Ontario Introduces Critical Race Theory in Schools

The Ontario provincial government has just passed some of the most overt critical race theory style laws onto the public education system that has ever been proposed. 

NDP MPP Laura Mae Lindo’s Bill 67, the “Racial Equity in the Education System Act” is making amendments to the Education Act in order to introduce mandatory “anti-racism” education and materials in the classroom. It even explicitly demands that the Ontario Minister of Education force school boards to develop “anti-racism accountability reports” if their induction programs for new teachers is does not include “anti-racism and racial equity training.”

The bill also startlingly includes financial penalties for “activities” or “language” that it deems to be “racist” which disrupts the classroom.   

The text of Bill 67 states:

Subsection 170 (1) of the Act is amended by adding anti-racism related responsibilities to the duties of boards. New subsection 212 (1.1) provides for fines for persons who disrupt or attempt to disrupt proceedings of a school or class through the use of racist language or activities.

It is not clear whether or not the bill is seeking to fine both adults and children as it uses the vague term “persons,” but what can be reasonably assumed is that the bill will be using an overly broad and political definition of what “racism” is in order to push leftist ideology. 

In an amendment, it was also added that the school programs must  “address racism and promote racial equity;” which gives insight into how Bill 67 defines “racism.”

The technical definition Bill 67 uses to supposedly define racism is:

“Racism” means the use of socially constructed ideas of race to justify or support, whether consciously or subconsciously, the notion that one race is superior to another.

The issue here is that Bill 67 also wants to support the idea of “racial equity” which, unlike equality, is about equal outcomes and not equal opportunities. The principle of racial equity undergirds discriminatory actions like Harvard University downgrading the SAT scores of Asian students and using subjective personality trait tests, in order to lower the number of Asian students accepted and increase the number of other groups. 

Bill 67’s push to teach students about “racial equity” would make all programming fundamentally racist as it would promote discrimination based on race. Students will presumably be taught artificial racial balance must be achieved or one group must be promoted over another in the name of ‘social justice,’ rather than simply teaching kids about equality and individualism. 

It is staggering to know that only one MPP in the Ontario legislature voted against this bill, that being New Blue MPP Belinda Karahalios, who called out the bill as being toxic critical race theory and “wokeism.”

All the PC MPPs and Independent MPPs present either voted in favour of this bill or did not show up to vote.

Just reading the text of the bill it should have been obvious to all MPPs that it does not fight actual racism and is more likely to spread bigotry in the classroom, rooted in leftist Critical Race Theory.

Even if an MPP did not read the bill the fact it was proposed by MPP Laura Mae Lindo, who is the Ontario NDP’s Anti-Racism Critic, should have thrown up a few red flags. Implied by her Critic role, Lindo is someone who sees supposed “racism” everywhere and even said on Twitter that the goal of her bill was to “address white supremacy in the education sector (k-12 & in PSE).” 

Anyone foolish enough to agree to the notion that Ontario’s current education system’s curriculum contained “white supremacy” is fully out-to-lunch, and likely voted on the bill simply because it promotes “racial equity” despite that concept also being highly problematic in and of itself.  

Lindo is also the sort of person who took issue with an “1867” sign being displayed around Queens Park referencing the year of Canada’s confederation, claiming that sins of the past make celebrating the year of Canada’s formation racist.  She is clearly not focused on providing quality education for children – she wants political education.

The introduction of critical race theory into schools should be a massive issue and the fact that the New Blue Party of Ontario may be the only party making a real issue of Bill 67 is concerning, although it gives Ontario parents one good option to vote for in the upcoming provincial election.

NOTE:

Bill 67 has passed the second reading it has moved onto a committee where it will have its details fleshed out. If the committee does not pass a finalized version of the bill there is the potential it could fail to be officially implemented before the next provincial election and have to be reproposed in the next session.