Lynne Groulx, then-CEO of the Native Women’s Association of Canada, speaks at an event launching a graphic guide to genocide, Monday, June 19, 2023 in Ottawa. The genocide of Indigenous Peoples in Canada is among the topics explored in the Quebec Education Ministry’s guide Studying Genocides, which has been widely distributed in schools. Photo by Adrian Wyld /The Canadian Press files
“We have to give the teachers the time and the space in the curriculum to be able to teach this.”
• Montreal Gazette
QUEBEC — A foundation working to ensure better knowledge of genocides is urging the Quebec government to make the subject a mandatory high school curriculum module, including an exam question on the topic for students at the end of the year.
But the government argues the subject is sufficiently covered in three existing high school history and citizenship programs, including the compulsory Contemporary World course offered in senior year.
In light of a recent study showing that less than half (47 per cent) of Quebec teachers say the subject of genocide is incorporated in their school’s curriculum, Foundation for Genocide Education founder Heidi Berger said more has to be done to teach youth.
“One thousand per cent,” Berger said when asked if the subject of genocide needs to be given increased attention and made mandatory in high schools. “We have to give the teachers the time and the space in the curriculum to be able to teach this.
“We plan to not let go. It’s very important in these times. I mean, with rising tension and antisemitism and the fact a clear majority of teachers wants to teach it, it shows it’s really time for Quebec to mandate it.”
Berger, the daughter of Holocaust survivors, made her comments in reaction to a Quebec Liberal policy resolution adopted in May at a party general council. The resolution says that if elected, a Liberal government would make teaching about genocides, including the Holocaust, mandatory in Quebec schools.
Berger said she hopes the Coalition Avenir Québec government takes note of the resolution as well as the findings of the survey of Quebec teachers, conducted in February and March by the foundation in partnership with the Association for Canadian Studies.
