Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB) trustee Mike Ramsay said students in schools across Ontario are being taught racist concepts under the guise of diversity, inclusion, and equity. .“I can share that a good number of parents legitimately fear their children are being taught that if they’re white, they’re racist, and if they don’t agree because they’re white, then they’re doubly racist,” said Ramsay at the Tuesday event hosted by the Canada Strong and Free Network (CSFN). .“I find as a trustee this troubling.” .Ramsay said he's opposed to teaching critical race theory because it teaches white students they succeeded because of their skin colour rather than personal efforts. He added non-white students are taught despite personal efforts, their chances are diminished because of systemic racism. .As a result, he said the focus of education has moved from “promoting skills and literacy and math to promoting a very specific ideological and divisive agenda.” .He noted he and fellow WRDSB trustee Cindy Watson put forward a motion to find out what students were being taught about race. He was unable to participate in discussion of the motion because six white trustees whose supporters called him a white supremacist barred him. .Ramsay revealed in October he was barred from performing his duties because of his conservative social media posts. .READ MORE: Ontario school board trustee suspended for conservative tweets.“My colleagues are on track to spend (estimate) approx. $150k to defend the divisive identity politics they are pushing on our community,” he said. .He was able to obtain a copy of the complaint because he's suing the WRDSB for suspending him. .True North contributor Noah Jarvis said critical race theory is flawed because it takes a one-size-fits-all approach. .“It doesn’t take into consideration the many different factors for why there may or may not be racial inequality,” said Jarvis. .“For example, there are well-documented disparities between whites and blacks economically and educationally.” .Critical race theorists would take those statistics and say it's an act of white people being racist towards black people. Jarvis said there might be many different conclusions as to why. .He cited an American study from 2011 which found black students study less than white students. The study said Asian students study the most. .What people see is white students often do better in school than black students, but Asians do the best..The contributor went on to say over the decades, there's been remarkable progress in race relations. He said critical race theory views this progress as racism changing form. .Ramsay said Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce was quoted as saying education is about teaching students how to think, not what to think. He said parents need to become involved in school boards to ensure this happens. .CSFN President Jamil Jivani said it would be great if Lecce “practiced what he preached there.” .“He has overseen the rapid expansion of critical race theory into Ontario public schools while calling himself a conservative,” said Jivani. .Jivani acknowledged former heritage minister James Moore insulted CSFN for holding the event. He said Lecce, Moore, and the Empire Club of Canada are misrepresenting what it means to be a conservative. .He requested conservatives draw some lines in the sand, with the critical race theory debate being an important one. .The event comes after the Ontario College of Teachers concluded its investigation into teacher Chanel Pfahl Wednesday and decided not to move to a disciplinary hearing after she spoke out against critical race theory. .READ MORE: Ontario teacher regulator drops case against teacher opposed to critical race theory .“They delivered a two-minute ‘oral caution’ this morning, and that was that,” said Pfahl. .“Thanks to @TDF_Can for representing me throughout this ordeal.”
