Daily BrewJustin Trudeau's honest words on 9/11 made a mark on students
Before Justin Trudeau was the Prime Minister of Canada, before he was even a politician, he was a schoolteacher. Not even a regular teacher, either. Trudeau had the most thankless of jobs: substitute teacher.
Between 1998 and 2001, Trudeau taught at West Point Grey Academy, an elite private school. After West Point Grey, according to Global News, he moved on to the Vancouver School Board to be a ”teacher-on-call.”
It was at Winston Churchill secondary school in Vancouver that Trudeau may have had his biggest impact as teacher. According to a post on Reddit, Trudeau was filling in as a substitute teacher for the grade 11 French class at Winston Churchill on September 11, 2001.
“He was our substitute French teacher at Churchill,” a user named “tyltu” said.
“Don't remember much about that time other than his classes were infinitely more interesting than with our actual French 11 teacher.”
But, the poster said, 9/11 stood out because of Trudeau’s response to what was happening.
“What I remember most about him was was the day 9/11 occurred. Whereas ever other teacher continued their lesson as if nothing happened, he told us he wasn't going to teach French. Instead, he wanted to talk about the global ramifications from that event and had an open discussion as to how we thought and felt about the whole situation. He also reminded us not judge a group based on the actions of a few extremists.”
Trudeau’s schoolteaching years were remembered fondly in a 2013 e-book published by the Huffington Post.
“If I could have had every teacher to be like him, guaranteed I would have done better in school,” said Cameron Sinclair, a student in Trudeau’s French and drama classes at West Point Grey, in the e-book.
The Reddit poster’s claims are a stark contrast to one of the biggest controversies of Trudeau’s campaign, when B.C. candidate Maria Manna was forced to step down after Facebook posts questioning the official account of events about 9/11 surfaced.
The NDP’s Alistair MacGregor ended up winning the riding.
