The Toronto District School Board has cancelled a workshop on tackling anti-Palestinian racism that had been scheduled to take place at one of its public schools. The session was called off at the last minute, prompting complaints from members of the community and calls from advocates for the event to be allowed to proceed.
The workshop was organized by Noel Morgan, who said its purpose was to provide education, awareness and support on combatting anti-Palestinian racism. According to Morgan, the rhetoric describing the event as divisive is, in his words, the furthest thing from the truth, and he framed the workshop as an effort to unite the community.
The event had been planned at Ursula Franklin Academy, the same school tied to an incident from a year earlier. When the yearbooks were printed, two students were featured wearing the keffiyah, a Palestinian scarf, in their photographs.
A decision was then made to collect all of the yearbooks and to place stickers over the faces of those two students before the yearbooks were distributed. Morgan described the move as a symbol of erasure, and according to him the episode led to more than 100 students walking out of the school in solidarity with their classmates.
It was at that same school that Morgan had planned to hold his workshop. Ahead of the event, board members signed a letter addressed to board representatives claiming that the distribution of the event's flyers amounted to an improper use of TDSB facilities for geopolitical fundraising and advocacy.
In a statement, the TDSB said it had heard from people within the school community about the divisiveness this particular permit would cause, and that, as such, it made the decision to decline the permit request. The board added that when it is made aware that a permit could have a negative impact on the climate of a school, it has a responsibility to act.
Morgan said he now plans to host the event elsewhere. At the same time, he and other advocacy groups are calling on the TDSB to reverse course and reinstate the permit, arguing that the workshop should be allowed to go ahead.