PCs accused of trying to ‘muzzle’ education minister
Thompson ducks press amid confusion, anger over sex-ed curriculum
Premier Doug Ford’s government appears to be sidelining embattled Education Minister Lisa Thompson amid confusion over the handling of the sex-education curriculum.
For the third straight day, Thompson ducked reporters Thursday at Queen’s Park.
While the education minister was in the Legislature for the daily question period, it was left to Deputy Premier Christine Elliott to respond to opposition queries on why the Progressive Conservatives are scrapping the updated sex-education syllabus. Earlier in the week, the premier took the questions on the controversy triggered by his decision to replace the 2015 curriculum with the 1998 ver- sion, which does not mention same-sex relationships, gender, consent or cyber safety.
Opposition parties expressed concern at the Tories shielding Thompson from the media. NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said “to go into hiding as a minister is completely inappropriate.”
Liberal MPP Michael Coteau (Don Valley East) said it mocks planned public hearings on a revised curriculum.
“If you’re the minister of education and you’re not even responding to the media, how do you expect to get out there and consult with the people of Ontario?” asked Coteau.
“You’re the conduit to people here in this province,” he told reporters. “To run away from the media just places her in a very tough situation, where it’s going to be difficult for her to get out there and actually consult with the community.” Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said “it’s ridiculous that they’re not even allowing ministers to talk to the media.”
“That’s not running a government that’s ‘for the people’ if you won’t even talk to the people,” Schreiner said, referring to Ford’s campaign slogan that has become the government’s mantra.
“They’re moving back to the last century when it comes to sex ed and the minister obviously isn’t answering questions that are satisfactory to people,” he said. “She flip-flopped the first couple of days and now they’re going to muzzle her.”
In the House, Horwath said the Tories are “putting kids at risk to appease the premier’s radical social conservative friends,” who oppose same-sex relationships and abortion.
“The current education minister, in 2015, said this: ‘Our education critic was very forthcoming in saying the minister of education has done a lot of con- sulting around this,’ ” the NDP leader said of the Tories’ previous stance.
“That was the minister before the premier cut his backroom deal with Tanya Granic Allen and Charles McVety,” she said of the social conservatives instrumental in Ford’s victory in the March PC leadership race.
Elliott, who finished second in that contest, stressed the government is merely acting upon the wishes of parents for more consultation, not questioning the content of the 2015 syllabus.
“They were concerned about the age that children were being taught about certain subjects,” said the deputy premier.
“We want to conduct a full public consultation with parents to make sure that we understand what parents are comfortable with having their children learning in schools and to make sure that we update it to deal with all of the issues that they need to learn about.”
Meanwhile, the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario is urging Ford to reinstate the 2015 curriculum.
“It is irresponsible to do away with the current version and revert to a 20-year-old sexual-education curriculum that doesn’t address today’s realities of the internet, smartphones and social media,” said the RNAO president Angela Cooper Brathwaite.
“If children are going to be safe and healthy, they need to learn about consent, sexual orientation, gender identity, as well as the dangers of cyberbullying, online predators and sexting.”