Newfoundland and Labrador Finance Minister Tom Osborne speaks with the media before attending a meeting of federal and provincial finance ministers in Ottawa, 2019.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Newfoundland and Labrador’s education minister says he’s worried parts of the province’s Grade 9 social studies curriculum have made immigrant students feel unwelcome.
Tom Osborne says he’s “very concerned” about sections of a Canadian identity course dealing with immigration and refugees, and his department is reviewing the material.
Course notes list arguments for and against immigration, including claims that immigrants take jobs away from Canadians and that admitting more refugees could encourage “people smugglers.”
Osborne says the material flies in the face of Newfoundland and Labrador’s immigration strategy and no students should ever feel their belonging in a classroom or in the province is up for debate.
He says the idea that immigrants take jobs is especially untrue in Newfoundland and Labrador, where new Canadians have established many successful businesses that have created employment for people in the province.
Memorial University social work professor Sobia Shaikh notes the course material was created in 2011, meaning it has caused a decade of damage.
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