By Staff
June 3rd, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
Some of the comments made by people who move their lips when they read are close to the most disgusting I have seen on this web site. There are serious problems that are going to take decades to resolve. Our practice has been to permit opposing views. Comments on this issue are not going to be published.
UPDATE: The spokesperson for the M.M. Robinson High School student group sent us the following statement after the article was first published.
” Our walkout is being put in place to call upon a ceasefire. We must make it clear that we are not pro terror, anti semitic, or otherwise. All we ask is for an end in the fighting, and the atrocities that have been committed since October 7th. We are here to support the innocent Palestinians being caught in the crossfire, and to call upon an end in this war.”
A student led team from M.M. Robinson High School will be holding a walk out on June 6th at 1:30 pm
The walk out is to support a pro-Palestinian position.
The walkout/protest will take place near the intersection of Guelph Line and Upper Middle. The high school is to the west of the intersection
A student spokesperson said: “This initiative has been carefully orchestrated by a large team, extremely passionate on defending and protecting human/Palestinian rights.
There have been numerous protests on university campuses across the country. This event is the first we have heard of in the Halton Region.
I attended a counter-rally at MM Robinson today. The students were definitely not expecting this. Their rally was on School Property – Why was this allowed?
The Halton District School Board needs some major change in leadership.
Perhaps it is time for the Ministry of Education to come and take over the running of the Halton District School Board since this School Board doesn’t seem to think that anti-semitism in their schools needs to be addressed.
Our group continually played OH Canada on a megaphone and waved Canadian Flags along with signs that indicated that the type of hatred being spouted by these students is non-productive and definitely not Canadian.
CHCH was there as well as a reporter from Burlington Today. It will be interesting to see how this day will be reported.
Adriane,
No mention of the slaughter of Jewish people by Hamas on October 7th. Babies were shot, women were raped and their breasts cut off. Those that were not killed were taken as hostages.
If this war had not been started by Hamas there would be no deaths of the children you mention.
Content edited
The note from the student organizers above, stated clearly that they are conducting a walkout to support a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the atrocities. I was standing across the street and saw a lot of signs and heard a lot of chanting (from the river to the sea—–) especially calling for an end to the occupation. I also saw direction coming from outside organizers. No one called for a return of the hostages, no one called for the Palestinians to take any moral responsibility for October 7th and the fact that they have given succor to Hamas since 2006. No one said anything about the barbarous acts perpetrated by Hamas with full support of the Palestinians on October 7th.
Shame on all of you!!
These comments are so disappointing and disgusting.
Over 15 000 children are reported dead, that is not counting the thousands under the rubble.
Please do better.
Proud of you students at MM who are leading this walk out !
Your comment is quite remarkably obtuse -horribly simplistic and disgracefully myopic, imho. On the 80th anniversary of D Day, I really wonder how far we have come and if it was worth the sacrifice of our fathers and grandfathers.
You might want to consider nominating Ismail Haniyeh for the Nobel Peace Prize.
God forbid that I find a reason to object to students with social conscience and a sense of social justice. I can well remember my days in the 60’s as a member of SDS protesting and performing the fine art of civil disobedience on a dime. But did I really know the issues involved – probably not and the case of Civil Rights and the Vietnam War provided far clearer distinctions. What I had as a student of the 60’d that these “children” are lacking, or so it appears, is an educational framework which tempered the juvenile enthusiasm and sense of just rage with relative calm and reason. There doesn’t seem to be any moral counterbalance today or, more exactly, the moral compass points in all directions simultaneously. I call on Mr. Ennis to make his position and that of the Halton Board perfectly clear. Please don’t simply message a woke pablum of meaningless platitudes. Do you approve of these protests on school property and condoned by many staff? What have you done to protect the rights of Jewish children who feel threatened and robbed of a proper learning environment?
This is infuriating. I just pulled my daughter from Burlington central high school because being a Jewish student is not safe at the halton board. This just confirms I made the right decision. Instead of promoting inclusion the board seemingly support division and inequity. Not all students appear to be valued equally. My child is being denied a basic human right due to her religion in a publicly funded board that has been silent and remember, we’ve been told that silence is complicity. Please contact Curtis Ennis, director of education, ennisc@hdsb.ca to make your voice heard. Schools are for learning and not indoctrination. Save our schools.
To the student representative:
What about the atrocities committed on Oct 7? Are those forgotten?
Only time period after Oct 7 seems to have been mentioned!
Have you the students also considered that there innocent lives lost in Israel on October 7th? The result of a murderous attack by Hamas? I’m glad to hear that you are not actually supporting Hamas, but you need to consider who put Hamas in power in the first place and who has done absolutely nothing to curb their power in Gaza.
As for the School Board.
The suggestion was made that if the Jewish student did not feel safe in the school they were prepared to find a room that she could go into and learn remotely on her own. How mentally healthy is that suggestion? Does the word “ghetto” come to mind?
My question – did Burlington High School call in the parents of the students who were involved in two of the recent anti-semitic attacks?
Did the school call an assembly to let the entire student body that this type of behaviour is wrong and there would be consequences?
So many questions so few answers.
There is a movie playing at the Burlington CineStarz called Irena’s Vow that people should see. It deals with anti-semitism and the courage of one Polish woman, who was rounded up and forced to be a housekeeper who hid 12 Jews in the villa of the German Major she worked for.
She has been given the honour of being one of the “Righteous Gentiles at Yad Vashem in Israel.
The one line in this movie I will never forget is when a German Officer was explaining to another German Officer how you slowly indoctrinate people ( in this case the Jews).
“First you tell them they cannot walk their dogs in the park, then you tell them they cannot walk in the park. Gradually their rights are taken away and they don’t even realize what is happening until it is too late”
The question needs to be asked will Canadians sit back on this issue and then “its too late”?
It has been Hamas and their Iranian sponsors who have not taken the path of peace. They are supporting murderers and rapists…a sad state of affairs when the wolf is masquerading as the victim of its atrocities and our “educators” are not doing anything to correct this.
Perhaps the students protesting should be encouraged to turn their attention to the status of women in Moslem society. There’s lots to protest.
Are the students engaged in the upcoming protest aware that they are offering their support to a murderous band of terrorists (Hamas) who are fully subsidized by the Islamic Republic of Iran and by Hizbollah, another shining force on the world stage.
Absolutely horrified that the school and the board are letting this happen
Do the students full understand that they are supporting and endorsing Hamas (a murderous terrorist group who invaded Israel of October 7th, engaged in murder, rape and dismemberment on Israeli soil and then carted off over 200 hostages to Gaza?). Hamas is fully supported and funded by a terrorist sponsoring nation The Islamic Republic of Iran and Hizbolah!!!! where are the teachers, educators, where is the Superintendent of Education?? What about a walkout to protest lack of womens’ rights in moslem countries???
Former Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, Rosalie Silberman Abella, has written “A Lesson Not Learned”, published in this past Saturday’s Globe & Mail opinion section. It is about the inaction of the 1930’s, the Holocaust, the Nuremberg Trials, the post world war two history of justice up to the present, and our current “unrelenting climate of hate”. It is a sobering article and I hope that it will be read, distributed widely and discussed by all sides.
It seems more time is required in school to understand world history, rather than less. Wow, what a sacrifice, what deterrence skipping school.
I saw this from Bill Maher, who is always spot on with his commentary. MMR – how about protesting for Gender Apartheid – suggest spending the 2 hours back in school to figure this one out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRzv0HgatRc
Here’s a prediction, six months from now it will become apparent you were cheering for the wrong team.
First hatefest in Halton? Hardly. There have been many originated in schools in Oakville since Oct 7. Are your heads in the sand? There are financed and managed by both internally and externally to Canada. Any student that is Jewish or supportive of the only country that is a democracy and of Western values in the Middle East have been and are terrorized daily. Curtis Ennis and the HDSB trustees have done little to stop it. That’s the REAL story you should be reporting.
Publisher – I believe that you should fire the staff who failed to research this article. This will be, in fact, the third such protest/walkout conducted by MMR students. Many other schools have conducted them as well.
I draw your attention to the National Post article (link below) on the issues/problems/teacher apathy at Burlington Central.
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/burlington-central-high-school-antisemitism
I would ask what our Director of Education is doing – apart from reserving a front row seat. I imagine that Lecce has him on speed dial.
If I was a Jewish student I would feel threatened and disenfranchised. What a wonderful learning environment.
Thank you for bringing attention to the rot in our school bards. We need all parents, not just Jewish parents, to demand that political activism be removed from our public schools. Children are being indoctrinated by their teachers and by a movement that encourages violence and submission.
Just what these uninformed pro Hamas/terrorists need….more publicity !!!!
Will they cover their faces too?
I would love to see someone organize an event that supports a quick and peaceful end to conflict in the region. I am not Jewish or Israeli but it occurs to me that they need support as well.
I have to ask who is truly organizing this walk-out protest?
Could it be the same woman who recently drove her white van with Palestine rhetoric all over it onto the school property of Burlington Central High School and then began yelling “Rise Up, Revolt, Free Palestine”? Other anti-semitic incidents have occurred at this school recently.
It is one thing to have a walk to protest a war that was started by Hamas on October 7th and to stop the violence in Israel and Gaza – it is very different from the mantra ” From the River to the Sea”. I would really like to know if the students know which river and which sea and what it means?
Why are these students protesting on a school day? Perhaps they don’t want to give up their weekends?
Anti-Semitism has reared its ugly head in Burlington and it seems that students have been targeted to send this message.