At a rally against police violence in Edmonton, a Grade 9 student told us about when he was handing out pro-Palestine stickers at his school to raise awareness of the ongoing genocide in Gaza by Israel. Unfortunately, he was intimidated by school officials, who threatened him with a suspension letter stating that his actions made other students “uncomfortable.” How hypocritical of these institutions to say this is “uncomfortable”, but censoring students is not?
Anti-Palestinian repression is, unfortunately, common in Canada. We hear about police crackdowns on encampments at universities, censorship by university administrations, etc. But we never hear of it happening in junior high schools. It goes to show that there are no safe spaces for the youth to express their political views, their views in general, even on something as black and white as genocide!
