ONTARIO, April 29, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A new course in gender studies designed by self-identified “femi-lobbyists” has been added to the Ontario Secondary School Curriculum and will be offered in high schools across the province this coming fall.
The grade 11 full credit course, listed as Gender Studies, University/College Preparation HSG3M aims to help students “understand the meaning of gender identity and norms of femininity and masculinity”.
According to its creators on the Miss G Project website, the course will discuss among other things “sexual difference, social constructions of femininity and masculinity, homophobia, heterosexism, heteronormativity, and sexual diversity including homosexual, transgender and intersex identities,” “reproductive rights”, “GLBTQ social and legal issues,” and “how classism, racism, heterosexism, ableism and other oppresions [sic] interact with sexism.”
The course will have students evaluate individuals or groups who have promoted “equality between men and women and changing gender roles in society.” According to the course draft, one such model of “equality” includes Canadian abortionist Henry Morgentaler. Another is Egale, one of the country’s leading homosexualist organizations.
The Ministry of Education told LifeSiteNews.com that schools are not required to teach the course.
“Local boards and schools have the authority to determine course offerings based on student needs and course selection.”
The Ministry said that the new course will “enable all students to learn about healthy and respectful relationships”.
But Gwen Landolt, national vice-president of REAL Women Canada, said that after taking the course, Ontario teens will “certainly know a whole lot less”.
“It’s quite shocking what they’re trying to do. It’s really left-wing brainwashing. It has nothing to do with education or instruction,” she told LifeSiteNews.
“They won’t be taught to think. They won’t be taught to analyze. They’ll be taught to parrot a left wing propaganda.”
Landolt said that schools would do better in focusing on “reading, writing and arithmetic” rather than promoting a “rubber stamped left-wing agenda”.
Jack Fonseca, project manager at Campaign Life Coalition, agreed with Landolt: “This course can only produce more sexual confusion amongst youth as well as promote a mentality that encourages sexual experimentation and the rejection of sexual norms.”
Fonseca said that a course promoting “reproductive rights” is simply using a code word for promoting “abortion and contraception”.
Fonseca said that while the course remains optional for schools and students, he wondered if the Ministry of Education might at some point make the course mandatory by means of Bill 13, the anti-bullying bill passed last summer that forced gay-straight alliances upon schools despite massive opposition from parents and family groups. Bill 13 calls for an educational environment where “students see themselves reflected in their curriculum…in which diversity is honoured”.
“Dissident teachers, and there are many in the Separate system, will claim that ‘the law requires that we teach this curriculum so that gay students will see themselves reflected in all curriculum,’” Fonseca said.
The Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Ontario rejected the “Gender Studies” course in 2010 after viewing a working copy of the curriculum.
“The fundamental thrust of this proposed optional course reflects an ideology which is at variance with Catholic anthropology and moral teaching,” wrote Bishop Paul-André Durocher, chair of the education commission at the time.
The bishops recommended that “Catholic secondary schools NOT include the proposed Gender Studies course in their syllabus of course offerings” [emphasis original].
Despite the bishops’ concerns, the Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association (OECTA) made a public stand in promoting the course. The official Catholic teachers union has a history of championing feminist and homosexualist causes.
In March 2008, OECTA representatives joined Ontario NDP Women's Issues Critic Cheri DiNovo and the creators of the gender studies program to call on the government to implement the course in Ontario schools. To this day, the course creators still list OECTA as a supporter on its website.
The course was masterminded by five women who, after having taken courses in Women's & Gender Studies at the University of Western Ontario eight years ago, decided that Ontario teens would benefit from such a course being offered in their high schools.