Quebec parents want high school trip to the U.S. cancelled

Maya Cholette-Tetrault is still wondering about the fate of a planned school trip to New York City being organized by École secondaire Robert-Gravel in Montreal’s Mile End district.

The mother and some other parents argue the trip should be cancelled because the political climate in the United States makes it unsafe, and points to what has happened to some visitors recently.

“Getting deported, detained, imprisoned,” she told Global News. “This is way outside of the usual guardrails that we are used to when we travel to the U.S.”

Cholette-Tetrault is worried about teens, including her two daughters, being profiled at the border. She believes the last names of her kids could make them vulnerable to profiling.

More groups  are responding to fears about travel south of the border, and in February, Collège Mont-Sacré-Cœur in Granby, Que., cancelled their trips because of Canada-U.S tensions, and last week Université de Montréal issued an advisory.

“In this particular context it worries me a lot that people feel subjectively, and in many cases for good reason, that their activities have been interfered with, or that they’re putting themselves at risk if they work in certain areas,” =Daniel Jutras told Global News.

The Centre de services scolaire de Montréal, which governs the École secondaire Robert-Gravel, told Global News in a statement that “37 out of 46 parents expressed their wish to maintain the trip,” and that “planning a new route is not possible for school staff at such short notice.”

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They also point out that it’s up to each parent to decide whether or not they want their child to participate.

The New York trip is scheduled for Easter weekend. Some parents, including Cholette-Tetrault, are weighing their options.

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