Community Groups Welcome Anti-Islamophobia Strategy

By -

The Peel District School Board passed an anti-Islamophobia strategy with approval from community groups.

The motion, calling for an anti-Islamophobia strategy, was brought forward and passed at a Peel District School Board meeting on September 30, 2021, by trustee Nokha Dakroub. The plan is being put in place with the intention of making schools safer for Muslim staff and students.

In a video posted to twitter, Nokha Dakroub said: “It is meant to include the delivery of mandatory anti-Islamophobia training to all staff, accountability measures, and regular communication with the broader community.”

Many community groups are supportive of the plan. Aasiyah Khan, Manager of Education Programs at the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), said: “As for mandatory anti-Islamophobia training for staff, such education is a way to eradicate misunderstanding around Islam, to bring in "diverse narratives" about Muslim communities, and to make sure educators have the tools they need to ensure that classrooms are inclusive.” If Islamophobia is left unchecked, it can lead to acts of violence,” she added. "Our schools aren't immune to these realities."

The strategy was put into effect following a scathing report identifying anti-black racism in the Peel District School Board and the killing, motivated by anti-muslim hate, of four members of a Muslim family in London, Ontario, earlier this year, and the fatal stabbing of a volunteer caretaker at an Etobicoke mosque, while he was sitting outside the front doors of the International Muslim Organization.

The June 2020, report commissioned by the Minister of Education on the Peel District School Board found its administrators were ill-prepared to make changes to deal with racism, specifically anti-Black racism, and that Islamophobia was a concern.

According to Stephen Lecce, Minister of Education, “The accounts of systemic racism and discrimination documented in the report are deeply troubling and will not be tolerated.”

In a video posted to Twitter, Dakroub said,

"The strategy will focus on education, building understanding, centring student voice and valuing lived experiences. It is meant to include the delivery of mandatory anti-Islamophobia training to all staff, accountability measures and regular communication with the broader community."

The Peel District School Board is the first board in the Greater Toronto Area to implement this anti-Islamophobia strategy.

Dakroub said, “the board has a responsibility to raise awareness, build understanding, ensure that schools are welcoming to all students and all staff, including those of Muslim faith, and deliver public education in a "culturally sensitive" manner.”

Considering the large Muslim population residing in Regent Park, community groups in Regent Park would like to see a similar strategy initiated in the Toronto District School Board. 

 

By Jessica Myutu

(Jessica is a volunteer journalist at the Focus Media Arts Centre)

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Regent Park Portrayed in Film and Television

By -
Image
Toronto has a rich history of being a go-to shooting location for many television and film production companies. Some notable films shot here over the years include Good Will Hunting (1997), Billy Madison (1998), American Psycho (2000), and X-Men (2000). Regent Park has also had its share of showcases in film. This article aims to review the general content of movie dramas and televisions shows shot in Regent and explore their relationship to the community. Clement Virgo is a director, producer, and writer from Montego Bay, Jamaica. He was born in 1966 and moved to the Regent Park area in Toronto in 1977. During this time Regent Park was generally populated by low-income families and as a hot spot for drugs. Virgo is most recently known for his roles in Greenleaf (2016-2018), The Book of Negroes (2015), and The Wire (2002) as Director and/or Producer. His first feature-length film, however, was Rude (1995), which was filmed almost entirely in the old Regent Park. “The film told...
Read more

What Social Inclusion Means to Me

By -
I had moved into Regent Park only a few days before I saw the pink, fuchsia, strawberry, indigo, yellow, green, neck streamers and sparkling robes worn by children, parents, aunts, uncles, and elders as they marched passed my kitchen door. Soon, the nearby Athletic Grounds was blazing with colour. Although it was the first time I heard them, the intonations on the microphone were recognizable, even to me, as prayers. It was Eid, the concluding celebration after Ramadan. It was a beautiful sight. I am a White Jewish senior and I hunted for a stairless condo for years before I chose to live in Regent Park and then only because a relative did business with the new seniors’ building there. “Regent Park?” a friend exclaimed. “You are going to have ethnic problems.”  “Not I.  I come from a long line of fiery leftie activists.” I replied. Stage four and five of revitalizing this post-war subsidized development into a multi-income community was just beginning and I ju...
Read more

Meet Your Neighbourhood Police Officers – PC Mircea Biga and PC Farzad Ghotbi

By -
Image
Community-based policing is a proactive law enforcement strategy that focuses on building ties and working closely with a community’s members to create partnerships and plans for preventing and reducing crime. While community policing will look differently depending on the community it serves, a central feature is that the same officer patrols and works in the same area on a permanent basis. Currently there are 17 community-based police programs in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), but what most people don’t know is that Toronto’s community policing started in Regent Park in May of 2017. We know this because the original officers involved in setting up the Regent Park community policing program continue to work here today. The officers are PC Mircea Biga, PC Farzad Ghotbi, and PC Edward Parks; the newest officer assigned to the Regent Park community is PC Nigel Thomas (who is replacing PC Melissa Huntley while she is on maternity leave). Symptomatic of the increasing diversity...
Read more