A Teacher Blogs

John Tory isn't the first Chief Magistrate of Toronto to embrace the role of LGBTQI ally. That would be pre-amalgamation Toronto Mayor Barbara Hall, who marched in Pride as both a City Councillor and Mayor. (As a lawyer, Ms Hall had defended men arrested and charged as found-ins in the infamous 1981 bathhouse raids in Toronto.) Her successor Mel Lastman, was a reluctant participant at first, but soon got into the fun. David Miller marched with the Chief of Police. But Mr Tory, no stranger to Pride, seems right at home at #IDAHOTB. John Tory at IDAHOTB 2015 / Photo: Gordon Nore . More so than his predecessor. Rob Ford at IDAHOT 2013 / Photo: NOW Toronto Some interesting reading in this 2012 NatPo piece --  Newsmaker: How does Rob Ford's Pride Parade attendance compare to past mayors?

Today is The International Day Against Homphobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia. The occasion was honoured this past Friday, above Nathan Phillips Square at Toronto City Hall. If you've never heard of IDAHOTB, don't feel too bad. The observance has only been around since 2005, after 24,000 individuals and several LGBT organizations had signed an appeal to support the " IDAHO Initiative " the year before. In 2009 IDAHO became IDAHOT, and just this year, it became IDAHOTB. So, the "B" is new, and the "O" is optional, so you can imagine the confusion some of us had hash-tagging our Tweets.  Celebrated annually on May 17th, this year's IDAHOTB marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the removal of homosexuality as a mental health disorder by the World Health Organization. According to the IDAHOTB central website, "May 17 is now celebrated in more than 130 countries, including 37 where same-sex acts are illegal, with 1600 events reported f...

#Pride4Michael I haven’t been asked to lead any marches at Pride this year and, frankly, I doubt that’s ever likely to happen! Michael Coren I was wrong June 28, 2014 Toronto Pride 2013 / Photo by Gordon Nore Across Canada many communities are preparing for Pride celebrations sometime this summer. Toronto's celebration will close on Stonewall Sunday -- the last Sunday of June, marking the riots that began in the wee hours Sunday, June 28th, 1969.  It caps a weekend that includes the *Trans March on Friday evening, and Saturday's Dyke March, now in its twenty-first year. All of this comes at the end of a nine-day festival. Michael Coren's I was wrong   column came out on the day of the Dyke March at WorldPride Toronto , on Saturday, June 28th, 2014. This year, as it so happens, Toronto's big Sunday Pride parade comes on -- you guessed it -- June 28th. Since the publication of that column, Michael has been vilified by some people of faith ...

This is about something more than #FHRITP. Right out of the gate, I'm going to issue a trigger warning for language because I feel, as inappropriate and offensive as the language is, it is the language that was used. It is the reason City TV sports reporter Shauna Hunt fought back. While Ms Hunt was doing a remote outside BMO Field at a Toronto FC soccer game, an onlooker tilted his head towards the ear of her interview subject, and shared the following: Why don't you fuck her right in the pussy? Being a journalist, Ms Hunt had some questions. The man who made the comments scurried off, so she tried to speak with others who were with him; notably, Ryan Hart and Shawn Simoes. The smug little boys brushed off her questions and smirked through the interview, managing, however, to dig themselves in as deep as as their friend who started the row. Mr Simoes was fired from a six-figure engineering job at Hydro One. As of the moment, Ryan Hart's employers are looking ...

I know.  This was Rob Ford's last interview before going in for major surgery.  And I'm a terrible person for posting this.  Councillor Ford sat down for "an exclusive one-on-one" interview with TheRebel's Ezra Levant on May 7th. At the eight-minute mark , Ez asks Ford his thoughts on the 2015 Ontario Health and Physical Education Curriculum . What could go wrong? WARNING: Coarse language. Ezra Levant: I'm surprised at the story of the sex ed curriculum. I read in the paper the other day that 35,000 kids stayed home in some parents-students strike in the sex ed curriculum Kathleen Wynne is putting in. Rob Ford: It makes me sick to my stomach. It makes me absolutely sick. I have two kids -- one in grade two; one in grade four. My one in grade two and my other one in grade four should not be talking about what anal sex is or what a blowjob is. This is what they're teaching these kids. That makes me sick. I told my kids, "If they star...

My old neighbourhood growing up, Thorncliffe Park, in the former East York, has become ground-zero in the controversy over Ontario's 2015 Health and Physical Education curriculum. The first day of a one-week strike saw 90% of some 1300 children in North America's largest K-5 school absent at the behest of their parents. Instead of being in the school, many were out front holding signs decrying "irresponsible" sex education and chanting "We Say No!" -- all of this in an effort to preserve their childhood innocence. Some children then accompanied the adults to Premier Kathleen Wynne's constituency office a few kilometres away for more of the same; while others were paraded in front of Queen's Park. But it is the behaviour of the adults I would like to discuss today. We'll start with the organizer of the Thorncliffe Park spectacle Khalid Mahmood, head of the Thorncliffe Parents' Association . Mr Mahmood is a past chair of the school council...

It was September 11, 2012, when most Ontarians first heard about Dr Steve Tourloukis and the Family Religious Values Letters . The Hamilton dentist was quoted in a Toronto Star newspaper article published that day: “I’m not an extremist, but I must ensure that my children abstain from certain activities that may include lessons which promote views contrary to our faith,” said Tourloukis, who is supported by a group called the Parental Rights in Education Defense Fund. “We know other denominations like Jehovah’s Witnesses and Muslims are excused for certain activities. Does our being Christian disqualify us from equitable treatment?” More specifically, Dr Tourloukis submitted a list of topics he deemed contrary to his faith, with the expectation that the school would provide him with advance notice of instruction in these topics, as well as an opportunity to view teaching materials.Based upon this, he would make the determination as to whether he would keep his children ho...

The Toronto Star editorial of Friday, May 1st, 2015, Ontario must stay the course on sex education , marks the second time recently that a major media outlet has called out Charles McVety on his fear mongering over the 2015 Ontario Health & Physical Education curriculum. The first was when author and broadcaster Michael Coren made a hearty meal of the evangelist on CBC's Power and Politics .  Here's what The Star had to say: Meanwhile, anti-sex education monger Charles McVety, leader of the Institute of Canadian Values, is twisting the curriculum’s new focus on “consent” by saying that “teachers will be forced to teach little children how to give permission for that child to engage in sex.” The curriculum actually teaches kids how to say “no” and to understand the concept of consent before engaging in sex. McVety is no newcomer to the anti-sex ed camp. He so successfully whipped up opposition to the curriculum when it was first proposed in 2010 that Wynne’s ...

Some parents across Ontario will be keeping their children home from school Monday, May 4th thru Thursday, May 8th in protest of Ontario's Health and Physical Education curriculum, which is set to launch in September of 2015.  Parents & Students on strike: one week no school is meant to call attention to the number of parents who oppose the curriculum -- a portent of things to come. So, it's a boycott of something that hasn't happened yet. The campaign has spread beyond the GTA. Following, a report from CTV Windsor . Unlike the suggested letter to school from the ParentStrike.com website, the Windsor group is requesting assignments be sent home to facilitate home schooling. The Windsor board has officially it won't be sending work home. Nor should they; it's not the job of the taxpayer funded school to facilitate homeschooling. Teachers provide classroom education, not distance education. School boards commenting thus far have said...