Francesco Veronesi 

Foreign language teaching programs in Catholic schools are under siege again. Not that this is a big surprise, given that the attempt to eliminate International Languages (“IL”) returns cyclically in the various Ontario administrations: it is like tax season or allergy season in the spring. It is surprising, if anything, that this time the opponents of the “IL” program decide to flex their muscles in the midst of the worst pandemic of the last hundred years, with the third wave that only in recent days seems to slow down and with schools in the province closed for the lack of plans, protocols and guidelines capable of guaranteeing the safety of students, professors and non-teaching staff. And it is surprising, at the same time, that in order to fish out for the umpteenth time an issue on which it would instead be appropriate to put a tombstone, it was decided to deploy heavy artillery, with the involvement of the CBC.