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Canada’s Foundation for the Compulsory Study of Genocide in Schools had Liberal MNA David Birnbaum table a petition in the National Assembly demanding that genocide study be made mandatory in Quebec province high schools. It is currently up to individual teachers to decide how much they want to teach about genocide, the foundation said, according to the Montreal Gazette.

Too many Quebec students finish high school with no knowledge of genocides, past or present, including the Holocaust, the Armenian genocide, Rwandan genocide, and the cultural genocide of First Nations, a Montreal-based foundation argued.

The petition, which collected about 3,000 signatures, states that “racial and cultural intolerance and discrimination are the preconditions associated with the beginnings of genocide,” which is defined as “the systematic destruction of a racial, ethnic or cultural group.” Education, the petition continues, is the key to recognizing and preventing discrimination and acts of hate among youth, and knowledge of genocides is essential to preventing such acts in the future.

Liberal MP Anthony Housefather said there should be more compulsory content related to genocide in schools all across Canada.

“I spoke about this in the House of Commons last week and made a member’s statement calling upon all the different provinces to include this in the curriculum,” he said, adding Canadian provinces of Ontario, Manitoba, and British Columbia have made the most headway so far, along with some American states: New Jersey, New York, California, Florida, and Illinois.

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