M-T
The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, November 3,1983 - Page 5
World-National
Alberta responds to Keegstra affair
Committee to study tolerance in school system
By
TAMMY KAROL
CALGARY —
The Alberta government is continuing to fight racism in the province as a response to the anti-semitism whipped up by the Keegstra affair.
A provlncially appointed Committee on Tolerance and Understanding is operating under auspices of the Allierta minister of education and wiDlie traveling across the province tliis fall and winter to hear briefs from some 150 individuals and groups. Hearings liegan in Calgary last weeli.
From Calgary, the committee will travel to Grand Prairie and Fort McMurray. It will be in central Alberta from Nov. 14-18 and in south-em Alberta from Jan. 15-21, and wraps up In Edmonton from Feb. 5-11.
The committee's mandate is to recommend to the minister of education ways in which to foster in the education system greater tolerance and respect for human rights. A final report is expected to be completed in December 1984; an interim report will be ready oh Feb. 15.
In addition, the committee will review Alberta's entire school curriculum from grades 1 to 12 to ensure that there are no aspects of school programs which encourage intolerance and misunderstanding.
The committee has a $350,000 budget, two full-time staff and 13 members who will each receive $50 a day. Participants include a representative from the south Asian community, and a representative from the native Indian commun^
„ity. :■
At its head is Ron Ghitter, a prominent Jewish lawyer from Calgary.
Ghitter, 48, is a former member of Premier Peter Lougheed's cabinet and a supporter of federal Tory leader Brian Mulroney.
the committee chairman says he' s not testing waters for his political comback after Loug-heed retires. He says he may return to provincial politics but has no interest in using the committee as a stepping stone to the premiership.
In Ghitter's view, the committee's mandate is not to witch hunt but to understand the problems of racism in our society.
SaidGhitter:"WewiU try to identify the extent of intolerance, especially ^ in our schools and among our young mind|s. We're looking in terms of our future and not what hap^ pened in the past. Alberta is not Eckville. If we need some curriculum or legislative changes to make this a better province, so be It."
Presentations made to the committee last week included briefs from the Heritage Christian School and B'nai B'rith League for Human Rights.
Al Hunsperger, representing the Heritage Christian School, condemned the committee as an overreaction to the Keegstra affair and said public hearings to fight racism in Alberta are unnecessary and threaten traditional family values.
Alan Shefman, national director of BB's League for Human Rights, claimed the committee is a way for the government to get out of doing something about Keegstra, but he added that it has the potential of making Alberta the most progressive of provinces in the area of race relations.
Besides Shefman presenters were Issac Paul and Les Viner, both active in the League's Calgary office.
Paul gave background information on the League's activities in the West, noting that the Calgary Chapter only began in June 1982 following distorted media coverage on Israel in the Lebanon war.
He then showed the committee the League's student video film. Role Call, which is used in Alberta schools and by the Alberta League for Human Rights as a study in human relations. It is complemented by another League video film for adults, Reservations.
The League recommended that the federal and provincial governments support race relations research to prevent racism. It urged the media to depict accurately
the minorities, neither in a token or sensational fashion, and called on local schools to use educational resources such as League video films, -^which are developed by ethnocultural communities.
Shefman said it is up to the government to outline special programs on race relations in school^ but it is up to the local schools to implement them. He said schools must erase biased information on minority groups from textbooks and other teaching materials.
Other Jewish groups making presentations to the committee were the Calgary Jewish Community Council, which is affiliated with Canadian Jewish Congress' Joint Community Relations. Committiee, and the National Council of Jewish Women.
BrendaKarp, a school teacher, was the first presenter for the Calgary Jewish Community Council and she identified inequities and misunderstandings in the province's public school system.
The other presenter was Joe Spier, past president of the Calgary Hebrew School and the CJCC, who defended publicly-supported Jewish day schools as a matter of human rights. (The I. L. Peretz School and Calgary Hebrew School operate with public school board support but this may be ending as a result of recent school board elections. SeeCJNOct.27).
Presenters from the National Council of Jewish Women were Calgary president Roz Blumes " d education vice-pre-siuent Karen Abrams who outlined plans for a
new educational tool known as the Learning Box.
The NCJW project, originally started by the group's Winnipeg Chapter, is a wooden box on wheels which would be available to public schools in Alberta but would require provincial or local school board funding. It contains Jewish religious symbols, such as Sabbath candles, illustrating Jewish customs and traditions.
Also presenting at the committee last week was Jake Longmore, chief superintendent of schools at the Calgary School Board.
Longmore said that while there is a problem of racial intolerance and misunderstanding in Alberta, it is not a major problem throughout the schools.
According to Long-more, the Calgary School Board works with community groups to curb racial problems in schools. He said the board has co-operated with the police establishment in Alberta, local churches and voluntary groups dealing with new immigrants to the city, and pointed to such programs as the Peer Tutoring Option where Eng-liish-speaking students get together with non-English speaking students and wori( side by side.
One of the more interesting presentations came from Rabbi Peter Hay man, spiritual leader of the lOO^family member House of Jacob, an Orthodox synagogue and the oldest shul in Alberta.
The rabbi said the committee's title is itself a misnomer because "tolerance is achieved through understanding
Calgaiy lawyer Ron Ghitter. [Calgary Herald photo]
and can't be enforced by law."
He recommended that the provincial government get into the business of public education and suggested five steps:
(1) Set up an obligatory training program for public schools whereby officials train teachers in the values of Alberta's ethnic communities. (2)
Hold monthly meetings of different ethnic groups who will speak in the provincial legislature on various cultures.
(3) Ensure that teachers' certificates be only conditional on testing procedures (teachers with certificates must be trained in the history of cultures in Alberta.)
(4) Set up educational packets on different cul-
tural groups to be distributed to clergy throughout Alberta.
(5) Set up a multimedia program on radio, television and via pubji. iications to educate the public about various ethnic groups^
Herb Katz, chairman of the Edmonton Jewish Community Council and a board member of the Edmonton Jewish Federation said he will be presenting a brief to the committee when it comes to Edmonton in February.
Katz said he will speak about the legal and educational ramifications of the Keegstra affair.
Katz believes the Ghitter committee could be a platform for "having our (Jewish) views heard.
"Ghitter is known for being clear and effective. He comes from one of the oldest Jewish families in Alberta. When he was an ML A he recommended amendments on liquor laws. They were at first not accepted but now they are praised and implemented, "he said.
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