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Heads ought to roll after Ottawa faculty performs Palestinian protest music as a substitute of honouring veterans
Revealed Nov 13, 2024 • Final up to date 10 hours in the past • 4 minute learn
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Frosty poppies sit atop a tombstone on Remembrance Day on the Nationwide Army Cemetery in Ottawa, Thursday, Nov. 11, 2021. Photograph by Sean Kilpatrick /THE CANADIAN PRESS
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Some Canadians don’t bear in mind what Remembrance Day means on this nation.
I by no means thought that I must write one thing like this in a column. The silly actions of an Ontario highschool principal, and the college’s ignorance and disrespect associated to the importance of this vital memorial day in our nice nation, have left me with no selection.
Throughout the Remembrance Day ceremonies at Ottawa’s Robert Borden Excessive College, the Arabic language protest music “Haza Salam” was included. Carried out by Mahim Ahmed in 2023, it’s a pro-Palestinian composition that’s been carefully related to the Gaza battle.
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There’s a time and place that this music may have been utilized in a classroom setting for instructional functions. Remembrance Day ceremonies are most definitely not one among them.
Remembrance Day honours the courageous women and men in uniform who fought for democracy, liberty, and freedom throughout the First World Conflict. We mark this memorial day when the armistice was signed between Germany and the Entente on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918. Canada was a proud member of the Entente, and we’ve paid homage to the veterans who defended our nation in addition to the heroes who made the last word sacrifice for over a century.
Solely essentially the most delusional of people and establishments would ever try and affiliate Remembrance Day with one thing just like the Gaza battle.
Talking of which, Aaron Hobbs, principal of Robert Borden, apologized on behalf of his highschool for taking part in a protest music that “caused significant distress to some members of our school community.” This was additionally included in his putrid letter to highschool households: “Our intention during the ceremony was to foster a message of peace and remembrance, reflecting on the importance of unity and reconciliation. However, we recognize that the song chosen — while intended to highlight themes of peace — also inadvertently caused offence and discomfort to some students, and for that, we regret our choice.”
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The truth that not one single highschool instructor or administrator, together with Hobbs, seemingly had the foresight to boost a hand and recommend that “Haza Salam” didn’t match inside the parameters of a Remembrance Day ceremony is the peak of stupidity. As Ontario PC MPP Lisa MacLeod appropriately identified, the music’s inclusion “did not follow the Royal Canadian Legion protocol and also distressed all of the Jewish Students.” Some Christian and average Muslim college students had been certainly distressed, too.
Lengthy story brief, Hobbs and Robert Borden Excessive College staffers ought to be ashamed of themselves. An apology isn’t almost sufficient to quell this controversy. Some heads undoubtedly have to roll.
Alas, that is one other instance in an extended and seemingly unending sequence of unlucky incidents involving Canada and Remembrance Day.
It was dangerous sufficient when the purple poppy vs. white poppy debate erupted in Canada (because it has in different nations) in 2016. This associated to a number of left-wing, anti-war activists who most well-liked to put on white poppies on Remembrance Day as an emblem of peace moderately than purple poppies as an emblem of militarism and blood on the battlefield. It’s a foolish place, to make certain, however not less than Canadians wore poppies of some color that day.
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Legendary hockey coach and broadcaster Don Cherry was additionally fired from CBC’s Hockey Evening in Canada in 2019 for talking out in opposition to people who didn’t put on poppies on Remembrance Day. His level was legitimate: fewer and fewer Canadians placed on a poppy with every passing yr. That’s moderately miserable, and he determined to talk out in opposition to it. There’s no query that Cherry, affectionately referred to as “Grapes,” may be controversial at occasions. However, this was a weird choice by the general public broadcaster that they’ve by no means actually lived down.
There was additionally a short-lived brouhaha in 2021 when Complete Meals Market, an American-owned chain, informed workers in its 14 places in Canada that they couldn’t put on poppies to work. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau referred to as it a “silly mistake” on the time. Ontario Premier Doug Ford went a lot additional. He described it as “disgusting” and “absolutely disgraceful” — and handed Invoice 38 — An Act to amend the Remembrance Week Act, 2016, which enshrined the proper to put on poppies within the office.
Ford and his PC authorities ought to become involved within the Ottawa highschool controversy, too. If Invoice 38 needs to be amended as soon as extra to make sure that Royal Canadian Legion protocol for Remembrance Day ceremonies is about in stone in all Ontario faculties, so be it. And if somebody needs to be fired for both forgetting or not understanding the actual motive why we have a good time Remembrance Day in Canada and all over the world, then get on it.
Ontario Chronicle
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