The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) has removed a teacher from the classroom after comparing vaccine passports to the yellow Star of David that Jews were forced to wear in the Holocaust.
The interim principal at Ledbury Park Elementary and Middle School in the North York district of Toronto informed parents last week that the teacher was removed from the classroom and is under investigation, B’nai Brith Canada said in a statement applauding the move on Monday.
“We’ve seen a growing and disturbing trend of using yellow stars to express concerns and dissatisfaction with contemporary issues,” said Michael Mostyn, Chief Executive Officer of B’nai Brith Canada. “But under no circumstances should they be used because it automatically trivializes the horrific atrocities that Jewish people went through in the Holocaust. There is no comparison. Period. End of story.”
The incident at Ledbury followed last week’s incident at Charles H. Best Middle School, also located in North York, in which two students drew swastikas and made Nazi salutes in front of their peers.
B’nai Brith Canada also noted an incident last November outside the Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute, in which students protested against Israel and called for its destruction.
“From the failed censure of a Jewish trustee to student marches calling for the destruction of the Jewish State, something is amiss at the TDSB,” Mostyn said.
“Although we commend the investigation and removal of the teacher from the classroom concerning this incident at Ledbury, the overall pattern paints a troubling picture of a school board that does not seem equipped to stifle recurring incidents of Jew-hatred and trivialization,” he added.
Canada has seen a rise in antisemitic incidents in recent years.
Last March, Statistics Canada released its annual survey of police-reported hate crimes which found that Jews have remained by far the most targeted religious group for hate crimes in Canada.
The Statistics Canada report found that there were 1,946 police-reported hate crimes in Canada in 2019, up 7 percent from a year earlier.
Last April, B’nai Brith Canada released its Annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents, which found that antisemitic incidents in Canada have increased 18 percent since 2019.
The study affirms that Canadian Jews remain the most targeted religious group in the country.