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FIRST READING: Teacher’s union who organized ‘field trip’ to anti-Israel protest says it did nothing wrong

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As Ontario begins an investigation against Toronto teachers who forced their students to participate in a political protest featuring radical anti-Israel elements, the teachers’ union at the centre of the controversy is saying it did nothing wrong and would do it again.

On Sept. 18, dozens of Toronto public school students as young as 10 were taken by their teachers on a field trip to what was described to parents as an Indigenous “gathering.”

“This field trip is an educational opportunity for our students to learn about Indigenous activism, environmental justice and human rights,” read an outline, which assured parents that their children would “not be participating in the rally itself.”

The gathering turned out to be the Walk for Mercury Justice, a Queen’s Park political protest seeking compensation and remediation for severe mercury poisoning at the Grassy Narrows First Nation, located north of Kenora, Ont.

The demonstration was promoted heavily by Ontario public sector unions, including those representing Toronto teachers. And it would end up featuring strong contingents of extremist demonstrators, including marchers carrying communist flags and others calling for the destruction of Israel.

Palestinian Youth Movement — an explicitly pro-terror group that handed out candy at rallies celebrating the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks — had publicly urged its followers to attend the Walk for Mercury Justice in order to “foster Indigenous resistance across Turtle Island.”

Video of the protest would show children – some clutching protest signs – being led through a crowd chanting “from Turtle Island to Palestine, occupation is a crime.”

Leaked emails showed that parents had even been encouraged to dress their children in blue based on whether or not they were “settlers.”

“For any Indigenous participants, they are invited to wear their regalia. Settlers are asked to wear blue, if possible,” reads a Sept. 17 mass email with details of the “field trip.” Parents were also warned that media would be present at the event and that “masking is encouraged.”

In a Tuesday statement, the Elementary Teachers of Toronto — one of the organizers of the protest — made no apology for the field trip or even its anti-Israel elements, saying it fit within their mandate of “social, environmental and racial justice.”

“We see the vilification of links made between solidarity movements on Turtle Island and Palestine,” it read. No mention was made of the presence of groups like Palestinian Youth Movement, with the union simply saying it was proud to have joined “many other unions, community organizations, and concerned people from across the city.”

“We will continue to support Grassy Narrows in its call for environmental justice,” it read.

Social media posts by the Elementary Teachers of Toronto on the day of the protest would show union officials posing alongside children hoisting flags and signs along with the caption “ETT, students and parents standing in solidarity.”

On Tuesday, Ontario Education Minister Jill Dunlop said her office would be launching an investigation into the demonstration, saying in a statement “it is clear that the TDSB has failed to take swift and decisive action on this matter.”

The Toronto District School Board said in a Friday statement that the trip was intended to be “an educational experience for students to hear from Indigenous voices about the ongoing challenges faced by the people of Grassy Narrows.” Nevertheless, they promised to launch a probe into parental complaints “about issues outside of the main focus of the event.”

On Tuesday, parental outrage over the field trip even spurred a protest of its own. More than a hundred people rallied outside Toronto District School Board headquarters to call for the immediate firing of TDSB employees responsible for the field trip.

“Our city needs the growing talent that comes out of our school system and not brainwashed and indoctrinated children who have been taught conspiracy theories and hateful tropes,” Toronto City Councillor James Pasternak said in a speech to the crowd.

The Bloc Québécois has officially laid out the conditions under which it will prop up the Trudeau government:

The conditions are not cheap. The pension hike alone would cost an estimated $16 billion, according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer. And that would be on top of the $15 billion per year in extra spending that the NDP demanded as a condition of its support for the Trudeau government. Although the NDP has since withdrawn their support, the programs they demanded (such as dental care) are all entrenched and continue to draw on the federal budget.

The cost of the Bloc demands just happen to add up to about the same amount as the revenue expected from the Trudeau government’s controversial hike to the capital gains tax. Although industry leaders warned that higher capital taxes would scare away investment, Ottawa countered that the measure was projected to bring in $19.4 billion over five years. According to a new analysis by University of Calgary economist Jack Mintz, that $19.4 billion will come at the cost of a $90 billion hit to Canadian GDP, a $127 billion plunge in Canada’s capital stock and the loss of more than 400,000 jobs. “This is not a trivial loss to the Canadian economy,” he wrote in The Hub.

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