Published in the Toronto Sun, 30 March 2017
Re TDSB ban on new trips to U.S. political correctness gone mad (Sue-Anne Levy, March 27):
Do the TDSB play political games? Let me count the ways. Generally if you have ALL your required documents and no criminal convictions, you will have no problems crossing the border. If you even think that you MIGHT have a problem, it would be very prudent to call both Canada and U.S. Customs prior to arriving at the border.
This even goes for a white, born-in-Canada Canadian who has a pot conviction from 1979 for which they received a pardon, something the U.S. doesn’t have to accept and can deny entry. It’s not just Muslims or other immigrants who can be denied entry to the U.S.
Bottom line, no one has a God-given right to enter any country unimpeded. The TDSB should make sure ahead of time that all students will be allowed to enter the U.S. before they leave, rather than just assuming there will be denials. It’s quite possible that not a single student will have a problem crossing the border, even the Muslim ones.
Anything else smacks of the usual anti-Trump hyperbolic rhetoric.
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The original Toronto Sun article:
TDSB ban on new trips to U.S. political correctness gone mad
By Sue-Anne Levy
First posted:
TORONTO – Pardon me for saying so but I didn’t notice Canada listed as a hotbed of terrorist activity in President Donald Trump’s latest order banning residents of six countries from temporarily entering the United States for 90 days.
I saw Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
But don’t tell that to the largely union-backed loony leftist trustees forever in search of a cause at the Toronto District School Board (TDSB).
Evidently they’re aiming to make Canada their own “safe space” free from the deleterious impact of exposure to Trumpism on the 250,000-plus delicate flowers that come under their progressive wings. At last Thursday’s board meeting trustees voted to put a hold on any new school trips for staff and students. It’s all due to Trump and his executive orders involving the above-noted countries, even though the latest, like the first, is on hold, the subject of a court challenge.
Trustees have magnanimously permitted 25 previously approved trips involving 900 students to proceed as planned.
(No word on whether the ban would be lifted if the 900 students manage to make it to the U.S. and back without incident.)
The leftists at the TDSB aren’t the first to make such a political statement at their students’ expense. The Greater Essex County District School Board also nixed all travel across the border in February.
Efforts to reach Greater Essex board chairman Kim McKinley were not successful Sunday.
But TDSB chairman Robin Pilkey denied it was a “political statement,” saying the travel ban, if enforced, would “target students and treat them differently” based on their country of origin.
“The situation is neither fair nor equitable,” she said. “We value inclusion, fairness and equity and based on these values, schools can make travel plans for many destinations other than the U.S.”
(I didn’t suggest to Pilkey that if the TDSB really wants to make a statement, perhaps one of the six banned countries would be an option for an upcoming trip.)
That said, I’m willing to bet no students with the proper documentation will be stopped at the border, and they will certainly not be turned back. But even if they are questioned, so what?
I hate to tell this to the easily offended educrats but I was stopped and interrogated more than once at the border trying to fly to Florida — and, for heaven’s sake, it occurred during Barack Obama’s time in office.
Was it because I’m Jewish? Or gay? Or because, as inconvenient as it is, in our current climate of terrorist threats globally, border guards are sometimes, shall we say, overzealous.
What does this TDSB ban accomplish other than sending students the message that they should feel easily offended and oppressed — that they are delicate flowers unable to cope with the slightest of inconveniences?
How is it the slightest bit fair — using the students once again as pawns — to take out the board’s political temper tantrum on Americans and the cities that survive on tourism?
It’s bad enough many TDSB students can’t read, write, add or subtract properly (according to standardized tests).
Are the educrats and the leftist trustees also teaching them to become angry, intolerant social justice warriors in search of a cause like the faux manhating feminists in their moronic pussy hats I saw at a recent Women’s Day rally?
Fairness, inclusivity, equity, my foot. This is nothing more than yet another TDSB exercise in political correctness gone mad.