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Canadian parents don’t want schools to push students into political activism

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From the Fraser Institute

By Michael Zwaagstra

Field trips are often the highlight of a child’s school experience. But a recent “field trip” in downtown Toronto was memorable for all the wrong reasons, highlighting the disconnect between a government school board pushing kids into political activism and the strong parental preference that schools eschew political bias.

Last week, several schools in the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) sent their students to a day of action by the people of Grassy Narrows First Nation, ostensibly so students could listen to the speeches and learn about mercury contamination in rivers.

While the permission letter that went home to parents stated that students would not take part in the protest, video footage and eyewitness testimony tell a different story. And the protest morphed into geopolitical issue far from downtown Toronto. Not only were students encouraged to chant anti-Israel slogans such as “From Turtle Island to Palestine, occupation is a crime,” but pictures from the event show students carrying handmade protest signs amid a heavy police presence.

Children as young as eight participated. No matter what one thinks about the current Israel/Hamas conflict, most people agree that eight-year-old kids are not old enough to comprehend the complex issues behind it. At the very least, they should not be coopted into a political protest, especially something so potentially volatile it requires a heavy police presence.

When the TDSB apologized, the vice-president of the Elementary Teachers of Toronto union local said the apology was racist, amounted to the board not standing with teachers and children, and said the organizations that expressed concern (namely, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs and the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center) were “spying on our children.”

Perhaps inconveniently for some, “our children” in this case belong to their parents, and those parents did not provide informed consent. Ontario Education Minister Jill Dunlop has ordered an investigation into the field trip. But clearly, by allowing its schools to participate, the TDSB has demonstrated once again that it has lost sight of what should be the primary focus of every school—teaching and learning.

Students attend school to learn how to read, write and do math. They should also learn about the history of our country, form good character and civic responsibility, develop an understanding of science, and gain an appreciation for music and art. These are things that all parents, regardless of political affiliation, can agree upon.

The moment any government public school departs from these common goals, they risk losing the trust of parents.

Indeed, a 2024 Leger poll (commissioned by the Fraser Institute) found that 76 per cent of parents of K-12 kids in Canada believe students should hear both sides of controversial issues, or they should be avoided entirely.

Another 91 per cent of parents believe classroom material and discussions should always be age-appropriate, and 81 per cent believe schools should provide advance notice if controversial topics are discussed during class or formal school activities.

In this case, the TDSB field trip respected none of these strong parental preferences.

Of course, if students or families wish to get involved in protests on their own time, that’s perfectly fine. And students should be allowed to write about the Middle East conflict for their English essay assignments and talk about these issues in class, so long as teachers ensure that the discussion remains balanced and parents receive a heads-up.

Finally, this fiasco underscores the importance of school choice. In Ontario, no portion of parents’ tax dollars follow their kids to the school of their choice, unlike in other provinces including Manitoba where independent schools are more accessible to families of all income levels. If Ontario families can’t afford full tuition at an independent school, their kids likely attend the local government public school, like those within the TDSB.

If the Ontario government helped fund independent schools, more families could afford them and those independent schools would be accountable to those families. And with increased competition for students, TDSB administrators might listen more to parental concerns about political bias.

Canadian parents are right—no school should ever push students into political activism. Education must be about academics, not activism.

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Brownstone Institute

Study Confirms the Truth about Masks and Children

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From the Brownstone Insitute

By Ian Miller Ian Miller 

It’s late 2024, and masking has managed to remain a contentious issue. Years of misinformation from supposed “experts” like Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx and organizations like the CDC have convinced millions of Very Smart People to believe that masks are an effective tool to reduce the transmission of respiratory viruses. This applies also to the flu, despite those same experts and organizations somehow neglecting to recommend masks for the decades of flu seasons pre-2020.

Forcing anyone to mask, given the substantial and robust evidence base showing conclusively that masks don’t work, was an indefensible policy decision. But specifically forcing children to mask was decidedly much, much worse.

And not just because it was a pointless exercise in pandemic theater, with zero evidence of efficacy.

But because it was actively causing harm too, as a new study shows.

New Study Confirms Harms of Masking Children

A new study co-authored by Tracy Beth Høeg delves into the side effects of masking, a subject completely ignored by experts and politicians desperate to exert control over individual behavior.

And in their discussion, it’s immediately obvious why their research and conclusions will be completely ignored by the mainstream media.

“There is a lack of robust evidence of benefit from masking children to reduce transmission of SARS-CoV-2 or other respiratory viruses,” they explain. Couldn’t have said it better myself.

The highest quality evidence available for masking children for COVID-19 or other viral respiratory infections has failed to find a beneficial impact against transmission. Mechanistic studies showing reduced viral transmission from use of face masks and respirators have not translated to real world effectiveness. Identified harms of masking include negative effects on communication and components of speech and language, ability to learn and comprehend, emotional and trust development, physical discomfort, and reduction in time and intensity of exercise.

It’s a masterpiece. No notes.

As the Cochrane Library review explained, as the data shows, as decades of accumulated evidence confirmed: Masks Don’t Work. For anyone, but especially for children, who could not wear or use masks properly, even if they were shown to have worked. Which they did not.

Experts demanded and politicians mandated that they wear them anyway, based on speculation, hope, and mechanistic studies that were conclusively disproven. And the harms were remarkable.

“Negative effects on communication and components of speech and language.” “Ability to learn and comprehend.” “Emotional and trust development, physical discomfort, and reduction in time and intensity of exercise.”

Just, you know, the basic building blocks of human development that children need to grow as well-adjusted, physically and mentally healthy teenagers and adults.

As Høeg and the other authors explain, this necessarily means that forcing children to mask fails any objective standard of harms and benefits.

Effectiveness of child masking has not been demonstrated, while documented harms of masking in children are diverse and non-negligible and should prompt careful reflection. Recommendations for masking children fail basic harm-benefit analyses.

Their next section is a complete dismantling of the CDC and the US public health bureaucracy, how they handled Covid, and how poor an example this sets for future pandemics.

In many locations in North America, children as young as two years of age were required to wear face masks daily for multiple consecutive hours, both indoors and outdoors, in school and childcare settings [1], [2]. This stood in stark contrast to European countries where masking was never recommended for children under the age of six and, in many countries, never under age twelve [3]. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s child masking recommendations deviated substantially from international guidelines [3], [4], [5]. The CDC continues to recommend masks for children down to age two in certain settings [1], [6], and this is in the absence of strategies for exiting these restrictions. In the event of a future public health threat, clear and consistent communication from public health officials about the criteria that will be used to withdraw temporary public health recommendations while data are gathered could serve to ease public anxiety, lessen distrust, and facilitate a return to a more normal life wherein ineffective recommendations are promptly discarded.

It’s a calm, thorough demolition of the incompetence and authoritarianism of the US public health establishment.

They repeat that there is no evidence to support masking children and explain that there is no real-world evidence showing the effectiveness of child mask mandates, with zero randomized controlled trials conducted to determine whether masking kids would prevent the spread of Covid. It’s inexcusable to mandate a policy with no evidence, but even worse considering the demonstrable harms.

“Speech, language, and learning: Humans rely on visual information provided by a speaker’s face to decode speech. Seeing mouth movements and facial gestures accelerates recognition of words and enhances speech comprehension [12], [19], [20], [21]. The integration of audio and facial information is crucial to speech perception and development. Visually impaired children often have delays in speech and language development [22], which may be due, at least in part, to reduced ability to perceive,” they write.

Masks prevent children from learning, from seeing mouth movements to facial gestures. They fundamentally detract from a child’s ability to develop speech and language. Among many other problems covered in the full study.

These harms were well-known before Covid. This isn’t new information, and it’s obvious common sense. So why did public health authorities ignore it, in favor of promoting evidence-free policies and mandates?

There are few reasonable explanations: panic, fear, or incompetence. Likely some combination of all three.

Forcing their absurd, fatalistic, hyper-safetyism on adults was and is one thing. Imposing it on children is another. And their refusal to admit they were wrong meant the growth and development of kids were most certainly harmed and stunted for years, while ensuring that there would be terrified, misinformed parents who would continue to force their kids to wear masks indefinitely.

When you consider those consequences, rationality fades, and a disturbing likelihood of malicious intent becomes a lot more realistic.

Republished from the author’s Substack

Author

Ian Miller

Ian Miller is the author of “Unmasked: The Global Failure of COVID Mask Mandates.” His work has been featured on national television broadcasts, national and international news publications and referenced in multiple best selling books covering the pandemic. He writes a Substack newsletter, also titled “Unmasked.”

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