The Palestinian Student Association at Rick Hansen Secondary School in Mississauga promoted a “wear your keffiyeh to school day” on the third anniversary of October 7.
The Palestinian Student Association kicked off in late October 2023, just weeks after the massacre and abduction of Israeli civilians, promising to “create [an] enjoyable experience” while raising awareness of the “Palestinian conflict.”
The group previously hosted “keffiyeh try-ons” to educate students about “the cause” and referred to Canada as “Turtle Island” on Truth and Reconciliation Day this year.
Juno News reached out to the Peel District School Board for comment.
This is not the first time Peel schools have faced issues over their tolerance of antisemitic revisionism.
Fletcher’s Meadow Secondary School in Brampton hosted a historical revisionist and political educational display themed “Christmas in Palestine” last year, prepared by teacher Fadi Mehanna, although this was later taken down following complaints.
The school said the display “was created to share the Palestinian perspective on Christmas traditions and experiences in Palestine” and that the intent was to “align with Christian Heritage Month and foster cultural understanding.”
On the second anniversary of October 7 last year, parents from the Earl Haig Secondary School in Toronto, an area of the city with a large Jewish student population, were furious when they heard the news that the school played ‘O Canada’ in Arabic.
Principal Steve Yee simply called it an “unfortunate incident,” an explanation that Ontario Minister of Education Paul Calandra accepted, and no further action was taken.
“The so-called mistake actually traumatized our entire community on a very traumatic day,” said Vicky Moscoe, a Jewish parent in the Earl Haig community. “They aren’t taking into account the damage that’s been done.”
Calandra’s office said it was time to create an environment that “brings people together and not one that divides people.”
But Palestinianism and historical revisionism are happening in schools across the province. In Hamilton, the board paid over $70k for a mandatory training session that the board later refused to disclose through access to information on the basis that it posed a “danger to safety or health.”
Juno News later obtained screenshots and an audio transcript of the training session, which instructed teachers, including Jewish ones, to “sit in the discomfort,” told teachers that raising the Palestinian flag is an “act of resistance,” and encouraged teachers to support student walkouts as a “protected right.”
Lamenting the public weariness of Islamic violence, Khadijeh Rakie of KR Consulting and a second trainer said that “Muslim political violence has taken only two lives in Canada since 1916… they’re giving us a Canada always worried about the next act of so-called jihadi terrorism.”
“Jihad,” she said, means to “struggle,” as in “struggling to do better and struggling against yourself,” while “Allahu Akbar” means “God is creator.”
It’s not surprising that jihad is being whitewashed by Ontario educators in this way. Many people may not be aware that Ontario’s Ministry of Education inserted jihad apologetics into the Grade 11 world religion curriculum several years ago.
While Minster Calandra has stated unequivocally that he vows to “root out” activist teachers, and presumably with it the divisive political activism in schools, full stop, very little has been done to achieve this in a practical sense.
Perhaps next October 7 will come and go without incidents.