TORONTO, July 6, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Ontario’s new minister of education says she’s committed to keeping Premier Doug Ford’s campaign promise to “restore” the province’s 1998 sex-ed curriculum while consulting parents on a replacement.
But Lisa Thompson didn’t say if she’ll pull former Liberal premier Kathleen Wynne’s controversial sex-ed curriculum from schools before children return in the fall.
The MPP for Huron-Bruce told the Owen Sound Sun Times the Liberals didn’t consult parents before rolling out their sex-ed curriculum in 2015 in the face of massive parental backlash.
“We need to ensure that we facilitate a forum whereby anyone who wants to share their perspective has a chance to do so,” said Thompson, who was sworn in Friday as education minister in Ford’s Conservative majority government.
“The previous government when you take a look at the number of people that they actually consulted with, it represents roughly one person per school in the province. And to my way of thinking, that's not good enough,” she said.
LifeSiteNews contacted Thompson's office for a comment but did not hear back by deadline.
The minister reiterated the Tories would revert to the sex-ed curriculum in place before the Liberal version, but said only that her ministry is discussing timelines, the Owen Sound Sun Times reported.
“As a jumping-off point, we’re returning to the previous sex-ed component and from there we’re kicking off our consultation. We recognize it needs to be done in a time-efficient manner so that the realities of 2018 can be shared in the classroom with our students,” she said.
Parental rights advocacy group Parents As First Educators (PAFE), and pro-life lobbying group Campaign Life Coalition (CLC), among the foremost critics of the Wynne sex-ed curriculum, are pressing for its repeal by September.
They warn it prematurely sexualizes children by introducing them to sexual concepts at too early an age.
They also note that former deputy minister of education Ben Levin was the architect of the 2010 sex-ed curriculum, which is virtually identical to the 2015 version and shelved by Premier Dalton McGuinty after huge parental outcry.
Levin was convicted in 2015 of three child pornography-related offences — including counselling to commit rape, in this case, of a minor — and sentenced to three years in prison.
The Wynne sex-ed curriculum introduces homosexuality and gender identity in Grade 3, masturbation in Grade 6, and oral and anal sex in Grade 7. It advises Grade 7 children to carry a condom in case they engage in sexual activity, and Grade 8 children to think up a sexual plan. It teaches there are six genders rather than the two biological sexes of male and female.
At no point does the sex-ed speak of marriage or of marriage as the only relationship in which sexual relations should take place.
PAFE president Tanya Granic Allen said repealing the Wynne sex-ed curriculum “does not require legislation and can very easily be done before the kids return to school in September.”
Granic Allen ran for the PC Party leaderSHIP on a platform of repealing the Wynne sex-ed curriculum and replacing it wit one developed with parental consultation — a position Doug Ford adopted during his campaign.
Granic Allen emerged as kingmaker in the race when her supporters backed Ford as their second choice on the ranked ballot.
The Tories must also ensure schools give parents advance notification and opt-out, she told LifeSiteNews, a position she outlined in an op-ed in Post Millennial titled “Repealing Kathleen Wynne’s sex-ed by September? It’s as easy as 1-2-3.
“There must be a very clear, uniform, across-the-board advance notification of when these lessons are taught, and parents can opt out,” she told LifeSiteNews.
“Because there’s always going to be some parents who have concerns about what is being taught and how, and it’s always important that parental rights are respected.”
Campaign Life Coalition senior political strategist Jack Fonseca lauded Thompson for “making good on Doug Ford’s campaign promise.”
However, the “only piece still missing” is her “promise to repeal the Wynne/Levin sex program by the start of the new school year in September,” he told LifeSiteNews.
“This can be easily done — and must be done — to protect our children from being further sexualized by, and indoctrinated with, harmful liberal ideologies,” Fonseca noted.
Thompson “just needs to issue a directive to the schools ordering them to revert to the previous sex-ed curriculum.”
CLC has launched a petition directed at Ford asking him to do just that.
Signed by almost 16,000 people to date, the petition will be delivered to both the premier and the education minister, Fonseca said.
“We’re also happy to hear that a genuine consultation process will begin to develop a new curriculum that parents actually buy into,” he added.
But he warned Thompson to consult only with parents, and not touch “with a barge pole” the “so-called ‘experts’ that helped Kathleen Wynne and Ben Levin cook up this perverse sex program for young children.”
The minister needs to be aware that many “experts” the Liberals consulted are “actually far-left groups like Planned Parenthood Toronto, an abortion advocacy organization,” Fonseca said.
Planned Parenthood Toronto “publishes sex-ed resources for 13 year olds like Anal Play 101 that encourages the unhealthy practice of ‘fisting,’ and Making Sex Feel Good which seems to encourage children to view pornography,” he pointed out.
“The objective of PPT, like many of the other activists consulted as ‘experts’ by Wynne and Levin, is not to attain ‘sexual health’ for children, but rather, to achieve sexual anarchy in society,” Fonseca said. “Kids are just pawns in their sexual revolution.”
To sign the Campaign Life Coalition petition urging Ford to repeal the Wynne sex-ed curriculum before September, go here.
Action item:
Contact Minister of Education Lisa Thompson to ask that she repeal the Wynne sex-ed by September. Email: [email protected]