Jewish organization wants speakers to publicize content before school presentations

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A national organization representing Jewish teachers has asked the province to “take immediate action” last week after a speaker at a Winnipeg School Division claimed, “Resistance to colonialism is not terrorism.”

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Division Superintendent Matt Henderson issued an apology on Oct. 8 for Dr. Chris Emdin’s comment, a social justice author and associate professor at Columbia University.

“Excusing terrorism by trying to downplay it and reframe it as resistance to colonialism cannot be the lessons we pass on,” Henderson wrote to employees, “and the speaker’s view does not reflect the views of the leadership of WSD in this context.”

“There is no circumstance when terrorism should be excused.”

The Jewish Educators and Families Association wrote to Acting Education Minister Tracy Schmidt two days later, noting that Emdin’s proclamation was identical to language used by banned antisemitic terror organizations Hamas and Hezbollah.

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“The fact that this dog whistle was projected on the screen while attached to a speech on Truth and Reconciliation is a shameful misuse of the intention of Call of Action #57 — Educating public servants on the history of Aboriginal peoples,” stated JEFA co-founder Tamara Gottlieb.

She described how Jewish employees at the mandatory session felt betrayed.

“Instead of creating a Divisional Day for all 5,000 Winnipeg School division staff, which was focused on educating students and uplifting staff, the message of the day inflicted trauma on a marginalized population of staff, in direct conflict with the Province of Manitoba’s mandate for Safe and Caring Schools.”

Calling for “accountability when selecting speakers and resources for staff and students,” Gottlieb told Schmidt that “meaningful work to rebuild public confidence must begin now.”

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“We are asking that all speakers in any school in the province addressing either students or professionals, should make the contents of their presentation (public) for a minimum of two weeks prior to the presentation.”

“We cannot afford for another incident like this to occur,” she concluded.

Gottlieb told The Sun that a similar notice period is in practice in some Ontario school divisions after recent controversies about presentations that repeated antisemitic tropes and anti-Zionist disinformation.

When asked to comment about JEFA’s request, a Ministerial spokesperson told the Sun: “School divisions organize their own professional development days, independent of the Department of Education.”

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A Jewish WSD educator who attended the in-service expressed deep concern that Emdin promoted “a monoculture based on the destruction of tradition. He told us it was tradition that is oppressing our students… I don’t think he knows a lot about Canada (and only) mentioned residential schools in a general sense.”

According to him, Emdin repeated themes from his books that “there’s 3 types of people; elevators, haters and suckers. Essentially it was ‘find out who the haters are and shut them down’ and it’s quite clear the ‘haters’ are people who disagree with him.”

The source, who asked not to be identified in fear of reprisal, said the tone was “an organization should start a witch hunt… he told us there are haters in this room.”

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When the comment excusing terrorism was made, “some people around me were clapping.”

The eyewitness believes the pressure Jewish employees felt was magnified by Henderson’s close relationship to Emdin.

“This isn’t the first time he’s mentioned this guy.” He says that in the past Henderson “spoke about him glowingly” and had recommended the books of “my friend Chris Emdin” in the weekly email to staff. “The only time I’ve seen that particular phrase is to defend the actions of Hamas… I felt like walking out, but again, I want to keep my job.”

Emdin later claimed he was speaking specifically about colonial teaching practices and student responses, but the educator said Emdin “didn’t give any specific example of connecting his comment to the topic.”

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In a post on X, Emdin said he was speaking specifically about colonial teaching practices and student responses, and any other interpretation was “intellectually dishonest and a gross misrepresentation of the sentiments shared to all who attended.”

“When he started his presentation like that — this is somebody brought in by the principal,” said the staff member, which made him wonder “do we (WSD) have ideologies, and do I have to support Hamas?”

The employee explained that after Emdin’s keynote speech, teachers returned to their schools for an afternoon in-service. “It was our responsibility to discuss the topics raised in the keynote speech.” They noted that no one would have read Henderson’s emailed apology until the end of the school day.

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“We didn’t feel comfortable criticizing the speaker and if we disagree, we’re a sucker or a hater,” he concluded, adding “there was no staff meeting at my school anyway to discuss the apology.”

The Sun asked the school division for a comment concerning Henderson’s connection to Emdin, if rooting out ‘haters’ concurs with Human Resource practices and if, as Emdin told the 5000 employees, “all violence stems from a lack of education.” The Sun received no response.

Have thoughts on what’s going on in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada or across the world? Send us a letter to the editor at wpgsun.letters@kleinmedia.ca

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