Parents, students gather for anti-Black racism rally outside Toronto school
CBC
Protesters gathered outside a Toronto high school on Saturday to call for an end to anti-Black racism after a teacher wore blackface to school for Halloween.
The rally outside of Parkdale Collegiate Institute, where the incident happened on Oct. 29, was aimed at fighting racism in schools.
The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) has since placed the teacher on home assignment, but community members are calling for stronger action from the board, saying incidents involving racism and discrimination at schools should not be tolerated.
A petition that has garnered more than 3,400 signatures as of Saturday morning calls on the TDSB to address racism within Toronto schools and hold those who discriminate accountable for their actions, adding that this isn't a "one-time incident."
"It was traumatizing to the children who were in the classroom, and unfair that the responsibility was on them to document with photos and come forward to complain," the petition reads.
"As parents, many of us have witnessed overt and micro-racial aggressions toward our children. This incident, however, is severe, shocking and concerning," the petition continues.
Parents said the current policy and protocols in place are not enough and they urged the board to create or provide the following:
In a letter to parents and students on Friday, the TDSB said it is finishing its investigation into the matter and will provide an update next week.
The TDSB said it has taken a number of steps since the incident, such as holding a meeting for the school advisory council and organizing sessions for students in grades 10-12 to "be heard and engage in critical discourse."
On Nov. 19, all staff will take part in learning about historical and current harm caused by blackface and understanding the difference between freedom of expression and hate speech, the letter added.
In a statement on Nov. 3 following the incident, Colleen Russell-Rawlins, education director for the TDSB, apologized to the school community.
"Far from a fun and joyful celebration for students on this occasion, this disrespectful and highly offensive act brought pain and harm and served as a grim reminder of how much racism and oppression we have yet to defeat in the TDSB through both collective and individual actions," Rawlins said.
"On behalf of the TDSB, I want to apologize to the students, families and staff who were impacted at Parkdale CI, but also the larger TDSB family — particularly to those in the Black community — for the negative impact of this dehumanizing incident of anti-Black racism."
More Alberta seniors are now eligible for a provincially funded RSV vaccine.
More than 100 workers at a steel plant in eastern Ontario are being laid off either temporarily or permanently, as a company with facilities in Quebec and Ontario cuts its workforce due to challenging market conditions — including U.S. tariffs.
A small town northwest of Thunder Bay, Ont., has become the unlikely home for hundreds of foreign workers, but many may have to leave the community they've embraced after the end of a federal program put in place to fill gaps in Canada's labour market.
There's mixed reaction in Waterloo to an injuction allowing police to detain, arrest and charge anyone who is participating in unsanctioned street parties in that city this weekend.
Diabetes Canada is excited about Prince Edward Island's new pharmacare deal with the federal government, but hopes the province will reevaluate copays on diabetes supplies, says a senior manager with the organization.
After 26 years of accommodating guests from across the world, Faith Embleton says she and her husband Ken are ready to sell their bed and breakfast.
A group of big-name companies including Google, Meta and Dow have signed a pledge to support tripling the world's nuclear energy capacity by 2050, a signal of the technology's growing resurgence in popularity.
Five years on, Toronto-area doctors and public health officials are looking back at what they've learned since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — and most agree the early experience will prove useful if the city faces another infectious disease crisis.
City staff would like Londoners to take a good look around their home and ask themselves a direct and possibly difficult question: Could everyone in your family survive at home, without leaving and with no other help, for a full 72 hours?
Liberal Leader Mark Carney will officially become Canada's next prime minister within a few hours, taking the reins as the country barrels toward a general election and continues to fend off verbal and economic attacks from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Recent cyberattacks in Newfoundland and Labrador should have been a wake up call for the federal government about the reality of an increasingly hostile world, says one cybersecurity expert.
A recent CBC News analysis found that Nova Scotia is rapidly losing some of its most affordable apartments, but housing experts say there are ways to prevent that.
Premier Susan Holt is defending her decision to not use electricity exports to Maine as leverage against U.S. tariffs, arguing the move might cause long-term pain for New Brunswickers.