Mother’s Day controversy in Quebec after teachers celebrate parents

The decision by teachers at a Quebec school to replace Mother's Day events with a celebration of parents has caused ripples all the way to the provincial legislature.

The controversial decision by teachers at a Quebec school to replace Mother’s Day events with a celebration of parents has caused ripples all the way to the provincial legislature, but supporters say such moves can benefit children.

The school service centre that oversees La Chanterelle school in Quebec City said the teachers made the decision — which was announced to parents by email — because several students in their classes don’t have a mother or father, while others are in foster homes.

“It is clear … that this initiative was motivated by the teachers’ benevolent intentions towards the students in their class,” the Centre de services scolaire de la Capitale said in a statement posted on social media. “But, clearly, their communication was clumsy and could have been misunderstood and misinterpreted, and we are sorry.”

The apology came after Quebec Conservative Leader Eric Duhaime this week shared on Twitter the email sent to La Chanterelle parents, asking Quebec Education Minister Bernard Drainville if he would allow “the woke to abolish Mother’s Day.”

Drainville said he doesn’t want to see Mother’s Day and Father’s Day disappear from Quebec schools but understands that in some circumstances, teachers have to adapt to the realities of their students.

“Honestly, I can’t believe I’m in front of you today to reiterate the importance of Mother’s Day and the importance of Father’s Day,” he told reporters in Quebec City Wednesday. “The idea of replacing Mother’s Day or Father’s Day with Parent’s Day, I don’t agree with that.”

Manon Tombi, a Montreal mother of two who lost her husband to cancer in 2020, said she sees the good intentions behind the school’s move. Tombi, 32, said it can be awkward for workers at her five-year-old son’s daycare when it comes time for children to make Father’s Day crafts.

Making the celebration about parents rather the mother or father is more inclusive, she said. “It avoids the discomfort for those children who, for one reason or another, don’t have a father or a mother,” she said. Death is difficult enough for adults to understand, she said; for a young child, it’s incomprehensible.