March for Black Students to be held in Toronto on August 3

Charlene Grant

Black community groups from across the province of Ontario, along with their supporters, will get together in Toronto for the March for Black Students on Monday August 3

The march is in response to recent announcements by Education Minister  Stephen Lecce about ending streaming in Grade nine  and halting suspensions for K-Grade three students, as a solution to persistent and endemic anti-Black racism in Ontario schools,

According to Charline Grant, a member of the steering committee of Parents for Black Children, the changes announced by Lecce ” do not go far enough and do not even begin to scratch the surface.”

Parents for Black Children and the Vaughan African Canadian  Association are the organizers of the march.

Grant, a former candidate for trustee for the York Region District School Board, told The Caribbean Camera that  ” for generations Black communities have fought for equitable outcomes for our children in the education system.

” We will no longer be satisfied with half measures and platitude. We are no longer accepting crumbs disguised as progress.”

The organizers of the march are now demanding the delivery of a provincial equity strategy for education in Ontario ” which includes ” the immediate “destreamning” of all grades in Ontario schools and ” accountability for teacher bias and racism.”

They are also demanding the  hiring of ” Education System Navigators”  in all boards, including Catholic boards, ” to help Black families advocate and navigate the education system and represent students and families when they are faced with anti-Black racism in schools ” and the removal of all police stationed at schools.

The march to Queen’s Park will begin at City Hall at 2 p.m.