The student union at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont., recently prepared a list of prohibited costumes for its annual Halloween bash. Costumes depicting specific cultural traditions are the most common focus of such efforts, which are making themselves felt in schools and universities. Context is everything when it comes to cultural costumes, she said, adding past and present social conditions can often conspire to make a costume feel offensive to the group being depicted. Like Brock, McGill frowns upon cultural costumes but has not gone so far as to prepare a prohibited list. “If it does, it does.”The Toronto District School Board said in an email that it doesn’t have any policy specifically related to Halloween costumes, but expects any get up to “comply with the board’s appropriate dress policy.”

Source: thestar October 23, 2016 17:07 UTC