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Today the Tour for Humanity and Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) Educator Elena presented workshops at a local high school to two Grade 9 classes and 2 Grade 12 classes, all with the Canadian Experience workshop. In this workshop, students learn about a variety of difficult topics in Canadian history including slavery, the Indian Residential Schools System, the voyage of the SS St. Louis and the systemic internment of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War. Following a review of the past, current issues including cyber bullying and modern-day examples of intolerance are examined and discussed.

All of the students were very fascinated with the bus - including some student visitors during lunch who were curious and wanted to see the inside of the bus - all of whom were surprised to see how spacious the bus was on the inside. The Grade 12s were a lot more familiar with the Holocaust as they had more experience with the history through classroom lessons. The students knew about many of the different groups that the Nazis targeted during the war. The Grade 12 students had many interesting questions and Elena did a great job of answering them while also making sure the program stayed on track. An interesting note was that while Elena was preparing a video for the students, they continued to have a discussion between themselves about details of the Holocaust. 

One student wiped away tears after watching footage from the Holocaust video, which demonstrated the impact of the material on the students.  At the end of the class one student said, "The world doesn't stop hating. Whether it's Jewish people or Japanese people or Indigenous people, someone is always hated on." Elena was quick to point out that it is up to each of us to look back on history and do everything we can to counter hate in the future. This resonated with the students a lot as they seemed upset by the fact that there's so much hate in the world - even today.  No two classes are the same and it's always interesting to experience the different classes.