January 22, 2019 (REAL Women of Canada) – During the Ontario 2018 provincial election campaign, Progressive Conservative leader Doug Ford promised “a public consultation” on a new sex education curriculum for the province.
This was necessary because of the intense controversy that arose about the sex education curriculum developed under former Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne and her associate, Benjamin Levin, who was subsequently found guilty of and imprisoned for child pornography. The Wynne curriculum included information on a variety of risky sexual practices and behaviours, including age inappropriate information on masturbation, anal and oral sex, gender identity, etc., and the promotion of sex as a purely recreational activity with no reference to it as being part of marriage.
It is apparent that this consultation has been sabotaged by the left wing progressives supporting the Wynne curriculum. It is possible this was done by bureaucrats sympathetic to Wynne and her curriculum, or it may have been done under the direction of the Minister of Education, Lisa Thompson, herself. It is always possible, too, that the consultation process may have been simply incompetently carried out. This is unlikely, however, because of the set patterns used in the consultations. What we do know about the consultations is as follows:
1. The Ontario consultations lasted 77 days from September 30, 2018 to December 15, 2018. There were 72,000 responses made during all the full consultations. Approximately 1,600 submissions were made on the very first day of the consultations. An overwhelming number of the first day submissions supported the Wynne curriculum. This occurred because the start date of the consultations had not been announced to the general public until the full week after its commencement. The supporters of the Wynne curriculum, however, including teachers unions and the LGBTQ community, had been notified previously. They then rushed to enter their submissions on that first day of the consultations.
This lopsided result of the supposed “consultation” of the first day was then highlighted by the media who reported this information as an accurate reflection of the entire consultation process.
2. Town Hall consultations were supposed to be included in the consultation process. Someone in the Conservative government decided that these town hall consultations should be by telephone only. These were monitored by call screeners who, in some cases (although not all), prevented many from making their views known before the session ended. Biased screeners filtered out opinions by those opposing the Wynne/Levin intransigence by keeping them “on hold” permitting those supporting the Wynne curriculum to speak, in some instances, several times. Further, the time set aside for telephone consultation was often cut short, which ensured that those patiently waiting to speak lost the opportunity to do so.
3. The third and final form of consultation, the Online Survey, was also plagued by serious glitches. The translation of the survey was provided in Chinese, Urdu, Punjabi and Korean but not in Arabic. This excluded Muslim families, who were at the forefront of the opposition to Wynne's curriculum, and for whom English is a second language, making it difficult for many to participate. Further, the format enabled the participants to choose anonymity as to residence, which opened the door to submissions from outside Ontario, Canada, and even North America. LGBTQI activists are known to rally their international networks to blitz processes which do not adhere to their narrow ideology. This glitch was facilitated by the Ontario Survey providing the option of not having to divulge a postal code when making a submission.
The Meddling by the Media by Way of False News
The CBC ran a catchy headline announcing the results of the first day consultations stating that the Wynne curriculum had “huge support among Ontario parents and students, consultations show”. The headline for the Canadian Press stated that “an overwhelming majority” opposed Premier Ford's repeal of the modernized curriculum!
The Toronto Star published what was, in reality, a rather hilarious editorial (December 20, 2018) stating that the Ford government should cease pandering to social conservatives, specifically referring to the “right wing” REAL Women of Canada, among others, on the sex education curriculum, and urged it to support the views of the special interest groups such as the teachers' unions and LGBT community. This was suggested even though social conservatives constitute at least 40% of the province's voters. That is, the editorial urged the Premier to ignore the remaining 76 days of submissions and to go ahead to reinstate the Wynne curriculum, in order to provide students with “safety”. It is hard to take the Toronto Star seriously with such a disjointed, incoherent analysis of the consultations.
The Objective of the Media's Distorted Reports
The objective behind the mainstream media's reports on the consultation was to build on the false notion that support for the Wynne curriculum is overwhelming, and that social conservatives should be discouraged with their position, and cease to resist. Social conservatives, however, in fact, hold the upper hand in this contest of wills over the curriculum, as we have the votes, which the opposition does not have. We also retain an unrelenting opposition to the Wynne curriculum. This will not change.
Government Aware of Meddling in the Consultation
It seems that Premier Ford is aware that there has been meddling in the consultation process. He stated in the Toronto Star (January 1, 2019) that “certain groups had overtaken the consultations…”.
The Minister of Education, Lisa Thompson, has indicated by her comments on the curriculum that she prefers the Wynne curriculum. She has now stated that the government will be reviewing all 72,000 submissions and plans to release an update on the results within the next few months. She is undoubtedly confident that the results will support her position.
We do not know the result of the review of the remaining 72,000 consultations, but we do know that there was manipulation by the so-called “progressive” supporters of the Wynne curriculum.
Mr. Ford must be advised that social conservatives will not accept the Wynne curriculum – ever. If he tries to include it, this will absolutely wipe out his base of support in Ontario. The battle against a “progressive” sex education curriculum will be on again. Mr. Ford will be under constant pressure on this issue during the remaining years of his term as was experienced by Liberal leader Wynne. We promise it will haunt his days in office.
Social conservatives will not permit their children to be used as tools to promote a “progressive” sex education curriculum. The die has been cast.
Please contact Mr. Ford objecting to the manipulation of the sex education curriculum consultation:
Premier Doug Ford
Room 281
Legislative Building, Queen's Park
Toronto, ON M7A 1A1
Telephone: (416) 325-1941
Fax: (416) 325-3745
Email: [email protected]
Published with permission from REAL Women of Canada.