The Ontario government has finally released the review that investigating the TDSB for attendance at Grassy Narrows’ River Run march on September 18, 2024 (Final report on the review of the Toronto District School Board’s excursions policy and procedure)
Toronto Palestinian Families (TPF) welcomes Patrick Case’s report on TDSB excursion policies, which confirms what Palestinian students have long experienced: institutional erasure of Palestinian identity. The investigation into the Grassy Narrows solidarity field trip validates concerns our community has raised for years.
This event, which schools proudly participated in, has long been held in solidarity with Grassy Narrows and their demands for clean water and environmental justice. Alongside 8,000 others, Palestinian families were among those who stood in solidarity with Grassy Narrows to call for meaningful action on basic commitments made under the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)—commitments that have been ignored by the Ontario government.
The report validates what Palestinian students and families have been saying for years: our identities and our solidarity efforts are treated with suspicion and subjected to erasure. The investigation makes clear that anti-Palestinian racism permeated the entire process – from the framing of the controversy to the TDSB’s response. The mere presence of Palestinian students at a rally for Indigenous rights was treated as a threat, rather than a rightful act of solidarity and civic engagement.
We remain deeply concerned about the actions of the TDSB that gave credence to false allegations of harm and hate. The investigator found that social media and mainstream media used misinformation “to fan the flames of outrage.” Case held the TDSB responsible noting that the “TDSB added fuel to the fire by apologizing for behaviours that were either exaggerated in social media or that did not in fact take place.”
In a particularly harmful move, the TDSB cancelled a subsequent Indigenous-related field trip for the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation.
The report confirms that parents were not misled or lied to about the nature of the trip, that the event was joy-filled and educational and that it had an enormously positive impact on students and in particular Indigenous children who felt seen and heard. Case highlighted that education is where children “learn about the context to understand local and global issues and historical events.”
By apologizing for the presence of Palestinian voices at an Indigenous rally, the TDSB caused significant harm. It also shifted focus away from the crucial issues of environmental justice for Indigenous communities – and reinforced the marginalization of Palestinians. This pattern of silencing Palestinian voices through manufactured controversy is not new. Case documented a “culture of fear” and ongoing erasure of Palestinian identity within the TDSB.
We support the report’s recommendation that the Ministry of Education develop professional development programs for trustees and senior Board staff on both Palestinian erasure and antisemitism. Our coalition—Toronto Palestinian Families and Toronto Jewish Families—provides such training under the CARAT (Combatting Anti-Palestinian Racism and Antisemitism Together) initiative. We urge the TDSB to implement this recommendation without delay.
Finally, the incidents surrounding and leading to the Grassy Narrows investigation are part of an ongoing pattern of anti-Indigenous and anti-Palestinian racism at the TDSB.
The report affirms what our children regularly experience at the TDSB: Palestinian identity and solidarity are routinely met with suspicion and erasure. By failing to acknowledge and address the many incidents of anti-Palestinian racism that we have brought to the TDSB’s attention in the past, they have allowed it to continue unabated.
We call on the TDSB to:
- Formally apologize for once again treating Palestinian identity as something to be suppressed
- Implement the recommendations in the Case report without delay
- Establish an anti-Palestinian racism advisory committee with parents, students and community stakeholders.
- Take concrete action on our six demands:
- Include anti-Palestinian racism in the TDSB’s Equity Policy.
- Publicly affirm that TDSB students and staff will not be punished for supporting Palestinian human rights and/or criticizing the state of Israel.
- Develop and offer educational resources and training at all levels of the TDSB related to Palestinian human rights and anti-Palestinian racism.
- End collaborations with groups that perpetrate anti-Palestinian racism, harass students and staff, target progressive Jewish voices, or push for curbs on civil liberties. Collaborations include, but are not limited to: creating and conducting workshops for students or staff, leading PD for staff, assisting with policy directives, and offering field trips for students.
- Build collaborations with organizations that teach Jewish identity that is not inherently linked to Israel, and recognize diversity within Jewish populations.
- Acknowledge harm done to Palestinian families by the TDSB’s erasure of Palestinian suffering in communications to all TDSB parents and caregivers, and the continued silence of the TDSB during what the United Nations has called “unparalleled and unprecedented” killing of civilians that is leading Gaza to become “a graveyard for children”.
Toronto Palestinian Families 