatively impacted by what they saw and heard. The TDSB was not aware that students would engage with any issues outside of the main focus of the River Run and we apologize for the harm that some students may have experienced as a result. At this time, we are supporting impacted students and their families,” the statement says.
“In general, students should not be participating in organized protests as part of a field trip, and this clarification will be shared with the system. The TDSB will also be reviewing its field trip procedures to provide guidance that upholds the safety and well-being of students.”
The Wednesday event obtained official backing from teacher’s organizations, including the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario, who sent representatives to the march and urged others to show “solidarity” with the cause.
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Deputizing children to participate in political causes is not unprecedented within the TDSB, if only for the fact that the Wednesday field trip is not even the first time that school children have been mobilized to take up the specific issue of Grassy Narrows.
A cursory web search turns up a 2019 event at Toronto’s Mountview Alternative school where elementary school students were enlisted to write letters to the prime minister advocating for immediate action on clean drinking water at Grassy Narrows.”
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