Parents were consulted for sex ed, Wynne says

Thousands had helped develop new curriculum

Claims that parents were not consulted on Ontario’s updated sex-ed curriculum are “just not true,” Premier Kathleen Wynne says. Amid news that PC Leader Doug Ford will scrap the sex-ed curriculum because of some parents’ concerns about its content, Wynne said the new sex-ed lessons, which were implemented in 2015, were a much-needed update from the 1990s materials teachers were using.

“It hadn’t been updated for more than a decade,” she told reporters at a press conference in downtown Toronto on Tuesday.

“It is about keeping kids safe,” she said. “Kids now get their information all over the place. They get it from the internet. They get it from their friends. They get it online. And so we need to make sure that our curriculum ... is contemporary, that it’s relevant to the era that we’re living in and our curriculum was not.

“We updated it. And I think that to suggest that — somehow putting kids at risk by not giving them the right information is a good idea — I just think that’s wrong-headed.”

During the leadership race, Ford said he would review the curriculum and the move helped him attract the social conservative vote.

He said Monday that he would “repeal it and then we’ll make sure we consult with the parents and teachers.” “We have to make sure we tweak a few things in there and then we’ll move forward,” he told reporters.

But Wynne talks were held with “many parents ... about 4,000 and with the leaders of various parents’ councils at schools, but also with psychologists, psychiatrists and police. We spoke with a large number of people across Ontario to develop this curriculum.”

To say they weren’t included, “it’s just not true. It’s just not true,” she added. “Parents were consulted. Psychologists, psychiatrists, police, people who live in communities and are concerned about the safety of young people were consulted and the way the curriculum was developed was not by politicians.”

The Liberals brought in the new curriculum to include issues such as consent, gender identity, online bullying and sexting. A number of religious leaders and groups opposed it, saying it’s up to parents to teach their children about sex and at an age they deem appropriate.

The issue was also a hot topic under previous PC leader Patrick Brown — who resigned after being accused of sexual misconduct — after he too courted the social conservative vote by promising to review the sex ed curriculum. However, he later backtracked.

“(The sex-ed curriculum) is about keeping kids safe.” PREMIER KATHLEEN WYNNE