Consultations show support for repealed Ontario sex-ed curriculum
TORONTO — An overwhelming majority of those who weighed in on Ontario’s sex education on the first day of public consultations opposed Premier Doug Ford’s repeal of a modernized curriculum introduced by the previous Liberal government.
Respondents identifying themselves as students, parents and social workers flooded the ForTheParents.ca website with messages hours after it opened in late August, following weeks of controversy over the fate of the curriculum.
Roughly 1,600 submissions obtained by The Canadian Press through a freedom of information request show the vast majority called for the modernized 2015 curriculum to be reinstated. About two dozen messages spoke in favour of the Progressive Conservative government’s decision to repeal the document and temporarily replace it with one based on the 1998 curriculum.
“With the changes you have made to the curriculum you are putting children at risk. Not all parents are comfortable teaching their children the proper anatomical names and body safety, but this is crucial,” wrote one person who said they were a parent and a child protection worker for the Children’s Aid Society.
Another person noted that their child attends an elementary school that has a trans student and worried about children not receiving lessons on acceptance.
“They will lack understanding and acceptance of all people regardless of sexual orientation. Please do not allow this to happen,” they wrote.
“Teach the new curriculum,” another submission read.
“My tax dollars funded the research to come up with it and it’s not horribly out of date like the one from the 90s. Any teacher that teaches from the old curriculum is a liability towards the safety of our community.”
The government launched the submissions website in August after Ford pledged to revoke the modernized curriculum established under his predecessors and conduct what he called the largest consultations in the province’s history to create a new lesson plan.
Critics noted that the 1998 curriculum that temporarily replaced the scrapped document didn’t address themes like gender identity, consent and cyber-safety.
Just days before the start of the school year, the government said it had drafted a lesson plan to address those criticisms. Experts said, however, that the lesson plan contains only passing mention of modern concepts such as the internet and cellphones and largely reverts to the vague language and broad topic outlines used in the 1998 curriculum.
The 2015 curriculum touched on issues such as online bullying and sexting, but opponents, especially social conservatives, objected to parts addressing samesex relationships, gender identity and masturbation.
Many of the respondents to the online consultation, whose identities have been withheld, questioned the expense and necessity of the submissions website after the previous Liberal government spent months consulting parents and experts to create their lesson plan.
Interim Liberal leader John Fraser said he felt vindicated by the first batch of results, noting that extensive consultations were conducted when his party brought in the modernized curriculum.
“It seems to be a really incredible waste of time and probably money for the government to do this,” he said.
If the initial submissions are indicative of the remaining responses, the Progressive Conservatives can no longer justify their decision to temporarily revert to an older version of the lesson plan, he said.