What are the Liberals trying to hide? Limited access to Ontario's sex-ed curriculum

Just days after the conclusion of the 2014 school board elections, the Kathleen Wynne Liberal government announced that a new “sexual health” program will be implemented in Ontario schools in less than a year, but without giving access to the proposed changes to parents, trustees and Ontarians at large.

PHOTO CREDIT - p-first.com

Toronto - November 5, 2014 - Just days after the conclusion of the 2014 school board elections, the Kathleen Wynne Liberal government announced that a new “sexual health” program will be implemented in Ontario schools in less than a year, but without giving access to the proposed changes to parents, trustees and Ontarians at large.

The President of Parents as First Educators (PAFE), Teresa Pierre, PhD, expressed concern: “We can only assume that the Wynne Liberals are deliberately trying to limit the extent of public input because they want to silence their critics - ordinary Ontario parents who wish to have a say in what and how and when their children are introduced to sensitive material,” said Dr. Pierre.

In its circular published in the last week of October, the Ministry of Education revealed that the new sex-ed curriculum will be fully “implemented” in September 2015, and will be developed and “fact-checked” by “third-party academic experts”. The only non-experts who will be consulted for input will be one hand-picked individual parent representative from each of Ontario’s elementary schools, to the exclusion of every other parent. A reporter for the Toronto Star asked the Minister of Education at a press conference on the parent survey if the results of the survey would have an impact on the final form the changes would take and was told they are “unlikely to lead to any direct changes to the curriculum.”

Dr. Pierre also expressed concern that the Wynne Liberal plan for a radical new sex-ed plan would make no effort to accommodate various cultural and religious sensitivities in the province. For example, in the case of the Catholic school boards, the news will provoke concerns that the Liberal government is once again determined to override the constitutionally guaranteed right of Catholic parents and school boards to maintain Catholic teaching in their schools.

“This is exactly what happened when the McGuinty Liberals forced the establishment of ‘gay-straight alliance’ clubs into Catholic schools in 2012,” said Dr. Pierre.

Updates to the sexual curriculum have been dogged with controversy since they were last proposed back in 2010 when Kathleen Wynne was Education Minister under then-Premier Dalton McGuinty.

Parents objected to the young ages at which graphic content and morally contentious topics were being introduced.

“Now, it seems, the Wynne Liberals are determined to re-introduce similar measures, but with as little fanfare as possible,” said Dr. Pierre. “By waiting to release the announcement until just after the school board trustee elections concluded, the province is doing an end run around school trustees too.”

PAFE is urging parents to sign their petition here - PETITION