Shortage Of Teachers In Montreal's Schools, VRRWS Faces Violent Graffiti, Thunberg's Arrival In New York

Ahmad Moujtahed

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LOCAL

As students begin their new school year, Montreal’s French school board struggles to fill vacant teaching positions.

The Commission Scolaire de Montréal (CSDM) says it needs around 1,500 teachers over the next five years to meet the needs of the rising student numbers. The president of the French school board told CTV news that the board is working with local universities to ensure more teachers graduate. She also added that Bill 21 and its ban on religious symbols has not caused any candidates to be refused work. 

The board recently changed its stance on Quebec’s secularism law. Originally, the school board said it would fight Bill 21, but it recently published hiring notices saying employees will be subject to Quebec's secularism laws.

NATIONAL

The Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter (VRRWS), an organization that provides shelter and services for rape victims and women fleeing domestic violence, has become the target of violent graffiti.

Threatening messages such as “kill TERFS”, an acronym referring to “trans-exclusionary radical feminism”, were written across the windows of the organization’s Kingsway education centre.

The organization was deemed “discriminatory” by the Vancouver community for its policy of denying services to transgender women. The centre says that this policy is necessary to protect women who have experienced male violence and may not be comfortable around transgender women.

INTERNATIONAL 

This was part of Greta Thunberg’s speech upon her arrival in New York after a 15-day trip across the Atlantic. The 16-year-old Swedish environmental activist has travelled to the city to attend a UN summit on zero emissions after refusing to fly because of the carbon emissions caused by planes.

The teenager has made headlines for her "school strikes" which have inspired a worldwide climate change protest movement. Her first "strike for climate" took place outside the Swedish parliament in August last year.

Thunberg has been officially invited to the Montreal march against climate change next month. Quebec activists hope that the young activist’s presence would encourage people to walk out of work or school to march for the environmental cause.