Tories to begin sex-ed consultations in September

Thestar.com
July 25, 2018
Robert Benzie

See you in September.

That’s when the Progressive Conservative government says public hearings will begin across Ontario aimed at developing a new sex education curriculum.

Deputy Premier Christine Elliott, shown Monday, says public hearings aimed at developing a new sex education curriculum will be held across Ontario starting in September.

“We are going to be starting our consultations in September. We’re all ready to go, but it is important that the consultation happen,” Deputy Premier Christine Elliott told reporters Wednesday at Queen’s Park.

Elliott defended the government’s controversial decision to scrap the 239-page 2015 syllabus in favour of the 42-page version from 1998, which predates same-sex marriage and social media.

“There’s no point in starting with something that wasn’t complete,” said the health minister, who has been left to answer questions in the absence of embattled Education Minister Lisa Thompson.

“We want to do it properly, to listen to parents across the province, to listen to everyone that has concerns, everyone that wants to have their issues heard, so that we make sure that when we develop the sex-ed curriculum, it is complete, it is inclusive, and all voices have been heard.”

Echoing Premier Doug Ford, Elliott repeatedly said the government is merely “going back to the 2014 curriculum.”

Asked what the differences are between the 1998 syllabus and the one taught in 2014, she said, “I understand that there are some differences between them, that there are some areas where teachers have the opportunity to speak about some of the issues that were perhaps not included in the 1998 curriculum.”

But NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said there is no such thing as a “2014 curriculum” because it was not modernized until 2015. It is in fact the 1998 curriculum, she said.

Horwath said Ford is appeasing social conservatives who helped him win the March PC leadership. Opponents of same-sex marriage and abortion rights, they also are against the updated syllabus.
“Instead of moving Ontario forward, he is denying the realities of 2018 by failing to teach consent, cyberbullying, gender identity and sexual orientation,” she said.

“He is doing it because Charles McVety and Tanya Granic Allen told him to,” she said, referring to social conservative Ford backers.

While no budget for the exhaustive public hearings has been set, the premier promised “to do the largest consultation the province has ever seen.”

“We’re going to crisscross this province to 124 ridings and consult with the people who matter -- and that’s the parents,” said Ford.

Revisions for the 2015 curriculum began in 2007. It was supposed to be implemented in 2010, but was delayed by then-premier Dalton McGuinty.

Released by Liberal premier Kathleen Wynne three years ago, the updated curriculum includes the teaching of proper names for body parts and genitals in Grade 1. That’s a change child-abuse investigators have long recommended.

The concept of same-sex relationships is introduced in Grade 3.

In Grade 4 students learn about puberty and the need to be careful online.

Grade 6 students are taught about what masturbation is as well as the importance of consent and about healthy relationships.

In Grade 7, they are warned about the risks of “sexting” and informed about sexually transmitted diseases and learn what oral and anal sex are.