Waterloo Region District School Board to review decision to cancel student trips to France, Belgium

The Waterloo Region District School Board will review a decision to cancel student trips to Belgium and France, including trips to mark the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge.

Students and parents were upset to learn the school board had cancelled all planned trips to the countries due to heightened security concerns. The federal government recommends Canadians "exercise a high degree of caution due to the current elevated threat of terrorism" in both France and Belgium.

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On Monday night, school board trustees urged staff to reconsider the decision after parents and students expressed their disappointment with the decision.

"That's absolutely something that we're going to do," board spokesman Nick Manning said Tuesday morning on The Morning Edition. "We want to make the right decision here for students and their learning and also for their safety."

Risk level raised after trips approved

The risk level was raised for France following a series of co-ordinated attacks in Paris on Nov. 13, 2015 that left 130 people dead. 

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Then in July, a man drove a large truck into a crowd enjoying a Bastille Day fireworks display in the southern resort city of Nice, killing 84 people.

In Belgium, three suicide bombings – two at the Brussels Airport and one at the Maalbeek metro station – killed 32 people and wounded more than 300 on March 22.

Manning said eight schools received approval to travel to Europe in October 2015, before the Paris attacks. When another request came in this fall, the board reviewed the government's travel advisory, and that's when it was decided to cancel all planned trips.

'Better, informed decision'

Now that trustees have asked staff to review that decision, staff will speak to various groups - including Veterans Canada and the Vimy Ridge Foundation - to understand more about the security precautions that will be in place for the events marking the 100th anniversary of the battle of Vimy Ridge in April 2017.

We want to make the right decision here for students and their learning and also for their safety.- Nick Manning, Waterloo Region District School Board spokesman

"Once we've got that kind of information, we can make a better, informed decision," he said.

Manning said staff will have some more information for trustees in time for next Monday's board committee of the whole meeting.

If the decision to cancel the trips is upheld, Manning said parents can be assured they won't be out of pocket any money that has already been paid.