Controversial day asked to be removed from school calendar in Mississauga and Brampton
Published April 12, 2024 at 3:39 pm
A Palestinian day listed on a Peel District School Board calendar has sparked an outcry from members of the Jewish community.
In an open letter, members of the Jewish community are asking that Nakba Remembrance Day be removed from the Peel District School Board’s Days of Significance calendar.
The calendar is a secular and creed-based list of days of significance and includes everything from Emancipation Day to Winter Solstice, Earth Day, Easter and Rosh Hashanah.
Nakba Remembrance Day, which is on May 15, marks the “mass displacement of Palestinians” in 1948 to establish Israel as a homeland for the Jewish people, according to the United Nations.
The day was added to the school board’s Days of Significance calendar in advance of the 2023-24 school year, Peel District School Board’s spokesperson Malon Edwards told The Canadian Jewish News.
Edwards did not immediately provide a statement to insauga.com.
Videos
The Peel District School Board’s Days of Significance calendar for the month of May 2024.
An open letter sent to school board trustees and insauga.com, suggested the “Peel District School Board failed to follow its own policies when it added the ‘Nakba Remembrance Day.'”
The day is in direct contravention anti-racism and human rights policies, the letter states.
It suggests trustees reverse the decision to include Nakba Remembrance Day during the board’s April 15 meeting.
Ontario’s Education Minister Stephen Lecce indicated the day shouldn’t have been added to the school calendar.
“Over the past months, I made my expectations clear to all school boards that there is no room for politics or the influence of personal opinions in Ontario classrooms,” Lecce said in a statement to insauga.com when asked about the addition of the day. “At a time when so many young Canadians are divided, it is critical that schools bring people together.”
But Malon said the board values the diversity of the communities it serves in the Peel District School Board.
insauga's Editorial Standards and Policies advertising