Tory leadership hopeful Monte McNaughton has come out against his party’s education critic after the latter backed the Wynne government’s plan to introduce controversial changes to the province’s sex-ed curriculum.
MPP Garfield Dunlop (Simcoe North) said Friday that backing the Wynne sex-ed program is in the PC Party’s “best interest,” but McNaughton told LifeSiteNews on Monday that he “wholeheartedly disagrees” with Dunlop’s stance.
If he becomes leader of the PC Party, he said, he will “have a different policy when it comes to sex-ed in the province of Ontario.”
“I’m the only MPP that’s talking and voicing these concerns publicly, because I’ve heard from thousands of parents who are concerned about the hidden agenda that Kathleen Wynne has when it comes to sex-education in Ontario,” he said.
In his statement Friday, Dunlop said: “We have heard from the education industry that this change has been waited upon for almost four years and that teachers are ready to teach the program to children. A school classroom is a great place to provide a safe environment to learn about relationships and sexual education.”
“After consultation with various groups around the new sexual education curriculum, I think it is in our best interest as a party to support this initiative,” he added.
The curriculum was shelved in 2010 under the then-McGuinty government after massive parent outrage. Critics have pointed out that the sex-ed program — which teaches children to question whether they are a boy or girl, about masturbation, and to accept various forms of sexual relationships as morally and biologically equivalent to marriage between a man and a woman — was developed while accused child-pornographer Benjamin Levin served as deputy minister of education and Wynne served as minister of education.
LifeSiteNews asked Mr. Dunlop by email and phone if he is aware of the numerous parents who object to the updated sex-ed, saying it will corrupt their children’s innocence and usurp parental rights about when it is appropriate to teach their children about sex, but did not receive a response by press time.
Dunlop made news at the end of November after publicly throwing his support behind two grade six students at an Ottawa Catholic school whose principal originally blocked their “gay rights” project due to age inappropriateness.
Teresa Pierre, president of Parents as First Educators (PAFE), criticized the PC Party for not holding the Wynne government accountable.
In a letter to supporters today, Interim Ontario PC Leader Jim Wilson praised the PC Party for being tied with the Liberals in the latest polling, saying that it was due to the party “holding the Liberals to account for their incompetence, lack of accountability, and hollow words.”
Pierre told LifeSiteNews that it was “ironic” for the PC Party to say it is holding Wynne’s government accountable while at the same time it is “failing to hold her accountable for sexualizing children in schools.”
In November, McNaughton became the only member of the legislature to raise concern about the Wynne sex-ed plans when he questioned her in the legislature about why she doggedly refused to release any details of the content of the proposed changes.
“What are you trying to hide?” McNaughton asked the premier.
A PAFE online petition to Premier Wynne, signed by over 28,000 people, demands that the proposed changes to the sex-ed curriculum be scrapped because “they are graphic and age-inappropriate and don’t align with the principles of many religious and cultural groups.”
“We do not believe that pre-pubescent children should be overloaded with graphic information about sex. As parents, grandparents, or other concerned Ontario voters we want to preserve their innocence as long as possible,” the petition states.
Pierre called on the PC Party to not renege in its duty as official opposition.
“The duty of the official opposition is to oppose the government. That’s the responsibility given to them by the people of Ontario.”
“This official notice by the education critic shows that the PC Party at this time is neither attending to their first responsibility of opposing the government nor to their duty to ensure that parents remain the first educators of their children against Kathleen Wynne’s agenda to encroach on the innocence of our children,” she said.
Pierre said that Ontarians who are concerned about the “hyper-sexualization of children in the classroom” should contact the education critic and “tell him firmly that we expect someone in Parliament to oppose Kathleen Wynne’s agenda to disregard parental rights and take away the innocence of our children.”
Contact: (for respectful communications)
Garfield Dunlop, MPP Simcoe North
Ph: (416) 325-3855
Email: [email protected]
Government website contact information for Garfield Dunlop:
Garfield Dunlop Simcoe North
Constituency 1
14 Coldwater Road West
Orillia, Ontario L3V 3L1
Tel. 705-326-3246
Fax 705-326-9579
[email protected]
Toll free 1-800-304-7341
Constituency 2
Mailing Address
Stn. Main
P.O. BOX 2320
Orillia, Ontario L3V 6S2
Constituency 3
482 Elizabeth Street
Midland, Ontario L4R 1Z8
Tel. 705-526-8671
Fax 705-526-8600
[email protected]
Garfield Dunlop MPP Simcoe North, full press release
After consultation with various groups around the new sexual education curriculum, I think it is in our best interest as a party to support this initiative.
We have heard from the education industry that this change has been waited upon for almost four years and that teachers are ready to teach the program to children. A school classroom is a great place to provide a safe environment to learn about relationships and sexual education.
In today’s society a child can find out information from a wide variety of sources. These sources cannot be monitored by parents and can often be dangerous outlets. To have the classroom environment as a starting point where children can bring what they learn home to discuss with their parents is a great model to develop young children.
I realize not everyone will be happy with this change but we need to look at what is best for our children and their futures. Children are insatiably curious if we don’t tell them about it they will find out on their own.