Public school board adds Kitchener’s AR Kaufman to list of schools to be renamed

In a near-unanimous vote on Monday, the Waterloo Region District School Board moved to approve the list forwarded from its ad-hoc school naming review committee's final report – identifying three schools as of “high priority concern” and warranting a renaming process. Alongside Sir John A Macdonald Secondary School in Waterloo and Ryerson Public School in Cambridge, AR Kaufman Public School in Kitchener has since been added to the list – with trustees hearing more from a report on the findings of a researcher engaged by the naming committee to perform a “literature review” of the names of schools, facilities, mascots and rooms in the school board. 

When asked to provide clarification on why AR Kaufman Public School – named after Kitchener industrialist Alvin Ratz Kaufman in 1973 – was identified for the renaming process, Superintendent of Student Wellbeing and Achievement Crissa Hill shared that the researcher had identified Kaufman as a person “drawn to the use of birth control as a eugenics measure or device”, noting that the figure “wasn't in keeping with the board's current values regarding human rights.”

“The research revealed that Kaufman's view was that the provision of cheap contraceptives would – and I quote – limit the unintelligent and the penniless who unfortunately constitute an increasing percentage of the total population,” read Hill. “Kaufman was known to arrange for sterilizations that targeted working class employees, the poor and those with physical or mental disabilities.”

During his life, Kaufman was also recognized as a humanitarian figure – inducted into the Waterloo Region Hall of Fame at the Ken Seiling Waterloo Region Museum for his “invaluable service to Kitchener” in city planning and financial support for the local YMCA. 

When prompted, Hill also provided the rationale behind the choice to rename the other local schools, noting Sir John A. Macdonald's role in the establishment of the Indian Residential School system and role in the buffalo famine in the prairies as cause for the move, as well as his Indigenous policy implemented during his time as Prime Minister and Minister of Indian Affairs that resulted in “increasingly repressive measures against Indigenous populations.” Hill also raised Egerton Ryerson's role in “creating the framework that allowed for the abusive and traumatic residential school system in Canada.”

In sharing his perspectives for voting in favour of the ad-hoc committee's report, Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees Scott Piatkowski expressed an understanding that there may be opposition to changing the names of several local schools, with the argument that “it's not fair to judge historical figures by modern values”: a position he said he respectfully disagrees with. 

“I think that maintaining problematic school names is a choice. It's every bit a choice as changing them – and knowing what we know (…) why would we make the choice to maintain those names?” asked Piatkowski. “That would be a choice that causes real harm to students, staff and members of the community. This is not about erasing history. In fact, I'd say it's finally being honest about our history, and making choices today based on what we've learned from confronting that history.”

Renaming work at Sir John A Macdonald has not yet commenced, though Trustee Kathleen Woodcock said selection for a renaming committee is currently underway. Furthermore, the committee has conducted a review of mascots and other named spaces that “reflect consideration for renaming” – which will be shared with individual schools for implementation.

The lone abstention in approving the list of schools came from Trustee Mike Ramsay, a former student at AR Kaufman PS, who expressed that reflecting on our history both in the community and country shows we've “gone in so many wrong directions or wrong paths on several occasions”, expressing that he wasn't sure that history wouldn't repeat itself in the future. Ramsay also noted he was having “great difficulty” in making a decision on the motion, and issues in placing confidence in the information provided by the board's researcher. 

Later on social media, Ramsay noted that he would have instead supported a plaque at AR Kaufman PS that “could explain Mr. Kaufman's views on a popular initiative of another Era”, adding that “historical context is important in education.”