Social Justice Newsletter, Summer/Fall 2014

NEWSLETTER IN THIS ISSUE

SUMMER/FALL 2014

Students imagine a world without violence

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Peaceful Heart & Wounded Heart Project

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Social Justice 12 students take action against poverty at city-wide conference

by Carol Arnold, Committee for Action on Social Justice, Status of Women Action Group 5

Planning for a sustainable future: What does Planning 10 have to do with it?

10 Some good news for sustainability education in British Columbia 12 Teachers as environmental representatives 14 Unleashing Peru’s potential­: Our mutually beneficial partnership 15 Will there be justice for Jose Figueroa and his family?

Students imagine a world without violence

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“When reaching for the stars we need ‘to go big or go home.’”

–Ben Cahill, Grade 9 student

“The world that I believe in has harmony and love.“ –Ca’Leah, 11 years old

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he Status of Women Action Group sponsored a province-wide “contest” that aimed to bring teachers and students into close collaboration around the topic of violence. Readers may recall the large posters featuring a white hand print and dove on a blue background posing the question, “What would a world without violence look like?” As of April 30, 2014, we received 25 submissions from across the province. Although the number of projects was small, they were presented in a variety of formats that

And we will go forward: The 2014 DTSS Human Rights Symposium 18 A hundred years ago

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White peace poppies: A new opportunity for Remembrance Day 2014

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Growing up different: One child’s reality

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Liquefied natural gas and its impacts on BC’s environment

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Learning from—and standing beside—our First Nations sisters and brothers

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Call OUT!

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CASJ 31

Grade 9 student Gina Klemm at Gulf Islands Secondary School

British Columbia Teachers’ Federation • 100–550 West 6th Avenue • Vancouver, BC V5Z 4P2

The project was inspired by the need to keep alive the memory of the 16 women who lost their lives in the Montréal Massacre on December 6, 1989. More recent events include the attack in the university area of Santa Barbara, California, where a premeditated mass murder was committed by a young man who posted a video declaring that his action was retribution for having been spurned by “girls,” and the abduction of almost 300 school girls in northeastern Nigeria that dominated the media worldwide.

Closer to home, police authorities in Vancouver expressed a special interest in speaking to victims of domestic violence in light of a rash of murders of women by their partners over a one-month period, and many individuals and groups have been calling upon the Harper government to launch an inquiry into the more than 1,200 Aboriginal women who have gone missing and been murdered over the last three decades. Sadly, the number of acts of violence against women and girls appears to be epidemic worldwide.

As difficult as it is, this topic needs to be addressed by educational efforts across the curriculum. The committee was impressed by the creative approaches teachers used to elicit student contributions.

Surprisingly, there were few entries involving artwork. One submission, from Grade 9 student Gina Klemm at Gulf Islands Secondary School, was a poster featuring combined poetry (see cover).

internet image

Projects using language Laura Lee Kelly, a Halq’eméylem language teacher from the Naniamo-Ladysmith district, had several of her Grade 5 students submit multipage projects using antiviolence images and statements that were translated into Halq’eméylem. Students Kylie Delorme and Lucas Binette used a series of pictures with captions that were written in English and then in translation.

A world with peace Slikwel te Temexw

Languages grow and change, and it is often challenging to find the words in one language that convey the equivalent words and ideas in another. Addressing the antiviolence theme these students utilized computer technology and the application of a First Nations language. nobiggie/ iStock/ Thinkstock

showed some original teaching ideas that we would like to share in this article. Several leading entries were chosen by the committee using a specially designed rubric. The selected projects will be featured at this year’s BCTF summer conference and in some of our next publications.

All projects had merit and displayed the creative energy of both teachers and students.

No violence!!!!!!!

Kwat lite temexw No violence means to me that the world could be a happy place ­– Kylie Delmore

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Peace in the world Thaytes slikwel lite temexw Peace in the world means that there’s no violence –Kylie Delmore

–Lucas Binette

Kitsilano Secondary School French teacher Bonita Hoppen submitted a booklet of antiwar poems written by 13 students. Each poem integrated French and English lines, sometimes in translation, sometimes flowing between the two languages. The impact was very powerful as in these poems: Je rêve by Klara Gilbert I dream of a world full of peace souriantes With hope instead of anguish.

Avec de la musique, plutôt que les coupes de feu Where families are complete. Ça c’est mon rêve, that is my dream.

The Choice is Yours by Kyla Boersma La paix La tranquillité La perfection A world we trust Peaceful and grateful On vie notre vie complètement Sans peur, sans mort We walk down the streets our heads held high, smiles on our faces We wonder what we will do tomorrow No worries if there will be a tomorrow, or if the sun will rise again On connaît la Bonheur Pas la tristesse Pas la peur A perfect world

BCTF Social Justice Newsletter, Summer/Fall 2014

La Paix, a poem by Yasmine Elkholy, addresses the multiple sources of violence: La paix est une chose magnifique Avec des personnes en paix avec l’un et l’autre No racism, no homophobia towards one another, nothing at all Everyone is happy, joyful and at peace Juste imagine que pour toute l’éternité ça peut être comme ça Un monde sans guerre, juste l’acceptante Mais il y a de la guerre, les pensées négatives Soyez pas négative vous-mêmes Be happy and have hope, think positively and everything will be all right.

Social justice club projects Coquihalla Elementary School teacher Linda Bailey runs a club for her Grade 4 students that studies Nobel Peace Prize Laureates. Her Peace Jam Group submitted the top group entry, “Hands for Peace.” It will be played at this year’s BCTF summer conference and may be placed as a link on the Status of Women page. It is a four minute musical video performed by the class featuring hand movements and words celebrating peace.

Technology projects Two entries from Grade 9 English students at Gulf Islands Secondary School (GISS) were among the top three scoring entries. One called “The Shadow,”

by Nigel Bishnar, involved a sequence of thought-provoking words and phrases with an instrumental musical score.

The second entry from GISS was submitted by Abigail Walkner and involves a PowerPoint sequence using Teletubbies and set to music to illustrate all the elements of a world without violence. It was designed to bring a hopeful message to everyone, but especially to young children.

Overcoming pessimism Several of the submissions were short essays that attempted to address the question, “Is it possible to eradicate violence and war?” It reminded the committee of how intractable the problem of violence is in the minds of our youth and, therefore, how important it is to redouble our efforts to help students realize a non-violent future. The news at home and from around the world seems to suggest the goal is unattainable. However, we have to start where we are and build the foundation for peace. How do we treat one another? How do we raise consciousness around violence against women and girls? Are we winning the struggle against misogyny, homophobia, racism, discrimination, etc.? We must begin this work in our classrooms. We need to continue the conversation, the imagining, the learning, and make our classrooms the safe spaces necessary to realize a peaceful world. Kafui Ayedzi’s student Ca’Leah summed up her essay with the words of Nelson Mandela, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” They are fitting words to conclude with.

“The theory of Utopia is just a cry for hope in a hopeless world.”

–Liam Wenzel, Grade 9 student The Status of Women committee would like to thank all of the teachers and students who put so much time and heart into these projects.

We will feature the leading entries wherever possible.

BCTF Social Justice Newsletter, Summer/Fall 2014

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Peaceful Heart & Wounded Heart Project

by James Chamberlain, elementary teacher and vice-principal in Vancouver

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hese hearts were designed by our Grade 2 and 3 students to depict peaceful images for Aboriginal people, and juxtapose this with hurtful imagery from their residential school history and experiences. A number of picture books about the negative impacts of residential schools upon Aboriginal people were read to the students. We discussed the racist laws imposed by the Canadian government that led to forcing Aboriginal families to give up their children to Indian Agents or face jail time. Students were already familiar with laws that banned potlatches and required Aboriginal people to give up their traditional

lands and to be housed on reserves.

We linked our learning about the history of residential schools with previous lessons about segregation of people of African descent in North America. We

had been discussing issues of segregated schools, restaurants, buses, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Chinese Head Tax in prior lessons. As part of the Wounded Heart & Peaceful Heart Project, we discussed and recorded overt and covert forms of racism that were historically perpetuated against people of colour as well. Finally, through classroom discussion we linked overt and covert forms of racism, sexism, and homophobia together.

project is just one example of a much larger focus within our school. One of our school goals is to teach students at all grade levels about the positive contributions of Aboriginal history, culture, and traditions to our society. We believe that all students benefit from learning about Aboriginal Education.

Partial funding for this project came from Promoting a Culture of Peace for Children Society of BC. Please visit wartoystopeaceart.org if you are interested in applying for a grant.

These teachings are part of our multi-year focus on Aboriginal Education across the district. This 4

BCTF Social Justice Newsletter, Summer/Fall 2014

Social Justice 12 students take action against poverty at city-wide conference

By Janet Nicol, secondary teacher in Vancovuer

“Why do we look at homeless people like they are animals, and why do we treat them like they are criminals?”

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his was a question asked by Pavan, a student in a Social Justice 12 class in Vancouver. She was responding to a preconference survey shaping the agenda for this first-time event, organized with the support of a BC Teachers’ Federation Ed May grant.

Poverty and homelessness were among the greatest concerns of students and so became the conference theme.

educator and city planner, and Lauren Gill, an activist in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

Jennifer began by asking students to close their eyes and imagine they are living on the streets.

Imagine being offered a hot cup of tea, she told them. Imagine looking for a place to sleep. Then she asked how they felt.

“It is about survival,” a student replied and others said “you are not going where you want to go” and “it can mean so much to be offered a hot drink.”

Jennifer said people feel invisible on the streets.

She has observed from her work among homeless people that pets make them feel safer and they offer companionship. The pet cares about you, she said, but a pet is a responsibility too.

Iurii Kryvenko/iPhoto/Thinkstock

Lauren mentioned the SPCA offers free food for pets and medical care at no cost to homeless people with pets. Jennifer added that a dog can be a reason for someone to get off the street; a dog offers unconditional love.

On February 6, 2014, twenty students gathered at the Roundhouse Community Centre in Yaletown (two from each SJ 12 class from six schools), greeted by myself and SJ 12 teachers Alain Raoul (Lord Byng Secondary) and Laura Moore (Churchill Secondary).

After a “getting to know you” icebreaker, students heard from guest speakers, Jennifer Hales, an

BCTF Social Justice Newsletter, Summer/Fall 2014

A student asked how people could find out about the SPCA’s services. Lauren answered, “It’s word of mouth.”

Lauren was born and raised in Vancouver, one of three children in a middle-class family with two parents who are still together. She made it to Grade 8 in school and dropped out. Soon after she came out as a lesbian, and was kicked out of her home by her mother.

Only 13 years old, she learned it was hard to live for long on the streets because youth under 16 can be taken off the streets by government employees and placed in a foster home, detox centre, or safe house.

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“It is a different experience for female youth to be on the street, compared to male youth,” she said. “There are different options.” Lauren got into the sex trade, or “sex exploitation” as she called it. She would “spot” for the older girl prostitutes—noting the licence plate of the car they got into, to make sure they returned safely.

And then she became involved in prostitution herself.

“It’s a downward spiral,” she said. “There’s shame, you are not safe, there’s violence.”

“I had lots of friends, a community, family. They protected me more than my family,” she said of that time. But now that she has turned her life around and is helping others she sees her past in a different context.

“Being homeless doesn’t discriminate. We are all two pay cheques away from homelessness. It can happen because of addiction, mental health issues. Everyone who is homeless has a story,” observed Lauren.

A student wanted to know how Lauren’s family reacted when she was on the streets. “My family reached out when I was clean,” she answered.

“They had to love me from a distance. My parents saw that they had messed up too.”

A student asked how she got off the streets.

Lauren said she was facing adult time at age 17 for drug-related crimes and could serve four to five years in jail. “Addiction changes you,” she said. She had also overdosed and a doctor warned her that she wasn’t going to make it.

Chris Fertnig/iPhoto/Thinkstock

She went into a treatment centre run by youth, not staff. The rules were also created by youth. “When you take drugs, you are banking your pain,” she

said. “When you go off the drugs, it’s tough—all the pain comes back.” Her mother had come a long way by then, and had accepted Lauren’s sexual identity as transgendered.

KatarzynaBialasiewicz/iPhoto/Thinkstock

Lauren described the difference between her life then and now: “I was staring at my feet, now I am looking up at the sky.” In recovery, “I got my family and friends back...I am really grateful.”

She says when you are in recovery you think, “Will I be a broken being?” Lauren’s answer was, “Yes, but I wouldn’t change the past. It made me who I am.”

Lauren said she specializes in helping people with addictions. She said the common addiction in the 1990s was heroin, then crack cocaine came in, and then alcohol, heroin, crystal meth, and now there is a new drug called “molly.” She said designer drugs are passed around in nightclubs and that prescription drugs can also lead to a serious addiction.

David Couillard/iPhoto/Thinkstock

The Naomi Project is a new initiative in BC to provide free heroin and study the impact of this approach.

A student asked about Lauren’s tattoo on her arm. Inked words encircle her upper left arm— they make up the second sentence of a quote she recited: “If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”

BCTF Social Justice Newsletter, Summer/Fall 2014

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Lauren and Jennifer gave some ideas on how to support people in the Downtown Eastside, including donating to Megaphone magazine, supporting Vancouver Native Health Society, donating toward a totem pole to be erected in Pigeon Park in memory of the missing and murdered women in the Downtown Eastside, and participating in the Annual Women’s Memorial March for Missing and Murdered Women, held on February 14.

Jennifer suggested students ask the question, “What are the gaps?” She gave examples, such as the lack of good housing for queer youth in the city. Some outreach groups are faith-based and discriminate. Drug issues and safe housing for youth are other areas of need. Seniors in the city do not have enough housing either, and many seniors are among the city’s homeless population. In fact, soon baby boomers—a large cohort—will be seniors and could be at risk. Major causes of homelessness for seniors are divorce, medical issues, and large debts.

BananaStock/Thinkstock

Students formed small groups to discuss the main needs and issues around poverty. They came up with a long list that included police brutality, dangers of contracting HIV/AIDS and other health concerns, discrimination, sex trafficking, and addiction. People also deal with issues of shelter, food, mental illness, safety, need for clothing and keeping warm, hygiene, employment, a lack of social support, stigma of living in the Downtown Eastside, gentrification, and conflicts between homeless and home-owners.

Jennifer said donating, volunteering, and raising awareness are valuable ways to contribute—and so is direct political action.

Finally, students discussed possible social actions to support people in poverty. They included a food/ clothing drive, reaching out and gaining the trust of people on the street, building companionship, assisting those in the transition to school or work, supporting people’s wants/needs, creating an accepting environment, providing opportunities, and establishing hope. Students supported opening more safe injection sites, groups that provide emotional support and skills training, and specific support for members of the LGBTQ community, Aboriginals, women, and those with mental health issues. Another idea was diverting food waste by calling restaurants to donate food to cook and distribute on a food truck.

Jupiterimages/Creatas/Thinkstock

During the Olympics in Vancouver, people organized tent cities— about 200 people came together, pitched tents and held press conferences, raising awareness about homelessness and demanding housing.

Students from a SJ 12 class in the Lower Mainland held a candlelight vigil at the Vancouver Art Gallery, contacted the press, and spoke out about homelessness.

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BCTF Social Justice Newsletter, Summer/Fall 2014

The plan in the afternoon session was to narrow down these many ideas into one social action plan.

David Eby, NDP MLA for the Vancouver-Point Grey riding spoke to students in the afternoon session about how youth can take effective social action. He is also a lawyer who has worked for PIVOT, a legal advocacy group in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

Eby began by saying there are two ways people can help—charity and justice. He told a parable to illustrate this point: People were continually tossed in a river and as they were swept along by the current crying out for help, bystanders along the bank pulled them out—all day long, every day. Eby said you could “rescue” people repeatedly—or you could go to the source and stop the problem from occurring.

Eby spoke about how actions can have multiple impacts. He gave an example of people in Vancouver buying and distributing tin-foil blankets from Mountain Equipment Co-op and imprinting text on the blanket from the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This action kept homeless people warm, educated homeless people about their rights, garnered media attention, and raised public awareness.

while working with PIVOT identifying negligent landlords with the intent of shutting down their buildings. However tenants approached Eby and said, “Don’t do this, I have nowhere to go if the building is shut down.” Eby listened and changed his tactics, pressuring the city government to impose housing regulations.

Eby also emphasized telling the stories of the people affected, rather than listing statistics about an issue.

Eby and students brainstormed ideas on the topic of food security, as an example of how to take action. They came up with several ideas, such as partnering with restaurants and food banks, pressuring government to regulate food waste, and influencing consumers who go into restaurants.

Eby said other tactics could include petitioning, letterwriting, door-knocking, and creating a website.

In the final hour students chose an action plan, deciding on a food security theme. They will set up a Facebook group and, using funding from the Ed May grant, investigate setting up a food truck to distribute food and raise awareness on poverty and homelessness.

Eby also suggested talking to those who are affected by the action students choose to do—because if you don’t, he warned you might not be helpful. He recalled

Ingram Publishing/Thinkstock

Planning for a sustainable future: What does Planning 10 have to do with it?

by Brenda Kvist, secondary teacher in Vancouver

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lanning is the process of thinking about and organizing the activities required to achieve a desired goal. As a teacher of Planning 10, I am tasked with teaching my students to become “self-directed individuals, who set goals, make thoughtful decisions, and take responsibility for pursuing their goals throughout life” (Planning 10 IRP, Ministry of Education).

For a passionate environmental educator, Planning 10 has presented itself as an ideal course to teach my students about their personal responsibility, not just to themselves but also to others, their community, and the environment.

Fuse/ Thinkstock

The goals of Planning 10 have supported

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me in meeting the prescribed learning outcomes set by the Ministry, and my own commitment to empowering my students to make sustainable life choices. At first, I was surprised by how well sustainability education fit into Planning 10.

So many aspects of helping students plan for their future can be looked at through a sustainability lens, which has given me the opportunity to devote approximately 40% of my teaching to these issues.

Through my Planning 10 course at Vancouver Learning Network, I have asked my 900 students each year for the last three years to consider these questions: • How can I become an informed decision-maker, able to understand the effects of my choices on myself and others, my community, and the environment?

• How can I access information and analyze it for accuracy, bias, and relevance to support me in making healthy and sustainable life choices?

• How can I develop my personal responsibility for attaining and maintaining overall health and financial well-being, and for pursuing and achieving my educational and career goals that are in alignment with my values for a sustainable world?

• How can I develop the attitudes, skills, and knowledge that empower me to plan for my successful transition from secondary school to my adult life, where I can reach my full potential and contribute to creating a sustainable and healthy community?

Understandably, these can be difficult questions for students to answer, but my Planning 10 curriculum is designed in such a way that it empowers students to become excited about making responsible decisions that are in their best interest and the best interest of the environment. Students engage in critical thinking exercises, conduct research to gain information and consider differing perspectives, communicate what they’ve learned to their peers, and take personal action—all in alignment with their personal and social values for health and sustainability, and to ultimately become informed decision-makers.

Witnessing the impact on students when they personally experience change excites me about what Planning 10 can be for more students. They are becoming more aware, not just by talking about the fact that they can take action, but because they are actually taking it. I’ve received an overwhelmingly positive response from my students on how this course has changed their views on the world around them, confirming to me that this generation wants to take charge and make things happen.

BCTF Social Justice Newsletter, Summer/Fall 2014

“I enjoyed learning about the planet that I am living on, and understanding the simple and easy things I can do to improve this place. It enlightened me and gave me knowledge and insight on so many important topics that I never thought of before…

It inspired me to take action and, no pun intended, be the change for a better environment and community.”

“…many youth nowadays are aware of the issues that are compromising our planet today, but we are clueless about what actions we can take to solve these issues…it really amazed me how many environmental problems I help contribute to personally. I really want to do some activism/volunteer work regarding the problems that Be the Change highlighted...”

Asking students what type of world they want to live in, and inviting them through an educational process that empowers them to see the role they play in attaining this world, is the true value that Planning 10 offers both teachers and students. I hope Planning 10 teachers will join me in not only teaching sustainability education in their classes, but also in advocating for sustainability education to be included in the new Planning 10 curriculum drafts.

Resources Be the Change Earth Alliance’s Student Leadership in Sustainability Program (SLS) is a cross-curricular suite of sustainability resources that I have used in my Planning 10 class for the last three years. If you are interested in teaching sustainability in Planning 10 using SLS, please contact erin@bethechangeeathalliance.org.

BCTF Social Justice Newsletter, Summer/Fall 2014

“…it made me a better person.

That sounds corny but it did. Be the Change has made me more aware...It forced me to step out of my comfort zone and do better things for my community. For that I am grateful.”

KatarzynaBialasiewicz/ iStock/ Thinkstock

“…focus on issues of our world that are extremely relevant in our modern time…The Action Packs have been extremely successful in expanding my knowledge on the world that we are living in, and have given me a variety of interesting issues that I can easily take action upon to improve this world.”

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Some good news for sustainability education in British Columbia

by Julie D. Johnston, Committee for Action on Social Justice, Environmental Justice Action Group (with thanks to Ryan Cho and Maureen Jack-LaCroix)

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oes it ever freak you out or frack you off (pardon my language but I’m feeling, well, fracked off) that our education system is still only dancing—or rather, dragging its feet—around the fringes of teaching for genuine sustainability?

tied to local and global systems of inequity. Materials in this new resource include nine highly interactive lessons designed for upper elementary and secondary classrooms. These lessons explore climate justice within the context of BC’s communities, history (and future), economy, and ecology. Each lesson will include a lesson plan and student materials, and some contain a slide presentation.

Even though the practice of sustainability is as ancient as human communities (though foreign to our own); even though the concept of developing in ways that are sustainable was thrust into public awareness almost a The lessons tie into subject matter and PLOs already quarter of a century ago by the introduction of Agenda in the BC curriculum, while providing a framework to 21 at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit (after the Brundtland unpack more modern social and environmental issues Commission had toured globally for three years to hear such as our industrial food system, consumerism/ from people all around the world); even though in our waste, the potential in a provincial green economy, and culture if we’re not teaching for sustainability, we are BC fossil fuel development. by default teaching for UNsustainability; even though Dennis Meadows (a co-author of the Club of Rome’s Looking at climate change through the lens of fairness 1972 Limits to Growth blockbuster) has said it’s too and equity, each lesson also explores how BC might late for sustainable development and we need to be chart a course forward in the face of the world’s climate focusing on survivable development; and even though challenges. Local schools and communities are used as the Ministry of Education invited teachers and students examples where students can go beyond the “personal to an international conference on LNG (liquefied natural choice” model of social change and re-create the gas is still carbon, folks)…we still educate, as though the systems that surround them for the better. future will be much like the present—only with fancier technology.

The Climate Justice Project asks how we can tackle global

“ warming with fairness and equality. Our challenge is to build a zero carbon society that also enhances our quality of life. ” –Marc Lee, CCPA Climate Justice Project Director

But our students are facing a future that will be climate-wracked and carbon-constrained. Millions of people are already affected by climate change. Our very blessed province (parts of which are abnormally dry this year) will not withstand the effects of a changing climate much longer. I remember hearing on the radio that Arnold Schwarzenegger, when he was governor of California, told former BC premier Gordon Campbell that our province wouldn’t be able to depend on his state for food much longer. And here we are…early spring of 2014 saw every single jurisdiction in California in drought—with nearly 25% in exceptional drought. But there is good news to report.

CCPA Climate Justice Lessons First, the BCTF and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) have joined together to create a new Climate Justice Resource Package to help teachers and students engage with how climate change is 12

“Too often we think of climate change and inequity as something that happens ‘over there’ in the developing world,” says Ryan Cho, the main architect of the project, and a BC classroom teacher. “What is exciting to me about this project is it brings the issue back home to parts of our students’ everyday lives, and provides them with frameworks to engage with their community systems, not just their own individual behaviour.”

Ryan continues, “There are political forces within our school system that are working to dismiss the issue of climate change because of fossil fuel and LNG interests in the province. However, climate justice has to be the moral issue of our generation and working to address it BCTF Social Justice Newsletter, Summer/Fall 2014

has the potential to change our lives and economies for the better. I think that we need resources like this in BC schools, and I’m proud to be a part of it.”

The Climate Justice lessons are nearly ready for dissemination to schools. Watch for them soon.

that this cost doesn’t meet the accessibility “filter” of the BCTF’s Social Justice Lens, BTCEA founder and creative director Maureen Jack-LaCroix is working with the Environmental Justice Action Group to come up with innovative ways to make SLS available to all teachers and accessible to all students. For example, in some schools parents on Parent Advisory Councils (PACs) choose to purchase the program. In one district, funds came from the sustainability officer.

Let us know if you have an idea.

BTCEA Student Leadership in Sustainability modules The second example of good news comes from Be the Change Earth Alliance. Student Leadership in Sustainability (SLS) is a compendium of six independent, To learn more about Student Leadership in interchangeable modules that focus on personal values Sustainability, visit bethechangeearthalliance.org/student_ that constitute a sustainable worldview. Each teacher home. Virtual professional development sessions are module (examples include Health, Connection, Justice, offered regularly and you’ll be able to see Be the Change and Innovation) contains five to nine online Action Packs this year at the Summer Leadership Conference. for students (the Justice module, for example, includes Action Packs on water privatization, gender equality, poverty, food security, and more).

Be the Change is providing the resources for what These provide research links and educators want to teach and students want to learn, experiential activities to promote critical empowering everyone to make it happen. thinking, dialogue, solutions-based –Denise North, Killarney Secondary School, Vancouver actions, small-group collaboration, and class presentations.

Well, that’s some of the good news on sustainability education in BC. We’ll save the fracking bad news A main intent of the SLS program is to help students (oops, pardon my language again) for another time. explore sustainability issues by examining current References social behaviours that are based on outdated British Columbia Newsroom. 3 March 2014. B.C. students to explore careers at worldviews and unexamined assumptions—critical international LNG conference. newsroom.gov.bc.ca/2014/03/bc-students-to-explorecareers-at-international-lng-conference.html thinking at its best! They are then encouraged to Be the Change Earth Alliance: bethechangeearthalliance.org create positive systemic change through collaborative Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Climate Justice Project: policyalternatives.ca/ school projects. Student Leadership in Sustainability projects/climate-justice-project Dennis Meadows, Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update. Presentation to the can be used in a wide range of courses, from socials Environmental Change and Security Project of the Woodrow Wilson International and science to home economics, Planning 10, and Center for Scholars, 14 October 2004.

Julie Johnston is currently a member of the Committee for Action on Social Justice, English. Both teacher and student response to SLS is Environmental Justice Action Group. She is also a part-time teacher on Pender Island enthusiastic—sometimes even transformative. and a sustainability education consultant with GreenHeart Education, where she can

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be contacted (greenhearted.org).

i-works/amanaimagesRF/Thinkstock

Although Be the Change Earth Alliance is a not-forprofit organization, it can’t produce the SLS program without incurring cost. The fee is currently $4 per student. Recognizing

BCTF Social Justice Newsletter, Winter/Spring 2014 13

Teachers as environmental representatives

by Richard Pesik, Committee for Action on Social Justice, Environmental Justice Action Group

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s teachers, I believe that we should play the important role of environmental justice representatives; not only could we influence our students during our everyday teaching about the needs of environmental protection by our own actions, but we could also influence the whole school community. We can become one of the major forces in helping to protect the environment during our daily lives. This would be an important act in reversing the negative impacts that we have on our environment.

In addition, we could slow down or even eliminate any contributions toward climate change.

wasted. It is important that the students understand that there are children who have nothing to eat or that their main source of food is sometimes a communal garbage site. We could teach them that any unused food should be composted.

This may lead to establishing composting at our schools. Later on, it may expand to small school gardens that would be excellent teaching tools for science classes, and they would also be an opportunity to teach students about responsibility.

Furthermore, they could be a small step toward community gardens that may become a natural source of vegetables for those in need.

The ideal method would be completely “green” schools that do not add anything negative to our environment, but any small project that could lead us toward this ideal is important. I know that our lives are often too busy to add anything more to our day-to-day teaching load, but many things could be done as part of the curricula or by working together with other teachers. Such efforts could be student- and communitydriven, and green projects could get support from school boards as a money saving initiative.

Have you ever thought about how much electricity is wasted when the lights are on during a perfectly sunny day, or when the lights are never turned off even though nobody is in the classroom or in the school?

How about computers that are never turned off after students finish their work and go home? Why not have students be responsible for turning off all lights and computers when they leave at the end of a school day? With the rising cost of electricity and tight school district budgets, any savings could be put back into our classrooms.

Additionally, all these habits may be transferred to students’ households, and that would have a greater positive impact on our environment.

When walking through the hallways I can see how much food is being Jupiterimages/Goodshot/Thinkstock

Another precious resource is our water.

We should encourage our school districts and our students not to purchase, or offer for purchase, bottled water in our schools.

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They should understand that our tap water is safe and creates less pollution than bottled water. It is important to know that bottled water is produced for profit rather than for our safety. Furthermore, bottled water may lead to a slow privatization of natural resources that belong to all of us. Abolishing the use of bottled water in our schools may slow this process.

One may ask, “What is the ideal green school? Can we ever find it somewhere in the world?” While surfing the Internet, I was able to find a green school in a location I did not think it would be possible—Bali (greenschools.org). It is a school that employs all possible technological gadgets that aid in making the school almost 100% green. It is built from local materials, uses solar panels to produce electricity, recycles water, and much more. It was founded by a Canadian art student, John Hardy, and his wife, Cynthia.

I believe that building green schools is possible in Canada. We as teachers, and our students, could be the main force behind this initiative. As environmental justice representatives we can start with small things like turning lights and computers off when not used. During school renovations or construction of a new school we can suggest the use of green technologies like double flush toilets, thermal heating, LED technology, composting, recycling, and green roofs. This is our environment and once destroyed we would not be able to replace it, therefore building green schools will help to protect our environment.

BCTF Social Justice Newsletter, Summer/Fall 2014

Unleashing Peru’s potential: Our mutually beneficial partnership

by Barb Ryeburn, elementary teacher in Cranbrook

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y most memorable experiences during the summer of 2013 occurred while participating in the BCTF Peru Project. One of my Peruvian colleagues, Aida Campos Peralta, had just given her first workshop independently and I asked her how the session had gone. Aida’s eyes lit up and she told me, “Wonderful. They loved it. I feel like I am making a real difference!”

For the past six summers, BCTF and Peruvian teachers have collaborated in delivering workshops for Peruvian English teachers. Over the years, the Peru Project has evolved to become a more sustainable form of solidarity in which Peruvian teachers have taken increasing ownership of the program. Carol Jokanovich, a Comox Valley teacher, identifies this as one of the most rewarding aspects of her participation in this project. A project participant in 2010, when Peruvian teachers were first involved in partnering with BCTF teachers to lead workshops, Jokanovich returned as co-leader in 2013 and saw Peruvian involvement increase dramatically as two Peruvians joined us in co-leading the project. At the same time, Peruvian facilitators from previous Peru Projects were involved in organizing and running their own workshops in Trujillo and Lima, independent of BCTF support. Jokanovich notes that she was impressed with the “distinct shift in the ‘us versus them’ mentality, where the Peruvian facilitators made suggestions, critiqued, and were far more comfortable being directly implicated in the planning process.”

The Peru Project experience was not without its challenging moments, as reflected in two of the BCTF teachers’ biggest memories. Janek Kuchmistrz, a Vancouver teacher, describes how a Peruvian teacher improvised in his workshop when the electricity was cut.

“For about 40 minutes, we tried to study social justice issues using the light from a dozen mobile phone screens. This was a priceless moment of persevering to teach despite those obstacles.” Surrey teacher Violette Baillargeon, notes how these challenges contributed to her personal growth. “Traveling to Peru gave me an opportunity to learn other ways of doing things, other perspectives on similar

BCTF Social Justice Newsletter, Summer/Fall 2014

challenges, and it also inspired me to bring flexibility into other parts of my life.”

Participants all noted growth in their professional development through participation in the project.

According to Aida Campos Peralta, “We were learning all the time. You taught us that sharing is very important.” For Julio Herrero, “Taking part in this experience definitely turned me into a better English teacher. I became more confident with my English and was able to share my expertise with Peruvian and Canadian colleagues.” According to Jokanovich, project participation “reinvigorates me in my own teaching, both at the professional level of having seen challenges and conditions, but also at a classroom level—imparting the value of having second language skills and how that broadens one’s experience.”

As for me, participation in this project contributed enormously to my confidence and skills as a leader. The BCTF’s trust in teachers’ ability to run this project has also helped to solidify my understanding of the BCTF as a union that values member engagement in leadership roles. This is especially important in Peru, where a large percentage of teachers have lost trust in their union’s ability to effect change as a result of legislated elimination of automatic deduction of union dues from teachers’ pay cheques, as well as an intensive union smear campaign.

The potential for the Peru Project to strengthen teachers’ support for and involvement in their union became clear to me as I watched a previously listless group of teachers suddenly become animated, their faces lighting up and their heads nodding enthusiastically, when project co-leader Sary Arbañil replaced a local union executive member at the microphone and began a passionate speech on the role of teachers.

Peru Project participation also contributes to an increased awareness of the similarities between challenges faced

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by Peruvian and Canadian teachers and their unions.

Kuchmistrz notes, “We learned from them just how similar are our battles in defense of public education; the manner in which state and media propaganda have sought to paint them...as well-paid public servants who are just complainers is so strikingly similar to what we face here in British Columbia.”

The raised awareness of common challenges has contributed to Peru Project participants’ increased understanding of the role of teachers’ unions in supporting public education, as well as the importance of international solidarity. According to Jean MacLeod le Cheminant, a Campbell River teacher, “Providing the opportunity of working with our colleagues internationally, having the opportunity to bring home ‘on the ground’ realities of the challenges facing teachers and their unions in other countries, means that our union practises what it preaches.” Co-leader Ysabel Vargas Alayo sums up the essence of solidarity in concluding, “We share a capacity to value our daily work despite the common difficulties we encounter in our schools no matter where we live. We are connected for one reason: improving teaching and learning.”

Vepar5/iStock/Thinkstock The evolution of the Peru Project continues. The 2014 project goals include providing supports that will allow past Peruvian facilitators to work with their local unions to offer autonomously organized workshops for Peruvian teachers. New Westminster teacher Jessica Yee underlines the importance of ongoing BCTF support for this phase of the project.

“There is a hunger from teachers, student-teachers, and the public for better education, resources, and support. This project instills confidence and serves as a great example of what Peruvian educators can do for themselves and for their community. You can see that the seeds that were sown over the past few years having started to sprout and it is only starting to gain momentum. If we stop now, the momentum will be lost.” Herrero agrees: “I think your work in Peru is not done yet. There are lots of things that need to be improved here and you are the ones who will help us to move forward and accomplish our goals.”

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Will there be justice for Jose Figueroa and his family?

by Jonathan Dyck, LTA Social Justice Committee, secondary teacher in Langley

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ecently, I started teaching Social Justice 12 at my school. It’s a great course because my students and I get to delve into a lot of important current issues, and investigate the causes and consequences of inequities. Moreover, the course provides a starting point for those students looking for ways to make a difference and engage in the hard work of being active citizens. Of course, I try to model what I teach, and my active engagement of late has been with the plight of my friend and neighbour, Jose Figueroa.

Many of you will have seen stories about Figueroa in the news: he is facing an unjust deportation order and arrest warrant after 17 years in Canada. He came here as a refugee during the civil war in El Salvador, where he worked as a student organizer for the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN), which was trying to overthrow the violent and oppressive regime governing at that time. He did not commit any acts of violence, and the Canadian government now recognizes the FMLN as the legitimate government of El Salvador. Why are they labeling him a terrorist for his political engagement, yet inviting other FMLN members who are diplomats and elected officials to dinner?

His wife, Ivania, was finally declared admissible last year and can now stay in Canada with their three children, who are students in the Langley School District. Figueroa, however, has been told he has to leave and can parent his children via Skype. This would of course be devastating to his family. He has applied BCTF Social Justice Newsletter, Summer/Fall 2014

to the Minister of Public Safety for an exemption, and even Langley’s Conservative MP, Mark Warawa, has advocated on his behalf.

Unfortunately, the Minister still hasn’t responded to the application—even though it was filed four years ago.

I have known and lived next to the Figueroas for more than seven years, and know that they are model citizens, the kind of people who make Canada a great country. Our children play and go to school together, and to see this family ripped apart because of an overly broad immigration law that falsely labels him a terrorist is unthinkable. My wife and I, along with other friends and neighbours, have supported the family over the years as they have tried to fight this injustice and keep their family intact. We have circulated petitions, raised money for legal fees, written letters to government ministers and media, and tried to help raise awareness of the injustices the Figueroas and other immigrants have to face here in Canada.

In early October 2013, Figueroa was forced to seek sanctuary at the Walnut Grove Lutheran Church, where he and his family have attended for many years. He found out that the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) was about to carry out his removal orders.

As a result, his story has been featured in local, provincial, and national news media, and more people have expressed support than ever before, including politicians from across the political spectrum. Now that parliament has resumed in Ottawa, we hope to use the public pressure and momentum to convince the Minister of Public Safety, Steven Blaney, to intervene and grant an exemption.

Since sanctuary cases like Figueroa’s can drag on for years, he and his family, as well as his supporters, are getting burned out and need a resolution. I’ve been very encouraged by the support of the BCTF and the LTA; both have submitted letters in support of the Figueroas, and the LTA made another donation recently and helped publicize a rally that was held at the church in Walnut Grove on October 19, 2013. The rally was a success, more than 150 people came to show their support, most of whom were from local churches and the community, and had never attended a political rally before. Some of my students came and helped out, as did a number of BCTF Social Justice Newsletter, Summer/Fall 2014

Langley teachers. We even got Langley City Councillors Rosemary Wallace and Dave Hall to attend and express their support. Figueroa and his family were very encouraged by this public demonstration of solidarity.

On October 29, 2013, a federal court stayed the removal order temporarily, until the pending judicial review of Figueroa’s case can take place. This was a small victory, as the judge pointed out the CBSA was unable to prove that he posed a threat. Langley’s own full-time table officers Gail Chaddock-Costello and Richard Beaudry attended a rally in front of the court building in Vancouver to show their support, along with a delegation from No One is Illegal, an organization that works for migrant justice. The CBSA still seems determined to arrest and detain Figueroa (though they can’t deport him yet as per the recent court order), so he will remain in sanctuary for now, but the judge’s response to the case has given him and his family some hope.

So what now? You can help by sharing Figueroa’s story with your friends, on Facebook (We Are Jose), and on Twitter (@wearejose and #wearejose). You can learn more and donate online at wearejose.org. The website also offers direction for writing letters of support (including examples, such as a letter from former BCTF President and current MP Jinny Sims). You can comment on news stories and write letters to the editors of local papers and the Minister of Public Safety. You can help model for your students what engaged citizens do to help make this world a better place—because as teachers, that’s what we do.

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And we will go forward: The 2014 DTSS Human Rights Symposium

by Blair McFarlane, a secondary student in Invermere

Don’t fold, regardless of the hand life deals you, never, ever fold.

This is what we learned, and so much more, at the Human Rights Symposium hosted by David Thompson Secondary in Invermere, BC, this past April. Students from David Thompson Secondary and Golden Secondary were fortunate enough to spend an entire day listening to the incredible and humbling voices of the most resilient people.

We heard stories from two Holocaust survivors, a residential school survivor, and a youth activist. It was an experience I will hold on to forever.

This was one of the most powerful events of my life.

It put me into a state of shock, or something of the like, for over a week. To hear these terrifying stories of survival gives you a sense of life and what it truly means to live. It made me understand what it really means to breathe and to appreciate this simple function for the gift it is.

Robbie Waisman was the first speaker of the day. He stepped out from around the podium and shared an unspeakable story with us. At only eight years old, the Nazis stole everything he had away from him. He was forced to work in a munitions factory along with his father and one of his brothers. Later, alone, he was sent to Buchenwald Concentration Camp. Robbie escaped when he was fourteen years old, but he had aged well beyond his years. His story of liberation was beautiful. American soldiers freed them and Robbie knew he was saved when he saw a black soldier. It was the first time he had seen a black person and Robbie saw him as an angel. He ran up to him and held on tightly. Today, Robbie and the soldier still keep in contact. After his liberation, Robbie discovered that his sister was the only other survivor in his family. Robbie spoke with such raw and painful honesty that I was in tears early in his talk. When he finished, Robbie sat down next to one of the other speakers, Julius, and they reached out and held hands for a moment to comfort and strengthen each other.

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Julius Maslovat spoke next. He told us a story about a young boy, Yidele Henechowicz, and his experience in the Holocaust. He told us about when Yidele’s mother was being loaded onto a train leading God knows where, she made the quick but agonizing decision to toss her baby over a fence and into the arms of his father, all while guards surrounded them. That toss saved Yidele’s life as his mother, along with so many other innocent people, was taken directly to a crematorium. Throughout his story, we were waiting to find out Julius’s connection to this boy who lived through the unimaginable, and he revealed that they have the closest connection possible; Yidele is Julius. His adoptive parents named him Julius after he escaped the grasp of the Nazis. Julius tells this story of an incredible little boy whom we came to admire and love from afar, only for him to be right in front of us. Julius is an absolutely awe-inspiring storyteller and Yidele’s story exposes the resilience of the human spirit as the most powerful thing in existence.

To make us aware that humans have had to endure injustice even in our homeland, we also got to hear Herman Alpine’s story about his survival of St. Eugene Mission School in Cranbrook. His time at residential school scarred him deeply and forced him onto a broken path for a long time. Torn away from his family when he was very young, Herman was subject to horrific psychological, physical, and sexual abuse.

When he was first dropped off at the school, they promised his grandmother that they would not cut off his long, braided hair that meant so much to her and their culture. Ten minutes after she left, his hair was gone and he had already endured his first of many beatings. Residential school filled Herman with incredible pain, anger, and hatred that led to a life poisoned with alcohol, prison, and heartbreak.

He eventually turned back to his roots and culture and began healing.

It was he who told us never to fold because there is always a way to play your hand; you just have to search for it.

BCTF Social Justice Newsletter, Summer/Fall 2014

tongo51/iStock/Thinkstock

To close, we heard the inspirational words of Laura Hannant, a Canadian woman who spent her childhood bettering the lives of other children worldwide. She told us about her achievement, along with children from all over the world, in writing a declaration for the UN about the status of children. She told us about all of the children she had met and how they changed her life. She told us that as a teenager, she spent a lot of time out of school campaigning for children to be heard and for their rights to be recognized. She told us that we are big enough and are worth something. She told us that being children was our biggest asset. Her stories were filled with humility and the entire time she spoke, she was shaking. It felt as if she hadn’t yet come to terms with her own story and was trembling because telling those stories brought back all the feelings she had as a child and that was almost a way to release them.

She is still angry and unsatisfied with the world, and her talk made us all understand those feelings and forced us to reflect on our own lives and the lives of everyone around us.

BCTF Social Justice Newsletter, Summer/Fall 2014

After the symposium, students were asking each other who they found to be the most powerful speaker. For me, there was absolutely no way to answer. These stories were so raw and pure that to compare them or place them on a scale felt disrespectful to the core of each experience. No one’s truth is worth any less than the other, and these stories were too intimate and real to judge; they simply allowed us to grow and to feel.

These four speakers changed my life. They shared their most personal and horrifying stories and I feel forever indebted to them. They showed us the absolute worst of human nature and led us through their personal journeys of survival and forgiveness. They experienced absolute hell and yet they still smile, they still have hope, and they still have faith. I think that is incredible and shows their immeasurable strength and the human capacity to survive.

After the symposium, I was blessed enough to hug both Robbie and Julius and I will treasure that for my entire life. It shattered all barriers between our lives and allowed for the most honest connection. It made their experiences that much more tangible and real for me. The stories we heard are a gift we need to treasure so that we can create a world filled with peace and love, not a world rampant with terror and destruction.

These stories need to be heard so we can remember that even in the darkest and most horrific times, we can still find hope and light. With these stories, we will go forward and we will never, ever fold.

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A hundred years ago

by Duncan Graham, World Federalist Movement, Vancouver Branch

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hundred years ago there was a general stability in the world. Europe had long since annexed the world as colonies or protectorates, though Latin America had already won independence. America was keeping to itself. The established nobility held social sway. Democracy had yet to be extended to half the population—women. The crowned heads of Europe, Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, Czar Nicholas II of Imperial Russia, Emperor Francis Joseph I of the AustrianHungary empire, King George V of the United Kingdom, to name a few, were all related through Queen Victoria.

The established order was the best of all possible worlds. Some social reforms on pensions started by Germany were a sign of progress, and the Czar was cautioned by his cousin King George V that some reforms in Imperial Russia were needed. In practical terms there were indeed massive changes. The steam engine had revolutionized industry, communication, and transportation. Radio had introduced an unbelievable governmental outreach.

That was a hundred years ago. Then a shot rang out in a small town in southern Europe. A minor Archduke lay dead. Like a house of cards, the entire system collapsed. In the next murderous four years 20 million people were killed or wounded. The face of Europe was re-arranged. Crowned heads rolled. Gone was the Emperor of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire along with his empire. The Czar, the nobility, the entrenched interests of Russia’s elites, were taken over completely by a proletarian revolution. All in four short years.

Despots and the entrenched never seem to see the sand on which their edifice rests. (My father was in the trenches near Ypres as a 19 year old.)

They had been warned of course, but other interests found it preferable to keep up the style to which they had become accustomed.

It was the established order of things, after all.

In 1899 Czar Nicholas II of Russia called for a conference with the following prophecy:

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“The intellectual and physical strength of nations, labour and capital alike, have been unproductively consumed in building terrible engines of destruction. The system of armaments is transforming the armed peace into a crushing burden that weighs on all nations and, if prolonged, will lead inevitably to the very cataclysm which it is designed to avert.”

The military-industrial complex of 1914, the Merchants of Death as they were called, made sure it was prolonged, and sold arms to both sides very profitably.

This year is the centenary of that shot in Sarajevo.

How have we progressed in a hundred years?

In 1963 the United Nations unanimously passed the McCloy-Zorin Accord for Complete and General Disarmament. But the industrial and military complex, the 21st century merchants of death, have won out. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reports that total world military expenditures are $1,740 billion US annually. The row of zeros is bemusing. But let’s make it real: a 1mm pad of $100 notes is $1,000. So a one metre slab of notes is $1,000,000 and a kilometer is a billion dollars. So world military expenditures are 1,740 kms of packed $100 notes, yet Malala Yousafzai has to campaign for funds for underprivileged children.

The vision of a civilized planet has already been described. It is all in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Organizations like the World Federalist Movement have proclaimed the necessity of a world federal parliament. Without government there is anarchy. The same five permanent members with veto still control the UN Security Council, as they have done since 1945 and the UN Charter Review (Art. 109) was by-passed.

WW I produced the League of Nations. WW II the United Nations. What’s next?

What can we do here in Canada? Can there be an alternative peace perspective to counter the Canadian government’s narrative around the commemoration of World War I and other increasingly militaristic endeavours?

BCTF Social Justice Newsletter, Summer/Fall 2014

The Federation of the World From the Unitarian hymn book The Celebration of Life, lines from Tennyson’s poem “Locksley Hall,” 1842.

In the hymn it is set to the music of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy,” 9th Symphony.

Not in vain the distance beacons. Forward, forward let us range.

Let the great world spin forever down the ringing grooves of change Through the shadow of the globe we sweep ahead to heights sublime We, the heirs of all the ages, in the foremost files of time.

Oh, we see the crescent promise of that spirit has not set.

Ancient founts of inspiration well through our fancies yet.

And we doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose runs.

And the thoughts of all are widened with the process of the suns.

Yes, we dip into the future, far as human eye can see, See the vision of the world and all the wonder that shall be Hear the war drum throb no longer, see the battle flags all furled In the parliament of all, the Federation of the World.

Locksley Hall, a long and introspective poem, continues this theme with another two significant lines:

There the common sense of most shall hold a fretful realm in awe, And the kindly earth shall slumber, wrapped in universal law.

The 30 member Chalice Choir of the Unitarian Church of Vancouver sang it on February 6, 2014, and it was recorded.

Choir Director, Donna Brown. Pianist, Elliott Dainow.

The recording described above was arranged with the generous co-operation of Donna Brown with Vivian Davidson, president of the World Federalist Movement, Vancouver Branch.

It is available and can be forwarded to others with credits given if played at a meeting (worldfederalistsvancouver.ca).

BCTF Social Justice Newsletter, Summer/Fall 2014

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White peace poppies: A new opportunity for Remembrance Day 2014

by Georgina Arntzen, elementary teacher in Vancouver, & Teresa Gagné, co-founder of Vancouver Peace Poppies

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the start of World War Ι, once viewed optimistically as “The War to End War.” It also marks the start of two BC campaigns to encourage elementary and secondary school teachers to introduce white peace poppies alongside the traditional red poppy in discussions and activities around Remembrance Day. While they are relatively new in Canada, peace poppies actually have a long history. Introduced in Britain over 80 years ago, the white poppy commemorates all victims of war, civilian and military, while challenging the beliefs, values, and institutions that make war seem inevitable. Despite polarized media coverage, Canadian support is growing rapidly and last year an estimated 15,000 Canadians wore a white poppy, often alongside the red. Here is a great opportunity to introduce them to your school.

The BC elementary school campaign is the result of a community partnership between teachers and the non-profit group Vancouver Peace Poppies, and is endorsed and supported by a BCTF Ed May Social Justice Grant. The secondary school campaign is a Vancouver Peace Poppies project to support white poppy initiatives by student groups or teachers.

Both campaigns seek to make white poppies and

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related resource materials available and affordable to any interested school. They also offer the option of linking with other schools to share ideas, or co-ordinate activities for increased impact.

Traditional Remembrance Day ceremonies have mainly focused on honouring the valour and sacrifice of Canadian military combatants in past and current conflicts. That’s important, but for many people it isn’t enough. We know that teachers do an excellent job of incorporating peace into Remembrance Day assemblies and the white peace poppies are an important way to help bring attention to the broader impacts of war. Since WW I the world has seen hundreds of wars and the resulting deaths of more than 200 million people. While respecting and honouring the sacrifice of soldiers, white lapel poppies and mixed poppy wreaths like those above also recognize the huge shift toward higher civilian casualties in recent conflicts. Civilian victims, including many children, are now estimated to be 85% to 90% of the total war dead. We owe it to them and to ourselves to ensure

that our memory of war includes all its victims, not only those of our military, and not just as numbers or statistics, but as individuals, as persons. If we don’t resolve to commit our collective efforts to ending war, we will indeed have broken faith with those who died, and those who will continue to die.

With the pending WW I anniversaries we are already seeing an increased government emphasis on what they see as the positive role of war in “nation building” and Canadian identity. An estimated $30 million was spent on recent “celebrations” of the War of 1812 bicentennial, while the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre shut its doors in December 2013 because of the loss of government funding. Canada once contributed 3,000 military personnel to UN peacekeeping, it currently provides only 60.

The white poppy campaign provides teachers with additional Remembrance Day activities, focusing on the important role of children and youth in imagining and working to realize a more peaceful world. The white poppy project

BCTF Social Justice Newsletter, Summer/Fall 2014

Similar to Day of Pink activities that now take place in many BC schools, the white poppy can help to affirm the role of children in championing and advocating for a society where all human lives are equally valued, as well as to expand community discussion around issues of war and peace. A thoughtful study of the impact of distant wars on children and families like their own can help children to develop the open minds and empathic skills so necessary in a future generation of world leaders and policymakers.

The current demographics of our schools mean that many students now come from regions in the world where the impact of war is a current reality, not just a memory. With teachers’ support, the white poppy campaign can give these students a focused and safe place to share their family stories and to feel included in our marking of Remembrance Day. From its inception the white poppy movement has challenged wearers to commit themselves to bringing an end to war. The non-violent message inherent in the white poppy is a timely and concrete extension of our desire to teach students to both stand up for what they believe in and to find ways to use words to resolve problems. It is also a clear way to support thinking globally and acting locally—as individuals who choose to wear this symbol and as a community that welcomes initiatives to promote peace. By participating in the White Poppy Campaign you and your students will be part of a Canada-wide effort to expand the crucial discussion of peacemaking and highlight the importance of seeking non-violent means of conflict resolution in the face of the growing militarization of our society.

For white poppy campaign resources and links see members.shaw.ca/peacepoppies/. Don’t wait until fall to explore this new initiative.

BCTF Social Justice Newsletter, Summer/Fall 2014

Growing up different: One child’s reality

by Joe Winkler, Committee for Action on Social Justice, LGBTQ Action Group

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ustria had been taken over by Adolph Hitler before World War II even started, and thousands of German-speaking Jews and homosexuals had already been rounded up and sent to “camps.” By the time Britain declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939, a new course had already been set for my family’s lives and, ultimately, for my own life. Being Germanspeaking would be hard for a child growing up in Canada. Being gay would be devastating. andhal/ iStock/Thinkstock

provides access to clear, carefully assembled, studentfriendly materials for different ages. Our elementary school package includes classroom project ideas, photocopy masters for printing lapel poppies, information slips, and larger poppies and leaves for making wreaths, and a form to preorder beautiful cloth lapel poppies at a subsidized price of only 35¢ each. For secondary schools we include discussion topics, project ideas, and advice on running a school campaign. Both packages contain electronic resource links, a list of peace songs, and comments from past campaign participants and supportive veterans.

My dad was eight years old when the Germans “annexed” his country to theirs. A few years later, my mother was born in a small village in the Germanspeaking area of Slovenia. They owned a farm. Hitler’s plan was for them, and for all the Gottsche people of Slovenia, to be brought across the border into Austria so that the “German people” would all be reunited. My mother, age four, and her family were “moved” into Austria where they spent the next several years living in poverty as refugees. At the same time, my dad recalls being “the man” on his aunt’s farm, since the men were off fighting for Germany. He recalls a lot of running to bomb shelters whenever he heard planes overhead.

He was barely a teenager by the end of the war. The extermination of millions of Jews was a well-kept secret that my parents knew nothing of at the time. So was the extermination of tens of thousands of homosexual men.

I grew up in the safe haven called Canada. My father was part of the first wave of immigrants from Austria.

It was 1952. He sewed US dollars into his boots (good thing he had apprenticed as a shoemaker back home) and arrived in Halifax to start a new life in the promised 23

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land. My mother arrived in 1959. Her brothers, who had both made it out of the war alive, had settled in Vancouver with their wives and my mother had decided to visit them. Soon after her arrival she met my dad, and two years later, in the “progressive” early sixties, I was born.

It was not always easy growing up “German” in postwar Canada. It seemed the British (as we called Anglo-Saxon Canadians at the time) were reluctant to embrace us as equals. I even remember the organist remarking when I suggested she play a song written by Josef Haydn (okay, so it was the same tune as the German national anthem) at my first wedding in 1985, “Why would you want that song? What, are there going to be a bunch of Krauts at the wedding?” I can only imagine what this lady might have said if I had been planning the music for my second wedding—to another man!

Growing up as a German-speaker in Canada was not easy. My parents instilled Austrian values in my sister and me. Most of our family friends were German, Austrian, or Swiss. The name of our church in Vancouver was Heilige Familie. My father imported shoes from Germany and Switzerland; his store was on a street called Robsonstrasse. But somehow, my sister and I managed to assimilate quite well into Anglo-Canadian society.

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For me, a much bigger challenge was blending into the heteronormative world in which I was growing up. Honest to God, I thought I was the only gay boy in the world. I really did! The confusion, the self-doubt, the depression, and the guilt were all-consuming. I could excuse the fact that I wasn’t like the other kids because my parents were from a different part of the world. After all, we spoke German at home and we ate Goulash and Schnitzel. That was easy enough. But how, as a six year old, could I come to terms with the fact that I was a “femme” (well, that’s what the other boys called me!) who preferred dolls to trucks, girls to boys, and baking with my mother to watching a western with my dad? And how, as a twelve year old, could I deal with being the only boy in school who was physically attracted to other boys, instead of to girls? “What was wrong with me?” I used to think.

High school wasn’t all bad for me. I didn’t feel overly out of place in my British boarding school. Some of my peers’ parents came from non-English countries like Greece, Germany, Switzerland, and Kenya. Some of my classmates were effeminate, like me, and we put up with the teasing because it seemed to be just the way things were. We weren’t good at throwing a ball and we didn’t play ice hockey. We even got teased by some of our teachers!

Eventually, determined that I would be straight like everyone else, I started dating girls from our sister school. By the time I got to university, I had completely given up being with guys, but I’m not sure if that was because of societal standards or my own internalized homophobia. I met a wonderful girl in my final year there, and we got married. In my mind, there was no alternative to this straight life. After all, it was 1985. We stayed together for more than 20 years.

After leaving my wife, at the ripe old age of 43, I realized that things had changed. I saw guys walking down the street holding hands. Some provinces already allowed same-sex marriage. I found that I could date guys and my friends wouldn’t disown me. Not all of them, anyway. I remember introducing my then-boyfriend to my friends and colleagues at two separate Christmas parties that year. Everyone seemed very accepting of my “new” identity. Even my children, who were very young at the time, embraced the “new” me. Two years later, when I married this man at China Beach, 130 well-wishers witnessed our love for each other. My daughter was our flower girl and my son our ring-bearer. Our friends and family came together to celebrate our love for each other. It was the first homosexual wedding that any of them had ever attended. One friend commented to me afterwards, “All I saw were two people in love!” Wow! Times, they had a-changed!

According to Dorothy Ritter, we as a society need to get to a point where we can celebrate the LGBTQ community. It is not enough, says Ritter, that people tolerate, or even “accept” us. Fifty years ago, my family and I were outcasts because of our German roots.

People tolerated us. In fact, most people accepted us, at least to some degree. Today, however, very few people would be offended by my Austrian heritage.

Nowadays, many non-German-speaking people in Canada celebrate our traditions, like wearing lederhosen and dirndl, and eating Wiener schnitzel.

Busloads of tourists flood the streets of Leavenworth, a Bavarian town in Washington state, every summer.

All over Canada, people crowd into beer gardens at annual Oktoberfest celebrations.

We are allowed to have our own nightclubs, our own bookstores, and even our own neighbourhoods (much like German-speaking Canadians did in the 1960s and 1970s). But where is LGBTQ culture in mainstream Canada? Why are we still depicted in such a stereotypical way in the media, on television, and in movies? Where are we in school textbooks, or in Grade 1 units on the family, or in sexual health classes?

Why aren’t we even mentioned in historical accounts of World War II, even though so many of us were exterminated in the gas chambers of the Third Reich?

The Jewish people are mentioned. There have been several films made about their suffering during that time. We are the forgotten fags.

Until this heteronormative society in which we live can embrace us as full equals, instead of tolerate us as queers, we need to continue to get in its face. We need to continue to fight for our rights. We need to march proudly in every parade that we can get to, to fly the rainbow flag at every opportunity, and to encourage our straight friends and neighbours to declare themselves our allies and fight alongside us.

When being queer is as normal in every aspect of Canadian life as being straight is, we will have won the battle. And then, our LGBTQ-identifying children will be able to grow up in a truly inclusive world.

SUPPORT

LGBTQ

As an LGBTQ community with our own distinct culture, we have a long way to go toward full acceptance and an even longer way toward celebration by all Canadians. Sure, lots of straight folks come out to our annual parades and festivals. And they even seem okay with the idea of us getting married. Their disgust toward us seems to be diminishing decade by decade.

BCTF Social Justice Newsletter, Winter/Spring 2014

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Liquefied natural gas and its impacts on BC’s environment

by Christine Stewart, Director, Professional and Social Issues Division, BCTF Tyler Bryant and Jay Ritchlin of the David Suzuki Foundation, and Matt Horne of the Pembina Institute met with members of the Nisga’a Nation to discuss the impacts of liquefied natural gas (LNG) on their traditional territory. It was made clear that the continental market for natural gas does not look good, primarily because the US has increased their shale gas production four-fold and current gas prices are quite low. The real money is in taking the natural gas and converting it into a liquid form so it can be put on tankers and shipped overseas, but at what cost? With the Tsunami in Japan wiping out the Fukushima nuclear power plant, Japan has been left with a huge hole to fill with regard to its power needs. Liquefied natural gas is not only filling that void in Japan, it is also fueling industrial growth in China and Korea. BC stands to earn three to four times as much for its natural gas by selling it to Asia, but at a great expense to our environment.

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and produce 14 million tonnes of greenhouses gas per year.

The natural gas from the wells in northeastern BC would then have to be piped 900 kilometres to huge liquefaction plants in Prince Rupert and Kitimat. This would require a permanent right of way to be clear-cut for the pipeline, and approximately twice as much land cleared during the construction process. This massive clear cut will result in habitat fragmentation.

Huyangshu/iStock/Thinkstock

There is a decline in our conventional gas reserves, but BC has large shale gas reserves that are mostly

untouched. To get the shale gas out of the ground to make natural gas requires a dramatic increase in the number of wells, a dramatic increase in the amount of water required to bring it to the surface, and the use of the highly controversial fracking method.

Fracking uses massive amounts of fresh water at high pressure to break up the rock underground to release the pockets of gas. This fresh water is chemically treated with fracking fluid and sand to facilitate the fracturing process.

The water is further polluted by the saline water and sediments deep underground, creating toxic waste water which can, and has, contaminated surface and drinking water. Other unwanted gases in the extraction process are simply vented off into the atmosphere. Natural gas, which has large amounts of methane, is a powerful greenhouse gas in its own right, meaning that leaks of gas from the well head or the pipeline could significantly increase the total warming potential of shale gas to the atmosphere. The Liberal government is setting a target of 82 million tonnes of LNG annually. If we were to look at just half of that, the shale fracking process could require 7.5 billion litres of water

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BCTF Social Justice Newsletter, Summer/Fall 2014

Ungulates will be at greater risk from carnivores and all wildlife will be impacted by the ease of access.

Year-round hunting, both legal and illegal, will be made easier by the right of way.

Once the natural gas reaches the liquefaction plants, 5% of it will be burned to create the energy needed to cool and compress the gas into a liquid form. The Skeena Wild Conservation Trust estimates that the three proposed LNG plants for Kitimat would burn 2.5 times more natural gas than all of Metro Vancouver annually. These plants collectively would burn 60% of all the natural gas burned provincially.

Air quality would rapidly diminish with an estimated 500% increase in the emissions of nitrogen oxide. Nitrogen oxide creates acid rain, which is harmful to salmon habitats. It also creates smog, which causes respiratory problems in children and the elderly. If the liquefaction plants produce half of the government’s targets it would result in an additional 5 million tonnes of greenhouse gas being put into our atmosphere annually.

This brings us to the BC Liberal government’s 2007 legislation to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 33% by 2020. It’s only a matter of time before we see an amendment to this legislation enabling the go ahead of LNG. With an estimated 19 to 20 million tonne increase in greenhouse gases annually, it will be virtually impossible to reach that goal. All working people in BC need to stand together to hold the government to account on this issue, and BC First Nations’ constitutional rights in their traditional territories and their track record of thousands of years of wise, sustainable stewardship of BC natural resources may be the best line of defense against short-sighted, reckless economic policies that put profit before people. LNG development will also have a negative impact on the existing local economies such as the tourism industry, fisheries, and local family business, which provide the permanent sustainable jobs these communities need.

Fortunately for the Nisga’a, we have provisions in our treaty that will provide us some protection.

What we don’t want to have happen is business getting approval from some Nations that may have very little of their traditional territory impacted, and then say they have approval from most First Nations while leaving the ones most at risk to fend for themselves—just like we would not expect our Grade 4 and 7 teachers to lead the charge against the FSA on their own, or expect the BCTF to be the only union fighting against the Liberal government’s attack on working people. Being united is how we demonstrate our strength. At some point we all have to see the value in having a clean environment. When our natural surroundings are clean and healthy there is absolutely no cost to us. Our planet can only take so much abuse. It’s about time we start putting value on a healthy ecosystem.

Sources “Natural Gas Pipelines, LNG, Shale Gas: An Overview of Development Pressures in Northern BC.” PowerPoint presentation by Tyler Bryant and Jay Ritchlin of the Suzuki Foundation, and Matt Horne from the Pembina Institute, November 16, 2013.

“Air Pollution Report on LNG Projects Raises Alarm,” Dirk Meissner, Vancouver Sun, November 22, 2013.

“GHG ‘Religion’ No Match for Clark’s LNG Ambition,” Vaughn Palmer, Vancouver Sun, November 22, 2013.

Speeches made at the antipipeline rally in Vancouver, November 16, 2013.

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Learning from—and standing beside— our First Nations sisters and brothers

by Julie Johnston, Comittee for Action on Social Justice, Environmental Justice Action Group

Asserting Native Resilience: Pacific Rim Indigenous Nations Face the Climate Crisis | book review explorers, settlers, and resource exploiters; assaults on their territories, their livelihoods, their health, their sovereignty, their pride, and their identities.

And yet, they’re still here. Try as my European ancestors might, they could not eradicate, annihilate, obliterate, or even assimilate the people who were here first. The First Nations “won” (if we ignore the attempted genocide, disintegration of families and communities, continued discrimination, rampant poverty, and associated widespread health problems) because of their resilience.

Aboriginal peoples around the world showed themselves to be resilient. And now, climate change is testing that resilience once again. Many Native communities are among the most vulnerable to the ravages of climate disruption.

I

I’d never considered resilience as something that could be asserted. Yet, there it is, in a title: Asserting Native Resilience: Pacific Rim Indigenous Nations Face the Climate Crisis. This 2012 book, edited by Zoltán Grossman and

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ndigenous (Native or Aboriginal) North Americans (First Nations and Inuit peoples in Canada) have withstood assault after assault after assault by the marauding European

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BCTF Social Justice Newsletter, Summer/Fall 2014

Alan Parker, is a collection of Native and non-Native voices and perspectives on the climate-change crisis.

The following is from the description:

Winona La Duke, executive director of Honor the Earth and White Earth Land Recovery Project, said the following:

“Indigenous nations are on the frontline of the current climate crisis. With cultures and economies among the most vulnerable to climate-related catastrophes, Native peoples are developing responses to climate change that serve as a model for Native and non-Native communities alike.”

“In the times of the unraveling of our world, it is essential to stand against the combustion, mining and disregard for life. Life is in water, air, and relatives who have wings, fins, roots, and paws, and all of them are threatened by climate change—as are people themselves.”

“Native American nations in the Pacific Northwest, First Nations in Canada, and Indigenous peoples around the Pacific Rim have already been deeply affected by droughts, flooding, reduced glaciers and snowmelts, seasonal shifts in winds and storms, and changes in species on the land and in the ocean.”

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“Having survived the historical and ecological wounds inflicted by colonization, industrialization, and urbanization, Indigenous peoples are using tools of resilience that have enabled them to respond to sudden environmental changes and protect the habitat of salmon and other culturally vital species. They are creating defenses to strengthen their communities, mitigate losses, and adapt where possible.”

“Grossman and Parker have done an excellent job in telling the stories of climate change, and the people who are standing to make a difference for all of us. Change is indeed made by people, and climate change must be addressed by a movement, strong, strident, and courageous.”

Reviewer Chris Arnett suggests that “in promoting an indigenous worldview, there is a slight tendency throughout the text to essentialize Indigenous people for their unique resilience or capacity to weather change, when resilience is a characteristic of all people.”

He then admits, “All contributors acknowledge that Indigenous people, or any people in a close relationship with place over time, have unique firsthand knowledge of place and, as this book shows, science supports such a view.”

Download a workbook on climate change at osupress. oregonstate.edu/sites/default /files/climatechangebooklet.pdf.

BCTF Social Justice Newsletter, Summer/Fall 2014

all images above/Thinkstock

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CALL Out! 2.0 ready to roll out across BC in 2014

With a renewed funding commitment from Health Canada’s Drug Strategy Community Initiatives Fund in hand, CALL Out! will build on the foundation work that was accomplished from 2010–2013. This will include promoting and supporting growth of Queer/Straight Alliance Clubs (QSAs) in secondary schools across BC. “We’re excited to be starting our next phase of work with CALL Out!” said Kyle Shaughnessy, CALL Out’s project lead for Vancouver Coastal Health, the agency overseeing the provincial work. “Many of the existing resources out there for LGBT2Q+ youth are based in Vancouver and other urban areas, so it’s really important to us that we partner with as many rural and remote communities across BC as possible over the next two years.”

Second-phase work for CALL Out! will also focus on design and facilitation of workshops for parents and caregivers, educators, service providers, and faith-based organizations that speak to creating safer communities for LGBT2Q+ youth and the development of a provincial support network for parents and caregivers of trans* youth.

“Because of the life stressors that so many LGBT2Q+ youth face, such as bullying and family rejection, youth in this population have higher rates of problematic substance use and mental health issues,” Shaughnessy added.

“If we begin our work upstream to prevent bullying and family (and community) rejection, it will help to mitigate some of these risk factors and promote further resiliency amongst LGBT2Q+ youth.”

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CALL Out! began in 2010. With three years’ worth of federal funding, CALL Out! directly engaged LGBT2Q+ youth ages 15–24 in leadership and capacity-building activities, such as PhotoVoice, to connect them to their communities. Throughout this work, the goal remained focused on increasing resiliency amongst LGBT2Q+ youth, and encouraging them to make healthier choices about drug and alcohol use and overall well-being.

“Our next phase of work is absolutely necessary if we are to build on our previous successes and further increase the supports available to LGBT2Q+ youth in communities outside the metropolitan Vancouver area,” Shaughnessy said.

The BCTF offers a new workshop called Creating a Gender Inclusive School Culture, that helps teachers acquire strategies to prevent and address transphobia.

For more information or to get involved with CALL Out!’s 2014 ongoing work, please email call.out@vch. ca. To speak directly with someone from CALL Out! call 604-315-3668 or 1-877-515-3668 (toll-free in BC).

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CALL Out!, a health-focused project for lesbian, gay, bi, trans*, two-spirit, and queer (LGBT2Q+) youth is back for a second round of capacity building, this time focusing on the community support systems of young LGBT2Q+ people in communities across the province.

To bring this next phase of work alive at the community level, CALL Out! is looking for educators and school staff who would like to start a QSA in their school or access increased support for their existing QSA. Schools will be selected for community partnership beginning in June of 2014, and start-up curriculum and support will be made available for September of 2014.

COMMITTEE FO R

E (CASJ) TIC US

N ON SOCI TIO AL AC J

2014–15 Committee for Action on Social Justice (CASJ) • advises the BCTF on social justice issues • reviews and promotes social justice workshops • liaises with community groups and NGOs • develops policy on emerging issues • reviews and develops materials for classroom teachers • develops and supports networks of social justice contacts in the following action group areas: Antiracism, Antipoverty, Status of Women, LGBTQ, Peace and Global Education, Environmental Justice • co-ordinates the work of the six action groups

Antiracism Action Group

LGBTQ Action Group

Nassim Elbardouh Sara McGarry Amar Sull Natalie Wai

David Butler Lizzy Midyette Lam Ngo Joe Winkler

Workshops Bafa Bafa/Rafa Rafa Socializing Justice: Taking Action Against Racism Responding to Racism Through ART and Ally-Building

Workshops • Breaking the Silence: Understanding and Acting on LGBTQ Issues in Schools • From Silence to Action: How to Be an Ally on LGBTQ issues.

• Creating a Gender Inclusive School Culture • Teaching Inclusive, Comprehensive Sexual Health Education in Your Classroom

Status of Women Action Group Carol Arnold Corie McRae Kristin Quigley Viji Shanmugha Workshops • Assertive Communication Skills • Thirsty for Change: The Global Water Crisis • Stamping Out Cyberbullying With Self-Awareness, SelfDiscipline, and Empathy • Youth Relationships in a Sexualized World

Antipoverty Action Group Ryan Cho Bernice McAleer Annie Ohana Sue Spalding Workshops • Poverty as a Classroom Issue • Teachers Can Make a Difference for Children Living in Poverty.

Peace and Global Education Action Group Dan Hula Shanee Prasad Shannon Rerie Deidre Torrence Workshops • Bringing Global Education into the Classroom • Creating Cultures of Peace • Strategies for Discussing Controversial Issues.

Environmental Justice Action Group Julie Johnston Jennifer Jury Richard Pesik Workshops Linking Thinking: Integrating Environmental Education into All Classrooms.

Important SJ dates to celebrate Sept 21 International Day of Peace Oct 17 International Day for the Eradication of Poverty Nov 25 16 Days of Activism for International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women begin Dec 3 International Day of Disabled Persons

Please note: The BCTF is not responsible for the content or links found on any external website. Opinions expressed in this newsletter are those of the author.

BC Teachers’ Federation 100–550 West 6th Avenue Vancouver, BC V5Z 4P2

Editor: Susan Ruzic Copy editing: Kathleen Smith, Vanessa Terrell, Sarah Young Design: Jennifer Sowerby

BCTF Social Justice Newsletter, Summer/Fall 2014

This newsletter is available on-line at bctf.ca/SocialJustice.aspx?id=6352 Summer/Fall 2014, PSI14-0038

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Patr iarchy oppresseS everyone.

WECANBC.CA INFO@WECANBC.CA