Good morning. Wendy Cox in Vancouver today.
Next year, Grade 10 students in British Columbia will be required to learn about the Holocaust as part of their coursework to graduate. It is content the provincial government added to the mandatory curriculum last October, weeks after the deadly Hamas attacks on Israel.
But internal communications among members of the BC Teachers’ Federation, as well as screenshots of deleted social-media posts obtained by The Globe and Mail, show deep division about the current conflict in the Middle East, with some Jewish teachers deeply offended by the actions of other teachers belonging to a social-justice group.
The BCTF endorses and helps finance 31 provincial specialist associations, each representing like-minded educators who share focus areas. The groups facilitate the development of teacher resources and conduct professional-development sessions.
Last week, the council responsible for approving the creation of these associations denied membership to a group of teachers formed to advise on Holocaust and Antisemitism issues. But reporter Xiao Xu was directed to the website of the Anti-Oppression Educators Collective, one of the 31 that does receive funding.
The AOEC prominently displayed the BCTF logo on its homepage. Among the group’s activities was a workshop in April called “Teaching for Palestine,” designed to “guide educators through the complexities of teaching, organizing, and advocating for Palestinian human rights and equality within classrooms and schools.” Screenshots of social-media posts by the group encourage people to show up for pro-Palestinian rallies.
The letter rejecting the Holocaust and Antisemitism Educators Association’s application for specialist designation did not explain reasons, but in a later, unattributed statement on its website, the union said the council determined that existing PSAs “already can and do support the proposed work.”
One of those groups, according to the union, is the AOEC.
BCTF president Clint Johnston said the AOEC was formed to address all forms of discrimination and oppression, including antisemitism. Members of the AOEC have been developing more resources on antisemitism and have expressed an interest in working with members of the HAEA on contributions.
But internal correspondence from last winter between a group of Jewish teachers and the AOEC indicates that could be difficult.
In their letter, the Jewish teachers objected to social-media posts and other materials produced by the AOEC that called for the freeing of all Palestinian prisoners, that referred to Israelis as settler colonialists and declared support for the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel.
The AOEC responded a week later assuring the teachers that its members are concerned about antisemitism and said “the massacre of civilians on Oct. 7 is abhorrent.” The group went on to say the Jewish educators were “conflating Jewishness with Zionist political ideologies.”
“We are committed to educating our membership about the distinction between anti-Zionism and antisemitism in our effort to fight antisemitism and all forms of oppression,” the AOEC letter says.
The BC Teachers Against Antisemitism responded further in a letter that noted “Zionism is simply the right to self-determination in our Indigenous homeland.” The letter said Jewish people should not face discrimination based on the actions of the Israeli government and noted that many Jews and Israelis themselves vehemently oppose the current government. It suggested the two groups get together, but said AOEC did not respond.
After The Globe sent questions to representatives of AOEC last week, the group’s website, Facebook and Instagram accounts were taken down. No one from the group has returned repeated requests for comment.
Johnston said his union has scheduled a meeting with the HAEA leadership to start a dialogue; however, the union executive does not have the power to overturn the decision of its Provincial Specialist Association Council.
Johnston said the union held a meeting with members of the HAEA earlier this week and both agreed “there is an urgent need to create and provide Holocaust and antisemitism teaching resources to teachers in B.C.”
He said the collaboration would “bolster the nearly year-long work the Federation has done with the Ministry of Education and Child Care” in preparation for the introduction of the Holocaust curriculum.
On Thursday, the union released a training module on antiracism. The module contains no references to antisemitism.
“It completely erases the history of discrimination against Jews in Canada, while documenting racism against almost every single other ethnocultural community – including Italians,” said a statement from BC Teachers Against Antisemitism. The statement was provided by Nico Slobinsky at the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.
Screenshots provided by the teacher group of a search on the union’s website for teaching resources about the Holocaust or antisemitism show no results for either subject.
This is the weekly British Columbia newsletter written by B.C. Editor Wendy Cox. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here.
Wendy Cox