Tour for Humanity spent its second day of the week at an alternative secondary school in Toronto today. Two different students wanted to know how they could get involved with speaking about human rights. Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) Educator Elena had about 10 teachers sit in on various workshops because they had heard about the program, and Elena even had a teacher from the middle school across the road come by to ask about how he could get the same experience for his students. He left with lots of literature! 

Elena taught 6 workshops of Global Perspectives on Genocide and was working with adults, many of whom are recent immigrants to Canada. Elena is always apprehensive about speaking on subjects that may have touched students personally but she had nothing but positive feedback. One teacher wanted to talk more about the genocidal activities of the Japanese military in China during World War II which led to a meaningful conversation about the spectrum of denial that can persist into the present day, as well as some of the disturbing parallels between the Nazis and Japanese leadership (medical experiments, for instance). Another interesting conversation centred on the justice process and difficulty of ensuring that criminals are punished in large-scale genocidal events. Elena talked about the Nuremberg and other war crimes trials post-1945 and she told the students that this process has often been used as a model in the aftermath of other genocides. Elena also told them about a couple currently living in France who survived the Rwandan genocide. They are now seeking justice by pursuing war criminals who have immigrated to France to build legal cases against them. The justice process can be slow and very frustrating, but the part of justice that can begin immediately is open conversation about victims' experiences.