GENOCIDE CLASS A HOT TOPIC FOR TDSB
RETT CLARKSON
Toronto Sun, Canada
June 12 2008
It promises to be a school board meeting brimming with tension,
and most likely, heated argument.
When the Toronto District School Board meets tonight to vote on what
atrocities should be included in its proposed Grade 11 genocide course,
sparks will fly — if the last meeting on the topic is any indication.
"It could be very controversial," said former longtime board trustee
Alex Chumak, now a member of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress.
At a meeting on June 2 at the board’s Yonge St. and Sheppard
Ave. headquarters, shouting matches erupted outside between Turkish
and Armenian Canadians, while several angry Ukrainians, some in tears,
yelled down from the spectator’s gallery.
At that packed meeting, a three-member committee of trustees had just
voted in favour of director of education Gerry Connelly’s proposal
to base the course around three examples: The 1915 Armenian genocide,
the Holocaust, and the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
At tonight’s meeting, the board, which has the final say, will have
a full vote.
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