This school board just became the 1st in Canada to adopt a strategy to fight Islamophobia

Six years ago, a school board west of Toronto was making headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Security had to be stepped up after racist outbursts at board meetings, a man was filmed tearing pages out of a Qur'an during discussions about religious accommodations, and Muslim students were told they would have to choose from sermons approved by the board for their Friday prayers.

Today, the Peel District School Board (PDSB) is the first in Canada to adopt a strategy aimed at dismantling Islamophobia and affirming the identity of Muslims students, who comprise the largest reported faith-based identity at the board — about a quarter of its student population.

And the timing isn't without significance, said the National Council of Canadian Muslims.

"The PDSB has set a tremendous example with this anti-Islamophobia strategy that other school boards across the country would be wise to study, examine and follow," the council's education director, Aasiyah Khan, said in a news release.

"It's really fitting that this announcement is being made in the lead up to the sixth anniversary of the Quebec City shooting, which really changed this country," she added. "This is a historic step forward."

The announcement comes after a 2020 review by Ontario's Ministry of Education found anti-Black racism to be a significant challenge at the board. The board itself noted "blatantly Islamophobic resources and teaching materials" had been used in classrooms, affecting the wellbeing of Muslim students and staff, in a report dated Wednesday.

The new strategy sprang from a motion put forth by former PDSB trustee Nokha Dakroub in September 2021 that proposed, in part, anti-Islamophobia training for all board staff members.

The strategy relies largely on the definition of Islamophobia created by the Ontario Human Rights Commission, namely: "stereotypes, bias or acts of hostility towards individual Muslims or followers of Islam in general. In addition to individual acts of intolerance and racial profiling, Islamophobia leads to viewing Muslims as a greater security threat on an institutional, systemic and societal level."

"These systemic attitudes foster an unwarranted culture of suspicion and surveillance of Muslims and the Muslim community," the board says, pointing to the example of a cash reward being offered to surveil Muslim students at Friday prayers in schools.

The board's plan also notes Islamophobia often intersects with other forms of oppression including racism, such as anti-Black and anti-Palestinian racism, sexism, anti-LGBTQ hate and systemic oppression.

The strategy, developed with input from the NCCM, the Council of Agencies Serving South Asians and the Urban Alliance on Race Relations, lists six key pillars for the board to work on:

In a news release, Khan added anti-Muslim hate is an issue that endures in schools even today.

"We've gotten calls almost every day for the last few weeks about horrific issues relating to Islamophobia in our schools, some violent, and some systemic."