The UCP government’s panel appointed to help draft a new school curriculum is made entirely of men – including one who published an article that questioned the past “victimhood” of Aboriginal residential school survivors..The eight new male advisers are in addition to 358 teachers and other experts already serving on eight curriculum working groups assembled by the former NDP government to revamp K-12 lessons. It is hoped to be tested in classrooms starting in fall 2021..In addition to the fact there are no women on the panel – despite the fact the majority of teachers are women – there is controversy to the appointment of Chris Champion as a social studies adviser. He used to be an adviser to Premier Jason Kenney during his time in Ottawa as a MP..Champion founded and still publishes a history publication called The Dorchester Review..A piece without a byline in the review’s first edition and republished this year, critiques history curriculum introduced by “left” governments..The piece blasts an Australian history curriculum for being “light on facts and heavy with guilt about aboriginals and immigrants.”.“Here in Canada the preoccupation with victimhood has mostly centred on Japanese Canadians and residential school ‘survivors.’ “.The government claims Champion did not write the article..It’s the second time a Kenney appointee has come under fire for writing about residential schools, the first being speech writer Paul Bunner..“Women make up the majority of the teaching profession, but Jason Kenney and (Education Minister) Adriana LaGrange chose to not put a single woman on their panel and they managed to find room for a racist who used to work for the Premier,” said the NDP’s Janis Irwin Thursday..“Instead of firing his racist, homophobic speechwriter Paul Bunner, Jason Kenney has doubled down on these racist beliefs by including them in the curriculum and he’s undone all of the work done under previous governments..“By appointing a panel full of like-minded insiders, the UCP are dismissing the diverse input from Albertans that was vital in developing a modern curriculum in which kids see themselves represented – the UCP can’t even send our kids back to school safely this fall. They shouldn’t be trusted to rewrite the curriculum.”.In a 2003 article Canada’s Cracked Mosaic, Bunner recalled his time at Boston University when another Canadian student warned him “to be careful about blacks…one of the other hockey players, a native Bostonian, invited me into his room to show me the biggest handgun I had ever seen. ‘It’s for the n——,’ he said.'”.Bunner has also blamed minorities for a large percent of crime..“Ethnic minorities are disproportionately involved in violent crime on both sides of the border, but at least Americans admit it,” Bunner wrote..“In this country the Toronto Star attacks the police as racist when they point out the over-representation of blacks in the city’s violent crime statistics. When Indian thugs trap white kids and cut them to pieces, the Edmonton police quickly rule out a racial motive and nobody balks..“Everyone knows that race is the defining element of violent crime in Canada today.. POLL: Many Albertans say they will ignore Christmas COVID lockdown .“The weekly casualty figures from the gang wars in Toronto’s Jamaican ghetto read like dispatches from a war zone. The shooting of five East Indians during the first weekend of December in Vancouver was but the latest skirmish in a decade-long war that has killed 50 people. On the prairies, if it’s not Asian gangbangers whacking each other and occasionally innocent bystanders, it’s aboriginal murder and mayhem..“The Christmas season in Edmonton opened with five white teenagers being lured into a house, where at least a half-dozen reputed members of the Alberta Warriors Native gang allegedly tortured and terrorized them for two hours.”.The NDP said Bunner is the author of numerous racist, sexist, Islamophobic, and homophobic articles dating from the late 1990s up to 2016..Bunner’s 2013 article The ‘Genocide’ That Failed claimed that residential school survivors were fabricating their experiences to create a “bogus genocide story” for financial gain. .Several indigenous leaders have called for Kenney to fire Bunner, including the Confederacy of Treaty Six Chiefs, and Marlene Poitras, Alberta regional chief for the Assembly of First Nations..Matt Wolf, Kenney’s issue manager tweeted at the time: “NDP claims that Paul Bunner used a racial slur. The column talks about his revulsion to the racism he saw in the US, and befriending 2 black students “I came away with the conviction that no matter how poisoned a society is by racism, it can be overcome.”.He also tweeted earlier NDP icon Tommy Douglas opposed homosexuality..The advisers are:.George Georgiou, University of Alberta professor of educational psychology — literacyDavid Chorney, associate professor of education, University of Alberta — wellnessVladimir Troitsky, University of Alberta math professor — mathChris Champion, visiting research fellow at Queen’s University and author — social studiesWilliam French, lawyer, translator and board member of The Shakespeare Company in Calgary — arts and literatureCameron Macdonell, associate professor of computer science, MacEwan University — scienceMarvin Washington, professor, Alberta School of Business, University of Alberta — diversity and pluralismOnookome Okome, English professor, University of Alberta — diversity and pluralism.The members include 19 government employees, 41 seconded teachers, 10 Northwest Territories representatives, three Nunavut representatives, 11 Indigenous teachers, 16 francophone teachers, 25 academics, 145 public school teachers, 61 Catholic school teachers, seven charter school teachers and two private school teachers..Dave Naylor is the News Editor of the Western Standard.dnaylor@westernstandardonline.com.TWITTER: Twitter.com/nobby7694
