Canadian Association for Free Expression
Box 332,
Rexdale, Ontario,
M9W 5L3
Ph: 416-428-5308
Website http://cafe.nfshost.com
Paul Fromm, B.Ed, M.A. Director
March 1, 2023
Mr. Kevin Godden, Superintendent of Schools,
Abbotsford School District
2790 Tims Street,
Abbotsford, BC
V2T 4M7
Dear Mr. Godden:
I ask that you bring this correspondence to the next meeting of the Abbotsford District School Board
We are appalled at the Board’s February 21 decision to fire teacher Jim McMurtry. His “crime’? Back in 2021 when the media was filled with exaggerated stories of a mass grave found outside the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. One of Mr. McMurtry’s grade 12 students alleged that Catholic priests had tortured and killed Indian children and left them to freeze in the snow. Firstly, there is no evidence with melodramatic scenario ever occurred. Indeed, close to two years later, there is actually no evidence that the alleged 218 “graves” are indeed graves. If they are graves, there’s no evidence who is buried there and what caused these people’s deaths.
As a good and responsible teacher, Mr. McMurtry gently corrected the enthusiastic student’s comment, which echoes longtime anti-Catholic bias that was once rife. Mr. McMurtry stated that most children who died in residential schools died from disease, which was true not just of native children at that time, but children in general.
Dr. McMurtry has extensive experience and education in Native issues. His comment is not merely his opinion, it is the conclusion of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. According to graph 6 of the report, The overwhelming cause of the deaths of Native children in residential schools (1867 to 2000) was tuberculosis, followed by a long distance by influenza and respiratory diseases.
It’s often forgotten that tuberculosis was a major blight in Canada up into the 1950s. In my own family alone, two relatives spent time in sanitoria to recover from tuberculosis, or TB in common terms.
So, Dr. McMurtry’s offence was to tell the truth!
As unjust as your decision was for Dr. McMurtry, it perpetrated an even greater injustice on the student body. What does it teach students? Certainly, not to think for themselves and follow the evidence, sometimes even challenging currently accepted ideology. No, it teaches them that, if they dissent from currently fashionable Woke doctrine, they’d better shut up and keep their views to themselves. Remember what happened to Dr. McMurtry!
The students deserve better. The taxpayers deserve better.
We urge you to reconsider your decision.
Sincerely yours,
Paul Fromm, Director
CAFE PROTEST TO ABBOTSFORD SCHOOL DISTRICT ON THE FIRING OF TEACHER JIM MCMURTRY FOR CHALLENGING KAMLOOPS RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL GENOCIDE STORY
Canadian Association for Free Expression
Box 332,
Rexdale, Ontario,
M9W 5L3
Ph: 416-428-5308
Website http://cafe.nfshost.com
Paul Fromm, B.Ed, M.A. Director
March 1, 2023
Mr. Kevin Godden, Superintendent of Schools,
Abbotsford School District
2790 Tims Street,
Abbotsford, BC
V2T 4M7
Dear Mr. Godden:
I ask that you bring this correspondence to the next meeting of the Abbotsford District School Board
We are appalled at the Board’s February 21 decision to fire teacher Jim McMurtry. His “crime’? Back in 2021 when the media was filled with exaggerated stories of a mass grave found outside the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. One of Mr. McMurtry’s grade 12 students alleged that Catholic priests had tortured and killed Indian children and left them to freeze in the snow. Firstly, there is no evidence with melodramatic scenario ever occurred. Indeed, close to two years later, there is actually no evidence that the alleged 218 “graves” are indeed graves. If they are graves, there’s no evidence who is buried there and what caused these people’s deaths.
As a good and responsible teacher, Mr. McMurtry gently corrected the enthusiastic student’s comment, which echoes longtime anti-Catholic bias that was once rife. Mr. McMurtry stated that most children who died in residential schools died from disease, which was true not just of native children at that time, but children in general.
Dr. McMurtry has extensive experience and education in Native issues. His comment is not merely his opinion, it is the conclusion of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. According to graph 6 of the report, The overwhelming cause of the deaths of Native children in residential schools (1867 to 2000) was tuberculosis, followed by a long distance by influenza and respiratory diseases.
It’s often forgotten that tuberculosis was a major blight in Canada up into the 1950s. In my own family alone, two relatives spent time in sanitoria to recover from tuberculosis, or TB in common terms.
So, Dr. McMurtry’s offence was to tell the truth!
As unjust as your decision was for Dr. McMurtry, it perpetrated an even greater injustice on the student body. What does it teach students? Certainly, not to think for themselves and follow the evidence, sometimes even challenging currently accepted ideology. No, it teaches them that, if they dissent from currently fashionable Woke doctrine, they’d better shut up and keep their views to themselves. Remember what happened to Dr. McMurtry!
The students deserve better. The taxpayers deserve better.
We urge you to reconsider your decision.
Sincerely yours,
Paul Fromm, Director