Dear Honourable Premier Ford and Honourable Minister of Education Jill Dunlop,

I am a parent of elementary-aged and/or secondary school children in Ontario schools. As we prepare to send our kids back to school, I understand that unions including ETFO and other advocates and organizations are preparing to once again attempt to insert and amplify activism related to Palestine/Israel into our children’s schools. Last year our schools were disrupted by walkouts and protests, conflicts over teaching materials, guest speakers, fundraising, commemorations, school displays and acts of intolerance and exclusion against students and teachers.

As a parent, I wish to convey to you, as the Premier and our new Minister of Education, that I want my child’s school to focus on student success and learning the Ontario curriculum. Our schools are not obliged to provide a forum for advocacy for any issue, especially not a complex war in the Middle East and refusing to do so is not a form of racism as some activists would have us believe.

Here in Ontario, Canada, our schools are legally obliged to create and maintain an inclusive learning environment where Palestinians, Israelis, Jews, Muslims and children from all backgrounds go to school together and sit side by side. Schools are places of peace in times of war. They are places of inclusion in times of division. And they are the places we send our children to learn the Ontario curriculum and trust that teachers and administrators leave their politics at the door of the school. 

I am appealing to you to please direct schools to keep the Middle East conflict out of our elementary and secondary schools; require staff to focus on the curriculum; and hold schools and boards accountable which allow the Middle East conflict to infect our schools with division and intolerance. You have the power and responsibility to set the tone for the school year. Please take this opportunity to do so clearly and unequivocally.