Premier pledges ‘future steps’ in fight against antisemitism, Islamophobia

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This article was published 16/11/2023 (702 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Updates are on the way about Manitoba’s plans to expand Holocaust education in schools, Premier Wab Kinew says.

The provincial education department is revisiting its curriculum — the Free Press reported this week — following a meeting Monday with Deborah Lyons, Canada’s new Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism.

“This exists within schools today, but I think the work that we want to undertake is to make sure that it’s comprehensive and it’s accessible across the province, and so we’re going to continue sharing more on that in the days to come. We’ll have more to say,” Kinew told reporters Thursday, following an unrelated news conference at the legislative building.

He didn’t offer specifics about how Manitoba schools will teach students about the Holocaust — the systematic murder of some six million Jews by the Nazi regime in the early 1940s— more comprehensively.

The premier also commented on local implications of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, saying he believes it’s his responsibility as a leader to take steps to work with Jewish and Islamic communities in Manitoba.

In addition to the meeting with Jewish organization representatives and education officials, Kinew said he plans to meet with local families who’ve lost loved ones during the fighting in Gaza.

“The current situation in Israel and Gaza is impacting all of us as Manitobans in some very direct ways. We know that Jewish students are telling us that they feel scared to go to class. We know that members of the Islamic community are facing acts of racism in public,” the premier said.

“We have a role as a government to keep things together here in Manitoba, and that means doing work for these communities… We will be working on the topic of Holocaust education as one step that we can take towards combatting antisemitism and we will be bringing tools to combat Islamophobia into the public education system, as well.”

Kinew said provincial officials have already met with some impacted family members in an informal way, but are making arrangements to have formal meetings via the Manitoba Islamic Association.

“I respect fully the fact that people don’t want us to lump the fight against antisemitism and Islamophobia together, because there are important differences and there are the unique contours of the respective experiences of these different communities,” the NDP premier said.

“However, at the same time, I feel it’s necessary as somebody in a leadership role to indicate that we are taking steps with both communities on parallel tracks to ensure that we’re doing the important work of… letting Manitobans from all walks of life know that your government is going to show up for you,” Kinew said.

“There will be many future steps that we have to take in these directions, but our team is committed to doing that,” he added. “We also want all Manitobans to recognize that we have a collective role to play in making sure that we live together as one Manitoba.”

— with files from Danielle Da Silva

katie.may@winnipegfreepress.com