Category: Events

Wear a pink shirt on Wednesday, February 27 for the sixth annual Pink Shirt Day. By wearing a pink shirt, you’re saying that bullying won’t be tolerated.

Pink Shirt Day honours the actions of two brave boys from Nova Scotia who took a stand when they saw a Grade 9 boy being bullied for wearing a pink shirt. The next day, David Shepherd and Travis Price got 50 of their fellow students to wear pink shirts.

Sexual minorities and those who are perceived as gender-nonconforming are often the targets of bullying. Almost half of Canadians students report hearing anti-gay epithets at school – almost 10% of LGBT students report hearing frequent homophobic comments from teachers.

74% of trans students, 55% of sexual minority students, and 26% of non-LGBTQ students reported having been verbally harassed about their gender expression.

More than one in five (21%) LGBTQ students reported being physically harassed or assaulted due to their sexual orientation.¹

Many schools are actively trying to eliminate bullying, and rightly so. However homophobic bullying is often ignored. According to Gerald Walton, doctoral candidate in the Faculty of Education at Queen’s University, the education system reinforces the idea that “straightness” is “normal”.

Heterosexuality in schools is validated through pervasive discourse on teenage other-sex dating; straight sexual mechanics and pregnancy in sex education classes; straight territorialisation (such as high school dances and prom nights); and mass media images, textbook representations, and fictional stories exclusively about and featuring heterosexual relationships.²

Consider that in the US, gay and lesbian teachers are often fired simply because of their sexual orientation. In 2010, an Oregon teacher was fired for mentioning to a fourth-grader that he wasn’t married because he couldn’t legally marry a man. The school principal told the teacher that his comments regarding his marital status were “inappropriate”.³

Last year, a St. Louis music teacher was fired after marrying his long-time partner. The Catholic School said it couldn’t condone acts that were “contrary to the church”.⁴

And earlier this month, a Catholic school administrator was fired for supporting marriage equality – despite being a heterosexual man who is married to a woman.⁵

Katherine van Wormer of the Department of Social Work at the University of Northern Iowa contends that, instead of firing openly gay and lesbian teachers, schools should be hiring them to serve as positive role models.⁶

“Unfortunately, in the U.S. and Canada, school social work tends to be crisis-driven rather than prevention-driven (Loughborough, 2000). This needs to change. School bullying, which takes a tragic toll on gender-nonconforming youth, can and must be stopped through effective adult intervention.”⁷

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[1] Egale Canada, National Climate Survey on Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia in Canadian Schools.[2] Walton, G., (2004) Bullying and Homophobia in Canadian Schools: The Politics of Policies, Programs and Educational Leadership. The Haworth Press.

[3] Mirk, S. (September 30, 2010) Beaverton Student Teacher Says He Was Fired for Mentioning in Class That He Would “Choose to Marry a Man”. The Portland Mercury.

[4] Browning, W. (March 1, 2012) Gay Teacher Fired for Getting Married. Yahoo! News.

[5] Newcomb, A. (February 12, 2013) Catholic School Worker Fired for Supporting Gay Marriage. Good Morning America.

[6] van Wormer, K. & McKinney, R. (2003) What Schools Can Do to Help Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual Youth: A Harm Reduction Approach. 

[7] Idem

I have learned that the Holocaust was a unique and uniquely Jewish event, albeit with universal implications. Not all victims were Jews, but all Jews were victims. I have learned the danger of indifference, the crime of indifference. For the opposite of love, I have learned, is not hate but indifference. Jews were killed by the enemy but betrayed by their so-called allies who found political reasons to justify their indifference or passivity.¹

–       Elie Wiesel, a Romanian-born Jewish American and Holocaust survivor

It was on January 27, 1945 that the Soviet Army liberated the survivors at the Auschwitz concentration camp. The Soviets found a little more than 7000 prisoners; a dismally small number compared to the 1.1 million prisoners murdered at Auschwitz between 1940 and 1945.²

The greatest victims of the Holocaust were Jews, whom Hitler had targeted for genocide. Over 6 million Jewish men, woman and children lost their lives during the Holocaust. Many suffered and toiled in concentration camps that dotted the map from eastern France to modern-day Belarus.

After the war, over 40,000 Holocaust survivors immigrated to Canada.³ Many Jews settled in Montreal, where their French was a great asset. Even in Canada, the Jewish community had to combat discrimination. In 1946, they even had to bring a case against the City of Quebec for preventing them to erect a synagogue.⁴ By the late 1940s, human rights legislation removed common discriminatory practices.⁵

A number of other victims also lost their lives during the Holocaust. Among them were millions of Ukrainians and Russians, including many Russian prisoners of war. Millions of Poles and Yugoslavians were also killed. There were also tens of thousands of Gypsies, mentally and physically disabled persons, gay men and Spanish Republicans. Thousands of Jehovah’s Witnesses were also killed – and it’s unknown how many communists, political prisoners, resistance fighters and trade unionists lost their lives.⁶

Sadly, genocide is not yet part of our past. Many countries are still at risk of genocide and politicide, including Syria, Pakistan, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Nigeria.⁷

There are many signs that can signal an impending genocide. Perhaps the most troubling is a tendency to create out-groups, which are then stripped of their humanity.⁸ During the Holocaust, the Nazis regarded Jews as “parasitic vermin.”⁹ In Rwanda, the Tutsis were often compared to cockroaches.¹⁰

On this day, let’s pay honour to the victims of the Holocaust. Let’s also remember to never be a passive bystander; there are countless who paid the ultimate price for others’ indifference.

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1. Remarks on Presenting the Congressional Gold Medal to Elie Wiesel and on Signing the Jewish Heritage Week Proclamation April 19, 1985

2. The Liberation of Auschwitz, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

3. The Canadian Encyclopedia, The Jew

4. The Canadian Jewish Chronicle – Sep 25, 1946

5. The Canadian Encyclopedia, The Jews

6. Overlooked Millions: Non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust, Karen Silverstrim, University of Arkansas

7. Genocide Watch, 2012 Global Watch List

8. Genocide Watch

9. Victims of the Nazi era: Nazi racial ideology, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

10. Peace Pledge Union