TORONTO — The province is expanding mandatory learning about the Holocaust, starting next year.
The announcement was made Wednesday by Education Minister Stephen Lecce, who said Ontario is "decisively combating the rise of antisemitism and hate in all its forms."
Effective in September 2025, lessons about the Holocaust in the existing compulsory Grade 10 history course will explicitly be linked to extreme political ideologies including fascism, antisemitism in Canada in the 1930s and 1940s, and the contemporary impacts of antisemitism.
Grade 10 students are currently taught about how the Holocaust impacted Canadian society, and about the attitudes of Canadians toward human rights.
Last year, the government announced that mandatory learning about the Holocaust would be added to the Grade 6 curriculum, including the responses of the Canadian government to human rights violations during the Holocaust.
Lecce said the additional learning in Grade 10 will complement what's taught in Grade 6, and will further strengthen students' understanding of how to identify, respond to and change harmful assumptions and stereotypes that can lead to antisemitism and other forms of racism.
He also announced that the government is giving $650,000 this year to five community organizations including the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre for Holocaust Studies and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs to provide education resources about the Holocaust and antisemitism.
A 2021 survey found that one in three teens in Canada and the US believe the Holocaust was fabricated or exaggerated, or that they are unsure it actually happened.
According to the government, Jewish Canadians remain the most targeted religious minority for hate crimes in Canada.
Michael Levitt, president and CEO of Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre for Holocaust Studies, said Canada and the world are currently witnessing one of the most significant increases in antisemitic incidents in recent history.
"We know that education is the best way to address antisemitism, racism and hatred in all of its forms," Levitt stated after Lecce's announcement.
