Letters to the Editor

Follow-up to forums

I totally agree with Roger Varley on his take about the new Ward candidate hopefuls lacking any preparation for their All Candidates meeting. (“Am I wrong?”, Sept. 24).

Of course the incumbents had an advantage as they could list their accomplishments. However, my guess is that not one newbie could even list the numerous committees that council depends upon for research and policy and none of them offered any concrete plans that they would initiate if elected.

It is also of concern that there were very few people in the audience under the age of 50. Aiden Stocking, a local farmer and one of the youngest in the audience, asked a question dealing with sustainable farming and my guess is that most of the candidates didn’t even know what he was talking about.

Kudos to all who took the time to attend the meeting, and thank you to the Cosmos for continuing to organize these meetings. The disappointment was in the lack of quality of the answers presented by the candidates.

Nancy Emo, Uxbridge

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I am writing to express my concern about the timing of the municipal all candidates forum held on Monday, Sept. 21, which fell on Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar.

Yom Kippur is a day of fasting, prayer, and reflection observed by Jewish community members regardless of their level of religious observance throughout the rest of the year. Scheduling a municipal all candidates event on this date meant that Jewish residents who wished to participate in their faith's most sacred observance were effectively unable to attend and hear directly from those seeking to represent them.

Municipal election events serve a vital democratic function: they let residents ask questions, weigh platforms, and make informed decisions before casting their ballots. When such an event is scheduled on a date that conflicts with a major religious observance, an entire community is shut out of that process through no fault of their own.

I recognize that scheduling conflicts can happen without any ill intent, and I am not suggesting this exclusion was deliberate. But intent does not change the effect: while there is a small Jewish community in Uxbridge, these voters were denied equal access to this important civic opportunity. Community calendars listing major religious holidays are widely available, and organizers of future public events should consult them before setting a date.

I would ask the organizers of this event, and those planning future civic events in Uxbridge, to commit to checking major religious observances when scheduling, and to consider whether a follow-up opportunity – such as a recorded session, transcript, or supplementary Q&A – could be offered to give Jewish residents , and others, meaningful access to the information they missed.

An inclusive democracy depends on making sure every community has a fair chance to participate.

Charles Karstadt, Uxbridge

Editor’s note: The Cosmos fully commits to checking on details such as religious observances in the future, and offers a sincere apology to the local Jewish community for having overlooked this important information when scheduling its All Candidate Forums this year.

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I attended your All-Candidates Forum on Sept. 28. I am a public school supporter.

In response to my questions to the Durham District School Board (DDSB) candidates for trustee on the subject of gender identity and sex education issues in the public school system, the response of candidate Dave Brown left me rather concerned.

In support of his qualifications to be a trustee, Mr. Brown touted his experience as a high school teacher of 26 years, which I understood to be at Uxbridge Secondary School, a public high school.

At one point, I cited both Statistics Canada and Canadian Medical Association studies that found a significantly high proportion (25%) of suicidal ideation by youth (ages 16-25) compared to such ideation by the youths in the same age bracket identifying as heterosexual (5%), arising from their social experiences in school.

Mr. Brown's responded by not only opposing demonstrative support of the LGBTQ community such as by the flying of Pride flags at public schools, but going on to express his concerns about the alleged teaching of sex education, presumably gender and sexuality, as early as Junior Kindergarten.

When I asked him what evidence he had for such concerns about what JK pupils were taught in that regard, he stated unequivocally and anecdotally: his granddaughter. He doubled down to say that what the child described to have occurred was unappropriate (sic). He did not elaborate on what the child experienced.

The Ontario government instituted a revised curriculum for sex and health education in 2019. Nowhere in the curriculum is there any mandate for sexual orientation and related sexual activity education in JK. As an experienced public teacher, Mr. Brown ought to know this.

Mr. Brown's inflammatory comments received noticeable and somewhat alarming (to me and numbers of others present) support in the audience.

I would like to see Mr. Brown provide specifics of what he claims was said to his granddaughter that was inappropriate; assuming that he is genuinely aggrieved by what was said to the child, what steps he or others took to what would be a violation of the curriculum above, and the outcome of such grievance; and do Mr. Brown's students know about his views above? Do the administrations of USS, the DDSB, and Mr. Brown's union support his above-stated views?

Steven Sands, Uxbridge

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Details missing from education feature

Thank you for the excellent article on how underfunding drives classroom violence. (“The overwhelmed classroom”, Sept. 17) The article was well-researched and one of the most accurate I've read in a long while.

There are two small but important details that were not included in your well-researched article. One is that the class caps on Kindergarten (29 with 2 educators) and grades 1-3 (20 with 1 teacher, some up to 23) are only in place until the fall reporting date, which is around the end of September every year. After that, there is NO limit to the number of students who can be placed in a class. The Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario (EFTO) has attempted to grieve this more than once, and consistently lost these grievances.

The second point is, there is not a ratio of 1 educator to 13 students in Kindergarten classes. In fact, there is no ratio at all. Kindergarten classes with 15 or fewer students are not required to have an ECE, only a teacher. DDSB very frequently uses this as a cost-saving measure in schools with multiple Kindergarten classes by filling some of the classes up so they can leave one (maybe more) with 15 or fewer students to avoid hiring that one extra staff member.

This happens often at Joseph Gould Public School, resulting in three, four or even five Kindergarten classes that are very large and one small one with no EA.

I wish we did have staff-to-student ratios for Kindergarten. If we did, then the ECE would be required with the 13th child (not the 16th) and an additional educator would need to be added with the 27th student as well.

The 1:13 ration mentioned in the article is for licenced daycares, not Kindergarten classes. Isn't it funny that children of that age require 1:13 ratios with a maximum group size of 13 in daycare, but after the end of September, the sky is the limit in schools?

Jody Dales, Uxbridge