Ontario is introducing new and expanded mandatory learning about the Holocaust in the compulsory Grade 10 History course.
In addition, the province is investing $650,000 in community partnerships that provide resources for students and educator training to expand learning on fundamental Canadian values, including the importance of safeguarding democracy from extreme and harmful ideologies.
“Our government is decisively combatting the rise of antisemitism and hate in all its forms,” said Stephen Lecce, Minister of Education. “By including new mandatory learning in Holocaust education in elementary and secondary schools, we are ensuring students are never bystanders in the face of hate and division. We will ensure that ‘Never Again’ is our legacy to the next generation, as we safeguard and promote those fundamental Canadian values of democracy, freedom, civility and respect.”
Starting September 2025, new expanded learning about the Holocaust in the Grade 10 History course will explicitly link the Holocaust to extreme political ideologies, including fascism, antisemitism in Canada in the 1930s and 1940s, and the contemporary impacts of rising antisemitism.
This expanded learning will build on the current Grade 10 History curriculum about how the Holocaust impacted Canadian society and the attitudes of people in Canada toward human rights. The course complements new mandatory learning on the significance of the Holocaust included in Grade 6 Social Studies, strengthening students’ ongoing understanding of how to identify, respond to and change harmful assumptions and stereotypes that can lead to tragic events like the Holocaust, including antisemitism and other forms of racism.
To help students learn about historical and present-day discrimination, Ontario is investing $650,000 (2023-24) in several community partnerships including with the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, Liberation75, the Canadian Society for Yad Vashem and the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto’s Holocaust Museum.
According to a 2021 survey on antisemitism and Holocaust knowledge conducted by Liberation75, one in three teens in Canada and the United States think the Holocaust was fabricated, exaggerated or are unsure it actually happened.
Jewish Canadians remain the most targeted religious minority for hate crimes in Canada, according to Statistics Canada. While Jewish Canadians make up one per cent of the population, they were victims of 14 per cent of all reported hate crimes in 2021.
In 2021, Statistics Canada found that police-reported hate crimes targeting the Jewish religion were up 47 per cent from the previous year.
