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The Ontario sex-ed debate: Catching up with Canada or hidden agenda?

Ontario sex ed curriculum protested by hundreds at Northwood school

The protest against a new sex-education program in Ontario schools continues with no sign the provincial government is ready to revisit the controversial curriculum.

Parents opposed to the new curriculum on cultural and religious grounds are staging a boycott, pulling their children out of school and holding rallies. The protest is centred mainly in Metro Toronto, where CBC News reported more than 40,000 kids were absent on Monday.

Andrew Morrison, a spokesman for the Ontario Ministry of Education, said pockets of absences have been reported in other communities, including London, Windsor and Ottawa, but had no figures.

Not everyone opposed to the new program is keeping their children out for the whole week.

“Today we’re not doing protest,” Christine Liu of the recently formed Parents Alliance of Ontario, told Yahoo Canada News on Tuesday. “Among the Chinese community we’re only doing protests for one day in May but we will do protests in September in a bigger scope.

Chinese-Canadians may be back in stronger numbers in September if the Liberal government doesn’t alter the curriculum to reflect parents’ concerns, she said.

That seems unlikely since Premier Kathleen Wynne and Education Minister Liz Sandals have backed the revised program.

Still, the intensity of the opposition, which included one Toronto-area school that was nearly empty Monday, must have come as a surprise.

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Sex ed protest leaves 1 Toronto school almost empty

Many opponents believe the government is trying to impose a perspective on sexuality that’s at odds with parents’ wishes.

One protest leader, speaking with Yahoo Canada News, compared it to Canada’s assimilationist policies towards First Nations decades ago.

Proponents of the revised curriculum argue the changes merely bring Ontario in line with those in other provinces.

“In many respects, in fact, the new Ontario curriculum is simply catching up to what is being taught in other parts of Canada,” Andrew McKay, executive-director of the Sex Information and Education Council of Canada, said in an interview.

New Ontario sex-ed program looks at dangers of sexting

The only area where Ontario has pushed ahead, said McKay, is in adding discussions about the dangers of sexting (sending nude and sexually explicit images via smartphone) and on the issue of consenting to sex, both of which are handled “in a developmentally appropriate manner.”

Sexuality-related topics are woven through Ontario’s 240-page health and physical education curriculum, which has not been revised in 16 years, said Chris Markham, executive director of Ophea, a not-for-profit group that promotes the teaching of healthy active living.

“Ontario’s curriculum is the oldest in all of Canada,” said Markham, adding the revised program was adopted “without issue” by the province’s public and Catholic school boards.

The 2015 revisions “essentially bring us into line with the expectations in other provinces,” he said. “Probably the one area that we’re leading over other provinces is with respect to the issues around consent and how that’s managed, and mental health as well.”

That’s not what has catalyzed opposition to the new curriculum. The most contentious aspects, summarized in a parent’s guide put out by the ministry, appear to be the age at which some topics are introduced.

For example, between Grade 1 and Grade 3, students are expected to learn the names of body parts, including their genitals.

“But a six-year-old can’t understand what a vulva is without picture, a diagram or touching and feeling himself,” Lynn Jackson, a protest leader, complained to Yahoo Canada News. “So what’s the relevance of this?”

As the children approach puberty in the topics include masturbation, oral and anal sex, gender identity and same-sex relationships. McKay said the subjects are introduced in an age-appropriate manner as part of broader discussions.

For instance, he said, same-sex relationships come up in Grade 3 as an example of diversity within the community, like skin colour, religion and culture.

“So when people say oh, children are being taught homosexuality in Grade 3, that’s actually what’s being taught, it’s just using sexual orientation as an example of differences within the community,” said McKay.

Discussion of sex practices aim to highlight risks

The same goes for discussions of sexual practices, which are covered to highlight their risks and as a counterpoint to sexual material kids can easily access online, he said.

“It’s done at a time where nearly all kids will have heard of the practices, have a basic understanding of what they are but may be unaware of the risks that are associated with them,” said McKay.

Markham said polling Ophea has done show Ontario parents support updating the curriculum.

“It’s a small minority of parents who fundamentally disagree that any sexual health education should be taught within schools and that’s essentially what we’re dealing with,” he said.

But it doesn’t seem quite that black and white.

Many of the rallies have featured parents belonging to groups who do indeed oppose detailed discussion of sexuality in schools based on their religious or cultural beliefs.

But Liu said she is not opposed to sex education in principle.

This curriculum doesn’t sufficiently address the health risks of multiple sexual partners, which is the most important thing that our education system has to tell our children,” she said. “This is just one example why this curriculum has not been drafted in a responsible way.”

The program has been tailored selectively “just to protect a certain group of people’s rights.”

Jackson also has no objection to basic sex-ed.

“I was raised in a school where I learned about the stages of growth of a baby in a womb,” she said. “The boys went in one room and we stayed in another and we learned sexual stuff.”

What’s going to be taught now, though, “it’s not information, it’s indoctrination.”

“They did this years ago with the aboriginals,’ Jackson went on. “They put their kids and forcibly assimilated them into western culture. Well, that’s what’s happening. These kids are being told your parents are homophobic if they don’t agree and they’re outdated.”

Objections said to take sex-ed elements out of context

Those attitudes frustrate sex-ed advocates like Markham, who believes opponents are taking elements of the curriculum out of context and using them to stir up anger.

“I think there has been a deliberate attempt to misinform the public or misinform certain segments of the population around what’s in the curriculum,” he said. “ And that’s really dangerous.”

Opponents argue that talking to kids about sex, even at the Grade 6 level, will encourage them to try it but studies show the opposite is true, said Markham. Young teens who’ve taken sex-ed courses delay sexual activity, he said.

Not according to Jackson, who said she’s seen numbers suggesting it leads to an increase in teen pregnancy.

“I don’t have the statistics but I’ve heard them and I believe them because they came with numbers,” she said.

Parents with fundamental objections to some or all of the sex-ed material can legally remove their children from those classes, said Markham, though he said few have in the past.

Not so, said Liu. For example, she said, classes covering sexual orientation and gender identity are mandatory. Yahoo could not confirm that assertion with the Education Ministry.

Regardless, said Jackson, opting out is an illusion anyway. The right is not entrenched in the Education Act, despite what the minister told opponents, she said. Instead, it depends on school administrators.

“Parents are being told by their principals we don’t have staff to supervise your kids,” she said. “I’m sorry, this is a human rights issue, they have to stay in class.”

Morrison, the ministry spokesman, could not say whether the Sandals would meet with the protesters. Jackson said she doubted a meeting would be useful, given the reception a delegation said they got from Wynne at a meeting late last month.

“There seems to be a determination to ignore parents, as they did with the aboriginal people, and take on this attitude you will be assimilated, we know what’s best for you,” she said.