Jewish group to organize TDSB protest after field trip

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A Jewish advocacy group is planning a protest for Tuesday evening over a recent field trip that ended with students attending an anti-Israel rally in downtown Toronto.

“Fire them now,” demands a poster for the protest, organized by Tafsik, a Jewish advocacy group. “Revoke their licence now!”

On social media, the group has demanded that “every single teacher” involved in the field trip be fired and criminally charged.

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“We are DONE with the constant Jew hate! You have until the end of the day on Monday to fire every single teacher involved in this. They should be charged with Criminal Negligence (s219),” Tafsik’s official X account says. “If you don’t fire them all, we will be at your offices on Tuesday!”

The Toronto District School Board, the largest school board in Canada, has come under fire over the past several days after video emerged of middle school students who had attended a protest at Grange Park downtown. The stated purpose of the field trip was for students to learn about the Grassy Narrows First Nation in northwestern Ontario, which has long been demonstrating to raise awareness of mercury contamination from a pulp mill that operated in the 1960s and ’70s.

Students from approximately 15 schools attended the protest, the TDSB said Monday.

Parents, according to screenshots of emails posted to social media, were told that students would not be participating in the protest, but the students ended up marching among people who were shouting anti-Israel slogans such as “from Turtle Island to Palestine, occupation is a crime.”

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Some parents have since raised concerns about the event. The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies called the event an “egregious violation of parental trust” and “expressed outrage” over “the harm caused to students.” The TDSB said that some parents reported their kids were upset at having seen a protest.

In an interview, Amir Epstein, the executive director of Tafsik Organization, said the TDSB has been “brutally antisemitic” and raised concerns that the rally could have turned violent with children present.

“We can’t allow TDSB to do whatever they want with our children, abuse them, humiliate them, without any consequences,” Epstein said. “We’re hoping that the teachers responsible will be fired. We’re hoping that their teaching licence is taken away. They’re not to be trusted around children, as their primary duty is to protect our children, not to expose them to danger.”

A post from the Elementary Teachers of Toronto union shows multiple adults marching in the Grassy Narrows protest. It was posted with the caption: “Marching the streets with students, parents & teachers united in our demand for justice.”

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The union did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.

When reached Monday by National Post about any developments, including whether the board planned to discipline teachers, and for information about whether, as has been reported, students were told to wear blue shirts to identify them as “colonizers,” the TDSB referred the Post to its Friday statement, saying the investigation into what happened was ongoing.

“This excursion was organized as an educational experience for students to hear from Indigenous voices about the ongoing challenges faced by the people of Grassy Narrows,” the TDSB said in a statement on Friday.

It apologized for the harm “some students may have experienced” as a result of the event. An investigation has also been launched, and the TDSB says it will review “field trip and relevant procedures with our staff and reiterate our expectations.

“If it is found that TDSB policies, procedures or professional standards were not followed, we will take appropriate action, which may include discipline and/or changes to our field trip process to ensure accountability,” the statement said.

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Ryan Bird, a TDSB spokesperson, said the field trip policies “don’t speak specifically to these sort of events,” but that “students should not be participating in organized protests as part of a field trip, and this clarification will be shared with the system.” The review of the field trip policy will “determine how we can further clarify this.”

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