Ontario expanding Holocaust curriculum in Grade 10 History

Ontario has mandated new and expanded learning about the Holocaust for high school students after a survey found one in three teenagers in Canada in the U.S. believe the Holocaust was fabricated, exaggerated or unsure it actually happened.

The changes to the curriculum will be made to the Grade 10 History course.

The expanded learning 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.” The changes are expected to be added in September 2025.

“[The teachers] just want more time to learn it. This isn’t an easy subject at the best of times,” said Education Minister Stephen Lecce.

“Holocaust education, for me, is about, Never Again. For me it’s the realization that we have a moral imperative to ensure we speak up for people who face genocide and oppression,” said Lecce.

The current Grade 10 History curriculum involves learning how the Holocaust impacted Canadian society and the attitudes of people in Canada toward human rights.

Last year, the government announced mandatory learning on the Holocaust would be included in Grade 6, which includes the responses of the Canadian government to human rights violations during the Holocaust.

The province is also investing $650,000 in community partnerships that will provide resources for students and educator training. These include an Anti-Semitism Classroom Toolkit for Grades 5 to 8 and training workshops for teachers created by the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies and the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto’s Holocaust Museum to create virtual and in-person tours for teachers.

The updated curriculum comes as B’nai Brith logged 2,769 incidents in its Annual Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents for 2022, among the highest rates of hate crimes ever recorded in Canada.

Toronto police have also experienced a 130 per cent increase in hate-related calls since the beginning of the Israel-Gaza war in October and have increased patrols around Jewish communities and places of worship.

Lecce also noted to CityNews there has also been a noticeable rise in hate against Muslim students. He promises he is strengthening professional development specifically addressing and countering Islamophobia.