Ontario sex-education protest

Thousands of children were kept out of school across Ontario this week, in an escalating battle between the province and Christian and Muslim parents over a proposed revision to the sex-education curriculum used in elementary and middle schools.

In some schools, as many as 90 per cent of the students were absent. The changes, which include discussions with nine-year-olds about same-sex relations, with 12-year-olds about “gender choice” and ­“gender expression”, and with 13-year-olds about anal sex, have been the ­subject of mass demonstrations, ­constituency office occupations and a rotating series of weekend rallies across the province.

Ontario’s Premier, Kathleen Wynne, has told parents that the changes in the curriculum, the first updating of sex-education materials since the 1990s, will go ahead and “we will have to agree to disagree”. The parental outrage and action are being organised on social media sites, and through church newsletters and parish hall meetings. One Facebook group had “likes” and praise ­­from over 11,000 parents as of Monday at the start of the protest.

The most recent polls suggest that the public is split over the proposed changes, with 42 per cent approving, 40 per cent disapproving and 17 per cent unsure. Petitions demanding the changes be scrapped have so far garnered more than 160,000 signatures.

Catholic Schools in Ontario will have to implement the new curriculum and the Institute for Catholic Education is responsible for applying a “Catholic Lens” to the new material. Campaign Life, one of the main protest groups, says “Faithful Catholic observers find it hard to believe that the Institute for Catholic Education will be able to accomplish such a feat since these ideas are fundamentally incompatible with Catholicism.”

The parents’ action is expected to be most widespread in districts with large immigrant populations, which have been at the forefront of the protests.