A B.C. teacher is being criticized for giving students an assignment asking them to label racism as a right-wing political belief.
Matt DeFouw posted a photo to Facebook showing a worksheet given to students at Valleyview Secondary School in Kamloops, B.C and what he says are the teacher’s answers to the questions.
The worksheet describes 10 people and asks students to label them as having left-wing, right-wing or centre political beliefs.
According to DeFouw, descriptions like “a person who believes that Canada should send aid to Third World Countries” and “a person who believes that the school strap should be abolished” were meant to be answered as left-wing, while “a person who believes that the Canadian military should acquire more sophisticated weaponry” and “a person who believes that women should stay home and be mothers” were considered right-wing. None of the 10 questions were given centre-leaning answers.
The description that has drawn the most attention, though, is: “a person who is a racist.” DeFouw said the teacher was looking for that example to be considered right-wing.
“If you look at the assignment the way it was written, it generally paints anyone who was right of centre as a misogynistic, racist xenophobe who is pining to enact a brutal police state,” DeFouw told CTV Vancouver.
“Everything down the list that was right-wing was highly offensive.”