June 20, 2025

The VHEC is delighted to present the 2025 Meyer and Gita Kron and Ruth Kron Sigal Award for Excellence in Holocaust Education to one outstanding educator in the province: Chantel Parsons (Mark R. Isfeld Secondary School). Chantel has consistently demonstrated an exceptional commitment to Holocaust education throughout her career, significantly impacting her students, colleagues, and the broader school community.

Chantel Parsons

Chantel Parsons is a geography and history teacher at Mark R. Isfeld Secondary School in the Comox Valley. The teacher’s Genocide 12 course, which centres on the Holocaust, remains one of the most popular senior-level electives at her school, drawing students eager to engage deeply with this critical history.

Chantel’s approach to Holocaust education is marked by historical precision, critical inquiry, and meaningful impact. Her students explore complex issues around historical responsibility and the roles of perpetrators, victims, bystanders, and resistors, challenging simplified narratives and examining the complexities of human behaviour during the Holocaust.

The lasting influence of her teaching is reflected in the words of a former student:

“You were probably one of the best teachers I had. The focus you put on the atrocities in WWII, and the effort you put into teaching us how to recognize the patterns that lead up to events like this made me question a lot of things I probably wouldn’t have otherwise… I often think back to things I learned in your class.”

The Kron Sigal Award was established in memory of Meyer and Gita Kron and their daughter Ruth Kron Sigal, Lithuanian Jewish survivors of the Holocaust who re-established their lives in Vancouver. Through their lifelong involvement with education and community, the family touched the lives of thousands of students. The award in their name is presented annually to British Columbian teachers who have demonstrated excellence and commitment to teaching students about the Holocaust and its important lessons for humankind.

A distinctive feature of Chantel’s teaching is her focus on Holocaust denial and distortion—topics often underrepresented in high school curricula. Her students study landmark Canadian legal cases concerning Holocaust denial, and benefit from guest speakers and witnesses connected to these cases. This fosters their ability to identify denial and conspiratorial thinking and highlights the importance of defending historical truth.

Despite teaching in the smaller community of Courtenay, Chantel’s students access extensive enrichment opportunities through VHEC’s online programs. This year, her class participated in multiple live Zoom workshops, survivor speaker presentations, virtual exhibition tours, and accessed a wealth of online teaching materials. These experiences connect her students with wider communities dedicated to remembrance and education.

The VHEC is honoured to share the acceptance remarks from Chantel Parsons upon receiving the 2025 Kron Sigal Award for Excellence in Holocaust Education: