Ontario school board held 'flame purification' ceremony to remove books offensive to 'Aboriginal knowledge keepers'https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2021/09/08/ontario-school-board-held-flame-purification-ceremony-to-remove-books-offensive-to-aboriginal-knowledge-keepers-n414576I can’t believe I’m saying this but I think we’ve discovered a school board even worse than the one in San Francisco. A school board for French-speaking Catholic schools in Ontario, Canada held a “flame purification” ceremony to get rid of books deemed offensive by Aboriginal knowledge keepers. If that sounds a lot like book burning that’s because it’s book burning:
The “flame purification” ceremony, first reported by Radio Canada, was held in 2019 by the Conseil scolaire catholique Providence, which oversees elementary and secondary schools in southwestern Ontario. Some 30 books, the national broadcaster reported, were burned for “educational purposes” and then the ashes were used as fertilizer to plant a tree.
“We bury the ashes of racism, discrimination and stereotypes in the hope that we will grow up in an inclusive country where all can live in prosperity and security,” says a video prepared for students about the book burning, Radio Canada reported…
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The removed books included comic books and children’s books like Asterix and TinTin. Some of the authors of the books being removed were stunned by the decision:
Books that featured crafts described as cultural appropriation were also withdrawn. A book was considered a lack of respect for the culture because it offered an activity called eat, write, dress like the Indians.
Quebec comic book author Marcel Levasseur is devastated when we learn that his character Laflèche has been withdrawn from school libraries. He feels a lot of sadness, a lot of incomprehension.
In 2011, the book was a finalist for the Tamarac Prize, awarded by the Ontario Library Association. “In 10 years, I have gone from almost an award winner to a banned author.”…
“It’s incredible. What right do they have to do such a thing? It’s completely ridiculous,” denounces Sylvie Brien, whose children’s novel The Indian College Affair has been withdrawn. The school board does not specify the reason for this withdrawal.
This is a story that takes place in 1920 with fictional characters and places. In the story, a teenage girl defends an Aboriginal man wrongly accused of causing a fire.
1. This happened in Canada, not the US.
2. It appears to have been done by a group of Catholic schools, rather than government schools (unless Catholic schools are also government schools).
3. This happened in 2019, therefore I posted it in General Discussion rather that in World News.
