Toronto School Board poised to cancel China’s Confucius Institute deal

The growing controversy over China’s Confucius Institutes has resulted in yet another deal on its way to being cancelled.

A committee for Canada’s largest school board has recommended that the Toronto District School Board end its associations with the Confucious Institue. The TDSB regulates some 600 schools in Canada’s largest city.

Funded and controlled by the Chinese government, the Institutes are set up in schools and universities around the world to teach Mandarin along with other aspects of Chinese culture.

Seen as a way to exert “soft power”, security agencies have expressed some concern, while in Canada, the Canadian Association of University teachers has called for an end to university deals with the Institute citing ethical concerns.

In June, the TDSB committee studying the programmes with Confucius Institutes delayed a vote on whether to continue or cancel agreements.

Wednesday night, large vocal demonstrations by groups for and against the Institutes were staged outside the committee meeting at the TDSB headquarters

Inside the building, committee members heard presentations from groups in favour of continuing the association with the Institute, and others vehemently opposed the committee

The Globe and Mail newspaper reports that one of the presenters, Alice Huynh, a TDSB teacher, told the committee she has gathered signatures from 14,000 parents and community members opposing the Confucius Institute. “The debate should not be about the merits of learning Chinese,” she said. “What we are absolutely against is giving the authority of teaching Chinese to an organization that admittedly has political purposes and who wants to influence our children.”

The committee eventually decided to recommend cancellation of accords with the Chinese organization.

McMaster University in Hamilton Ontario, and the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec have recently also cancelled accords with the Confucius Institutes.