Bell High School valedictorian defended by advocates after pro-Palestinian remarks
A part of Bell High School valedictorian Elizabeth Yao's speech mentioning the war in Gaza initiated a call from her principal, asking Yao to stay home the following Monday.
Article content
Now, some advocates are showing support for Yao and demanding that the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) issue her a public apology.
Article content
Article content
'I think people are using the platforms they have to make important statements. That, I think, is totally legitimate,' said Sam Hersh, a member of Independent Jewish Voices Ottawa. 'Touching on politics and the commencement speech and talking about what students and younger generations are going to face is probably appropriate and contextual for the times that we're currently living in.'
Article content
Article content
Yao's Valedictorian speech largely focused on the memories she made after four years at Bell High School.
Article content
Article content
In videos and a written copy of her speech circulating online, Yao reminisces about preparing 200 waffles with her peers for a fundraiser. She thanks the custodial staff for their reliance and speed, and the front office workers for supplying students with forks to eat their lunch. Yao also mentions her fellow students, saying their participation in school events made them 'the heart of our high school experiences.'
Article content
'As a commitment to truth and reconciliation I must acknowledge colonial and genocidal atrocities today, including the massacre of more than 17,000 Palestinian children in Gaza,' the speech reads. In videos of Yao's speech, her comments are met with cheers and applause from the audience.
Article content
Article content
'I refuse to stand on the side of history that allows the repetition of crimes against humanity,' she continues. 'It is my hope that every single one of you present today consider my speech and my desperation for a free Palestine.'
Article content
Article content
In an email addressed to parents and guardians, Bell High School principal Jane Conrod apologized for the speech's 'unexpected and unapproved' comments.
Article content
'The content of the remarks, which touched on deeply sensitive global events, was not part of the pre-approved speech,' the email reads. 'We deeply regret that this occurred and are truly sorry for the harm that has been caused.'
Article content
In a statement, OCDSB spokesperson Diane Pernari said Conrod would not be available for an interview. But Pernari said the goal of their commencement ceremonies is to 'create a joyous celebration of student achievement.'
Article content
'Our schools provide appropriate forums within the school year to engage thoughtfully with a wide range of issues that impact our community. These settings are designed to facilitate respectful, safe and supportive discussions,' the statement said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CTV News
39 minutes ago
- CTV News
‘We cannot waste any time': Anand promises ‘action' and reform in foreign affairs
Minister of Foreign Affairs Anita Anand arrives for a caucus meeting on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, May 28, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick OTTAWA — Faced with escalating conflict in the Middle East, a collapsing global trade system and a department struggling to reform itself, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand says she relishes the job of helping Canada navigate a turbulent world. In a wide-ranging interview Thursday with The Canadian Press, Anand said her experiences in both politics and academia can help her streamline Canada's approach to global issues, allowing it to pursue its interests without losing sight of its values. 'How do you ensure, when you have these large departments, that you're actually able to execute? That is the heart of government. It's the hardest thing to do,' Anand said. 'I enjoy difficult responsibilities.' She cited her time as defence minister, when she pushed the Canadian Armed Forces to address sexual misconduct and organized donations of military supplies to Ukraine's front line. Previously, as procurement minister during the COVID-19 pandemic, she pushed one of Ottawa's largest and most unwieldy departments to deliver vaccines across the country within days. Anand spoke of 'how hard it was to say, like, we gotta buy this stuff today.' 'That's kind of the same frame that I'm bringing to foreign affairs and it's super exciting,' she added. Anand said her job involves listening closely to what the foreign service says, even if she doesn't always follow its guidance. 'You have to think independently, taking into account the advice that you receive, but also ensuring that you're discharging your obligations to the Canadian public,' she said. 'I welcome the advice that my officials provide, but at the end of the day, the decisions that I make are based on an independent judgment about what is best for our country in terms of our diplomatic relationships and our foreign policy.' Much of her job, she said, involves supporting Prime Minister Mark Carney's quest to make Canada less dependent on the U.S. for trade and defence. 'We are considering every option to strengthen our collaboration with reliable trading partners and allies around the world,' she said. 'My role as foreign minister is to stand up for Canada in that process and to ensure that we are also standing up for peace, the safety of civilians and the respect for international law.' Carney has set the tone for much of Canada's foreign policy and Anand is accompanying the prime minister on a diplomatic trip to Europe next week. Canada will sign an agreement Monday in Brussels with the European Union that largely focuses on defence procurement. Carney and Anand will then head to the NATO summit in the Netherlands, where they hope to use new spending pledges from Canada and allies to keep the United States committed to collective defence. Carney's approach to foreign policy features a major tilt toward Europe and might include more outreach in Asia and Africa ahead of summits he is set to attend this fall on both continents. While his government is heeding allies' calls for a steep increase in defence spending, it's also bucking an international trend by promising not to cut foreign aid. 'We are deeply committed to multilateralism over unilateralism, to global co-operation over increased protectionism,' Anand said. 'We must showcase Canada's values in terms of peace, safety of civilians, and respect for international law. But we're at a time where we also need to strategically advance our economic interests here at home, and to ensure that we have defence and security arrangements in place for the protection of our own country.' She said her ministerial background in defence, procurement, transport and the Treasury Board — which oversees all other departments' spending — gives her a unique perspective on how governments can actually follow through on their promises. At the recent G7 summit in Alberta, she had a front-row seat as Canada's closest peers drafted statements on topics ranging from artificial intelligence to transnational repression. The summit allowed her to meet face-to-face with both representatives of Ottawa's traditional allies and officials from emerging nations with increasing clout — including her Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. The Carney government is moving to restore diplomatic relations with India — a controversial move, given the recent history between Ottawa and New Delhi. In 2023 and 2024, former prime minister Justin Trudeau and the RCMP said there was evidence linking agents of the Indian government to the murder of Canadian Sikh separatist activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, B.C., in June 2023. Last October, RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme said the police force had evidence linking Indian government officials to other crimes in Canada, including extortion, coercion and homicide. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service identified India as one of the main drivers of foreign interference in a report it released this week. Anand said Ottawa is trying to restore parts of 'a long-standing relationship that has been put on hold for the last couple of years,' while respecting the law and institutions like the RCMP. 'The global strategic environment is very volatile and we need to carefully ensure that we are respecting the foundations of our democracy,' she said. Anand was born and raised in Nova Scotia by parents who immigrated from India. As a lawyer and professor in Toronto, she focused on the field of corporate governance — on how companies can reform the way they operate. Global Affairs Canada itself is under heavy pressure to change the way it works. The department launched a reform plan in February 2024 that included an admission that it can be 'slow to react or not focused enough' when major crises erupt, and that its staffing policies aren't keeping up with its growing responsibilities and tighter budgets. Things have only grown more complex since then, with Washington cutting back on foreign aid and moving closer to a revanchist Russia, while China pitches more trade with Canada and other countries. Canada has meanwhile promised to appoint new ambassadors across Africa and to open new embassies in Fiji and Benin, while somehow containing spending across government. Canada's critics have a history of claiming it's all talk when it comes to international relations. Trudeau was frequently criticized for raising human rights issues and inserting environmental policies in trade deals while failing to meet his government's defence spending targets or supply allies with liquefied natural gas. Foreign diplomats and departmental staff describe Anand as cautious, attentive and focused on results. While she's taking some time to get thoroughly briefed, she wants to deliver a lot — and soon. 'We have so much work to do and we cannot waste any time doing it,' she said. 'I am action-oriented myself and the prime minister knows this about me. And that's why we will make a good team on the foreign affairs front.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 20, 2025. Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press
Globe and Mail
an hour ago
- Globe and Mail
Business Brief: Canada's great population adjustment
Good morning. A monumental economic issue in Canada that has been overshadowed by the trade war is the reshaping of Canada's immigration system. After an influx of temporary residents flooded labour markets and sent rents soaring, cuts to immigration rates are taking effect. In fact, Canada's population is now growing at the slowest pace in a decade, outside of the COVID-19 pandemic. More on that below. But first, today's headlines: Energy: Saskatchewan is extending the life of its coal-fired power plants, saying Ottawa has no jurisdiction to stop it. Rates: The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady yesterday and slowed the overall pace of expected future rate cuts in the face of the Trump administration's tariff plans Regulation: Convicted husband and wife fraudsters David and Natasha Sharpe must pay more than $27-million for their role in the Bridging Finance Inc. investment scheme, the Ontario Capital Markets Tribunal ruled For reasons that have never been entirely made sense, the Trudeau government dispensed with Canada's enviable immigration system and opened the door to a torrent of temporary workers and international students. In 2023 alone, Canada added 1.3 million people, which represented the highest rate of population growth since the 1950s. After the strains on infrastructure, housing and social services became apparent, the government set out a plan to course-correct the system. Prime Minister Mark Carney now aims to reduce immigration to 'sustainable levels' by capping the total number of temporary workers and international students at less than 5 per cent of Canada's population by the end of 2027. Those policy changes are starting to bring about some major demographic shifts. The national population was essentially flat in the first quarter, with growth of 0.05 per cent clocking in as the slowest non-pandemic reading since 2015. In a country with low birth rates that has long relied on immigration as an economic stimulant, these policy changes are bound to have some major knock-on effects throughout the Canadian economy. I discussed some of the moving parts with Robert Kavcic, senior economist at Bank of Montreal. You frame this as one of the biggest economic stories in Canada right now. Why? It's just a major policy change that touches on a lot of the issues that policymakers have been trying to figure out for a long time, like rent, inflation, affordability. Population growth is at the root of a lot of that. How much did immigration policies contribute to these problems? The population explosion we had put too much demand in a short amount of time that we couldn't match on the supply side. The rental market was extremely tight, and the minute somebody steps foot in Canada, they need a place to stay. But it takes years to actually put that supply through the pipeline. Same thing with transportation. It's very inflationary in the short run until we can build out to meet that demand. You also see Canada's productivity problems as linked, correct? I don't think it's a coincidence that as non-permanent resident inflows exploded, the productivity numbers really fell off. On an economy-wide basis, there was just more leaning on low-cost labour at the expense of capital investment. It doesn't speak to our long-standing productivity underperformance. It just made it a lot worse over the last two or three years. How much does Canada rely on immigration to shore up our economy? Very much. The labor supply pipeline that it brings in is absolutely necessary because Canadians don't really have babies anymore. It's just part of the system went off the rails. Is this a tough time to undergo such a big demographic adjustment while the Canadian economy is under such pressure? The question we got a lot is: Is the economy going to fall into recession because you're cutting population growth to zero? No, because you're taking a lot of stress off of things like service and rental inflation. That is going to allow the Bank of Canada to cut interest rates, which is a tide that lifts the whole economy. I think this actually rebalances the economy and makes it healthier. We're seeing rents come down, which is good for affordability, but is that going to deter investment in new housing units? I think so. We will see construction back off now. Toronto is probably ground zero of this where rents are falling and pre-construction activity is basically non-existent. Are there other pressure points? There are pockets of the economy that are going to feel it. Stuff like telecom subscriptions, university enrollment. It's just going to take some time to get the system back to normal. This interview has been edited for length and clarity The publicly traded company is a species in long-term decline. Since 2002, the number of operating companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange has declined by more than 40 per cent – a problem that has been masked by the boom in exchange-traded funds. Who's to blame? The big banks, according to finance professor J. Ari Pandes and Senator Colin Deacon. Pensions: The decline of the defined benefit pension has hit men hardest. Savings: For many Canadians, a rainy day looms. How to make an emergency fund work for you. Investing: Four tricks to help you keep your composure when financial markets turn ugly. Global stocks slid while investors took cover in safe havens as financial markets were on edge over the possible entry of the United States into the week-old Israel-Iran air war. TSX futures edged lower, while U.S. markets were closed for the Juneteenth holiday. Overseas, the pan-European STOXX 600 was down 0.3 per cent in morning trading. Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.29 per cent, Germany's DAX dropped 0.3 per cent and France's CAC 40 gave back 0.6 per cent. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei closed 1.02 per cent lower, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng tumbled almost 2 per cent. The Canadian dollar traded at 72.91 U.S. cents.
CTV News
6 hours ago
- CTV News
PBO Yves Giroux on whether the government is on track to meet its fiscal targets
Politics Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux explains why it is difficult to assess the government's projected operating budget.
