Editor's note: Ontario parent Ryan McConaghy wrote the following letter to Premier Kathleen Wynne last week after she defended her education credentials to MPP Monte McNaughton in the legislature. The premier's remarks garnered wide media coverage because she implied that McNaughton's criticism of the sex ed program is 'homophobic.'
Dear Premier:
Further to the comments that you made earlier today at Queen's Park to Monte McNaughton, I would still like to know what makes you qualified to advise how, when and what my two daughters are taught regarding human sexuality. I assure you that neither your position as Premier, nor your status as a woman, nor your status as a mother, nor your status as a former school trustee, nor your Master's Degree, nor your status as the former Minister of Education qualify you in the least. The reality is that nothing qualifies you or your government to provide the moral framework within which my children are to be taught about human sexuality.
Ms. Premier, if you are so passionate about the new sex education curriculum, then why didn't you have the courage of your convictions to run on that policy last spring during the election? Surely you knew that you would have been soundly defeated, just as your predecessor had been on this particular issue when he tried to sneak it through the legislature in 2010. And yet your government pretends that the opponents of this curriculum are a small minority of religious fanatics! The reality is that the vast majority of parents in this province do not want your pet social engineering project passed. These people are not merely the knuckle dragging, religious people that you and your Minister of Education loathe so much. They come from various educational and cultural backgrounds. I, for one, am a lawyer and my wife is a public school teacher. We do not neatly fit your stereotypes, and we abhor the cradle-to-grave Ontario that you are creating; an Ontario that is both morally and financially bankrupt.
By the way, Ms. Sandals' comments today which linked opponents of your legislation with those who oppose the teaching of evolution were quite condescending and intolerant. You, of all people, should not stand for such intolerance. The tolerance that has been extended to you as a lesbian woman should also be extended by you, and your cabinet, to religious minorities who do not share your views (and with whom you profoundly disagree).
I implore you on behalf of the parents of this province, and their impressionable children (who cannot speak for themselves), to change your policy on this matter immediately.
Regards,
Ryan McConaghy