Toronto music teacher sues after principal, VP call folk song racist

E. Pauline Johnson

A Toronto music teacher is suing her principal, vice-principal and the public school board for defamation after the administrators sent an email to the school community apologizing that a well-known folk song — “Land of the Silver Birch” — was performed at a school concert, calling it “inappropriate” and “racist.”

In her statement of claim, Violet Shearer, the music teacher at High Park Alternative Public School, said the email effectively suggested that it was her professional judgment and conduct that were “inappropriate and racist.”

Shearer taught the song to her classes at the school and it was performed at a school concert she organized in May 2016, according to her claim.

She is now seeking $75,000 in damages and an “unequivocal apology” from the administrators and the school board.

The school’s principal, Nancy Keenan, vice-principal Edita Tahirovic, and the Toronto District School Board deny in their statement of defence that Shearer suffered any damage to her reputation and said the email was factual and fair comment.  (more...)

Toronto music teacher sues after principal, VP call folk song racist

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Toronto music teacher seeks $75,000 in damages from principal, VP who called song in school play ‘racist’

Your letters: Land of the Silver Birch celebrates Indigenous culture and Canada’s natural beauty

When I was a young man, I courted a great-great-grand niece (not sure how many "greats" go in there) of E. Pauline Johnson. She was very proud of her famous relative and her poetic output. I still have my copy of "Flint and Feather" and cherish the memory of this beautiful friend of my youth. I'm sure, if she has read this story, she's rolling over in laughter at these goofy liberal schoolmarms. She certainly doesn't need the likes of them to speak for her.