The Ontario sex education curriculum controversy refers to the debates over reforms of the sex education curriculum in the province of Ontario during the 2010s.
In 2015, the government of Ontario, then led by Kathleen Wynne, introduced a new sex ed curriculum, updating it for the first time since 1998 and including topics such as sharing explicit content online, sexual orientation, and gender identity. A number of protests broke out against the new curriculum, and after the 2018 Ontario general election the new provincial government, led by Doug Ford, announced that it would be scrapping the changes and reverting to the 1998 curriculum. This move caused a further eruption of protests by supporters of the new curriculum this time, and in 2019 the government announced a different new curriculum that contained most of the updates contained in the 2015 curriculum.
Background Sex education is the instruction of issues relating to human sexuality, including aspects such as emotional relations and responsibilities, human sexual anatomy, sexual activity, sexual reproduction, age of consent, reproductive health, reproductive rights, safe sex, birth control and sexual abstinence. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) recommends comprehensive sex education, as it enables young people to make informed decisions about their sexuality. Health Canada also recommends comprehensive sex education, stating that it is "a vital and integral part of your overall health and well-being throughout your life, integrating the emotional, physical, cognitive and social aspects of sexuality."
Studies have consistently shown that comprehensive sex education leads to a number of positive results, such as decreasing the rates of unintended pregnancies among teenagers.
A 2007 American review concluded that "no comprehensive program hastened the initiation of sex or increased the frequency of sex, results that many people fear" and that "comprehensive programs worked for both genders, for all major ethnic groups, for sexually inexperienced and experienced teens, in different settings, and in different communities."
In Canada, education and healthcare are provincial jurisdiction, and so each province has differing education systems and different sex education curricula. In Ontario, some form of sex education has been present in schools since the early 1900s. From 1925 to 1933, the Ontario Health Department charged nurse Agnes Haygarth to give lectures on health to public school children in rural Ontario, however, she mostly taught girls unless the school had a male health officer available. In 1966, the Ministry of Education recommended including sexual health topics in the curriculum, but the final decision on including those topics was left to individual school boards. In 1979, only one out of every six school boards in the province taught birth control in any grade. When the HIV/AIDS pandemic hit Ontario in the 1980s, the province finally introduced mandatory sex education in all schools across the province. In 1998, the government of Ontario had updated its sex education curriculum again, for the last time until 2010, at which point the Ontario curriculum was among the oldest among all Canadian provinces.
Cancelled 2010 curriculum In 2010, under then-Premier Dalton McGuinty, the government announced another update to the curriculum. Just a few days after the announced update, however, and after intense criticism from right-wing groups and conservative Christian groups in the province, the government backed down and cancelled the proposed update.
2015 curriculum In 2013, McGuinty left politics, being replaced as Liberal leader by Kathleen Wynne, Wynne becoming the first woman to serve as premier of Ontario and the first openly gay person to hold the post of premier across all Canadian governments. In the 2014 Ontario general election, Wynne led the Liberals to an increase in seats, forming a majority government.
In October 2014, Wynne's government announced that they would be surveying parents from every single school in the province on the creation of a new sex education curriculum, with the goal of introducing a new curriculum in 2015. At the time, the Ontario curriculum was the oldest in Canada.
In late February 2015, the government announced the introduced of a new sex education curriculum, to begin in schools in September of that year. Among the changes brought into the new curriculum were: Grade 1 students being taught the proper names for body parts Grade 2 students being taught the broad concept of consent Grade 3 students being taught basic concepts of gender identity and sexuality Grade 4 students being taught about puberty Grade 5 students being taught about relationships Grade 6 students being taught about gender expression and masturbation Grade 7 & 8 students being taught about contraception, anal and oral sex, preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections
The new curriculum also introduced lessons about how to communicate safely online, including the risks of cyberbullying, sharing personal information, and sharing explicit photos.
Reactions to the 2015 curriculum The 2015 new curriculum received polarising reactions, with critics attacking it as inappropriate and against parents' rights, while supporters argued that it was an overdue modernisation backed by evidence and that it was particularly necessary to help vulnerable minorities in Ontario, such as LGBT+ youth.
A May 2016 poll from Forum Research found that around 16% of respondents had considered pulling their children out of public schools in reaction to the new curriculum, and that 48% of Ontarians approved of the curriculum while 36% opposed it.
Some commentators called for more resources to be invested in public health to assist schools in providing sex education, especially as some of the issues at hand can be more complex to teach. Other commentators called for further broadening of the curriculum, to expand beyond just discussing risks and problems, but to also include discussions of how to foster positive aspects of health and relationships.
Support The updated curriculum received a generally positive response from public health experts, who especially commended the introduction of lessons on consent and on internet safety. The curriculum also received for introducing discussions surrounding gender and sexual diversity, especially as discrimination against the LGBT+ population remains a significant issue in Canada.
Supporters of the curriculum also pointed to the scientific consensus, with studies over several decades repeatedly showing that comprehensive sex education had positive outcomes and does not result in many of the negative outcomes claimed by opponents of the curriculum. Supporters of the curriculum also argued that opponents were spreading misinformation about the curriculum, with factually incorrect claims such as that the curriculum offered how-to lessons on masturbation and anal sex having been widely circulated among groups that opposed the curriculum.
Clergyman and radio personality Michael Coren argued in a National Post column that criticism of the curriculum was exaggerated, stating that "most of the curriculum is more banality than Bolshevism," and that conservative Christians should spend more time protesting issues such as poverty and unjust wars than sexuality. Soon after publishing the column, Coren was fired from his position at far-right outlet Rebel News, with Rebel founder Ezra Levant accusing him of having confused and offended the Rebel's audience.
Opposition The new curriculum received significant opposition among some sections of the Ontario population, especially among right-wing and conservative religious groups, leading to a number of protests. Some opponents argued that the curriculum introduced "too much, too soon," with some conservative parents stating that they would pull their children out of public schools in response to the curriculum. Opponents to the new curriculum also argued that the government had not sufficiently consulted parents.
On 14 April 2015, a demonstration opposed to the new curriculum was held in Queen's Park, attracting several thousand protestors.
Thorncliffe Park elementary school in Toronto announced that they would be offering a modified version of the new curriculum where teachers covered the key issue of inappropriate touching without being specific about body parts, with around 40% of Grade 1 students being moved to the modified version. The school had previously been the focus of several protests against the new curriculum.
Political parties During the 2015 Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario leadership election, the eventual winner Patrick Brown pledged to repeal the new curriculum. However, by 2016, he stated that he was in favour of the new curriculum, but criticised the government for a lack of consultation. Wynne defended the curriculum against charges that her government hadn't led sufficient consultations, stating that "Parents were consulted. Psychologists, psychiatrists, police, people who live in communities and are concerned about the safety of young people were consulted. The way the curriculum was developed was not by politicians. It was developed by people who are educators and who understand child development and who understand what's appropriate."
Federal Conservative Party of Canada MP Parm Gill used a taxpayer-funded mailout to attack the curriculum, describing it as "graphic and explicit" and an attack on parents' rights. The mailout also attempted to link the curriculum to the federal Liberal Party of Canada, despite education being provincial jurisdiction and the federal Liberals having no affiliation with the Ontario Liberals.
In October 2016, the Stop the New Sex-Ed Agenda party was founded by Queenie Yu as a single issue party with a platform based on being in opposition to the new curriculum. It ran one candidate each in the 2016 by-elections in Ottawa—Vanier and Niagara West—Glanbrook, finishing with 1.3% and 0.2% of the vote respectively. It ran three candidates in the 2018 Ontario general election, none winning their races. After the 2018 election, the party came under some controversy surrounding their use of the tax credit on political donations to channel funding to lobbying groups.
Homophobia Significant amounts of the criticism against the new curriculum centered on the inclusion of LGBT+ issues, leading to many supporters of the curriculum accusing opponents of homophobia and transphobia.
Jeff Crane, the principal of Thorncliffe Park Public School, which had been the epicentre of several protests against the new curriculum, stated that the protestors had "just come flat out and said that they don't want homosexual teachers in schools." The Thorncliffe Parents' Association, which was one of the main organisers of the protests, had made several social media posts saying that the school was allowing LGBT+ groups to indoctrinate children.
Progressive Conservative MPP Monte McNaughton faced accusations of homophobia after he stated in a parliamentary debate that Wynne, the first openly gay premier of any Canadian province, was "especially disqualified" from crafting sex education policies and after he accused 2015 PC leadership election candidate Christine Elliott of wanting to build "a little pink tent."
The conservative Campaign Life Coalition attacked the new curriculum, stating that it was brought in by "the gay-activist Premier of Ontario," that it encouraged immoral sex acts, that it would normalise homosexual families, and that it would cause "serious sexual confusion in the minds of children."
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