My son tried to register for one of the free summer programs his school offered. But then we discovered that he was automatically disqualified, because of his skin colour.

The SummerUp is a set of 17 free educational summer programs funded by the Ontario Ministry of Education. Hence it is subsidized by all citizens, but it is NOT available to all kids  - only to black youth.

• These types of programs instigate divide among people of different skin shades.
• They also suggest that children lack learning capacities or incentives if their skin is dark, and hence require special programs to compensate for that. This is very condescending toward black youth and flat out false - there are plenty of black kids who do well at school.
• Skin colour has nothing to do with the ability or desire to learn. If the intent is to help those lagging behind the curriculum or to bring attention to certain promising subjects, the qualifying criteria can be marks, income, etc. but never race.

This set of programs certainly does NOT advance equality and inclusiveness. Such an approach is every bit as discriminatory against non blacks as it is humiliating for blacks, especially those whose children have good marks and appreciate the value of education. It is appalling to see this coming from the ministry upholding Education in our province.

This set of programs is in direct violation of Canadian Human Rights Act in relation to defined Discriminatory Practices "(a) to deny, or to deny access to, any such good, service, facility or accommodation to any individual, or (b) to differentiate adversely in relation to any individual, on a prohibited ground of discrimination". And it is not a subject to Special Programs as defined by The same Act, because current black high school students in Canada could not have possibly been discriminated against in their lifetime, and hence, cannot be deemed subjects to any special compensatory accommodations.

There are plenty of examples from the human history when segregating by classes (especially by skin colour) lead to nothing but social and economic distress, violence and war - we don't need another lesson in Ontario in 2021.

We call upon the province to reconsider these programs and policies in order to continue to make all opportunities available to all students, regardless of race.

A respective claim has been filed with the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal.