A staff member at an Ontario school has been assigned home after a video of what the board calls “harmful and discriminatory” language directed at a student wearing a keffiyeh emerged online.
The incident, which took place at Iroquois Ridge High School in Oakville, Ontario, occurred on April 26 in the school office.
The video, shared by the Muslim Advisory Council of Canada (MACC), appears to show a student wearing a keffiyeh chatting with a staff member while several students watch the exchange.
The garment is commonly worn by Arabs and Muslims, but has also become a symbol of Palestinian solidarity.
“I want you to be careful so you don’t get judged for that,” the staff member is heard telling the student. “I said that. Didn’t you hear that?”
“I heard the part where you called me a terrorist,” the student says.
“Is that the only part you heard?” the staff member responds. “I didn’t call you a terrorist. I said (the keffiyeh) reminds me of…” When the student asks the staff member if her garment reminds her of Hamas, the group that Canada has designated as a terrorist group since 2002, she says “yes.”
Both MACC and the Halton District School Board (HDSB) called the incident “harmful and discriminatory” and said the staff member used racist, anti-Palestinian language in his comments to the student.
“Reacting quickly, the board placed the educator on administrative leave and initiated a comprehensive investigation to maintain a safe and supportive educational environment,” MACC said in a statement applauding the board’s actions.
In a statement to CTV News Toronto, the HDSB said: “Iroquois Ridge HS, along with all Halton District School Board (HDSB) schools, strongly condemns this behavior and is committed to upholding the Human Rights Code.”
The province’s education minister also weighed in on the video, which has been viewed nearly 250,000 times, calling the comments “unacceptable and deeply offensive.”
“We expect education staff to model behavior and create a learning environment where everyone belongs,” Education Minister Stephen Lecce told CTV News Toronto on Monday morning.
“I am glad that the Halton District School Board took quick action on this matter,” he said.
Keffiyeh ban continues in Queen’s Park
The black and white checkered scarf made headlines in Queen’s Park earlier this month after House Speaker Ted Arnott announced a ban on the garment, saying it had become something of a statement politics in recent months.
On Thursday, Arnott asked independent MP Sarah Jama to leave the chamber for wearing the keffiyeh. She did not leave, but she was “appointed” for that day, meaning that she could not vote on the issues before the assembly.
The garment has been around for centuries, if not thousands of years, and has been increasingly seen at pro-Palestinian demonstrations following the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.
Jama has said that he has Palestinian relatives and that wearing the keffiyeh is the least he can do to show solidarity.
“It is necessary to continue to denounce the repression against Palestinians and anti-Palestinian racism in this place (Queen’s Park),” he said last week, adding that he will continue using it.
All four of the party’s provincial leaders, including Ontario Premier Doug Ford, have called for the ban to be overturned. NDP Leader Marit Stiles has twice tried, unsuccessfully, to gain unanimous consent to allow the pledge in the House. Stiles said Friday that she and her party plan to “challenge” the ban when lawmakers return from a 10-day recess next week.