A Teacher Blogs

Over the last few years, I've been tracking some of the commentary of Phil Lees , a retired educator, former leader of the moribund The Family Coalition Party of Ontario , and self-described parent rights activist. Mr Lees has spoken extensively about Bill 13 -- The Accepting Schools Act of Ontario (2012) , the 2010/2015 Ontario Ministry of Education Health and Physical Education Curriculum , and the impact of same-sex marriage in Canada, as he sees it. He is particularly fond of telling an anecdote about mock same-sex wedding ceremonies performed in grade three classrooms, and that will be the subject of this open letter to Mr Lees. April 5, 2015 Mr Phil Lees Director Public Education Advocates for Christian Equity 2621 Hwy 56 P.O. Box 306 Binbrook, ON L0R 1C0 Dear Mr Lees, I am writing to you to enquire about comments you've made several times regarding the conducting of mock same-sex wedding ceremonies in Ontario grade three classrooms. You've alluded to this in se...

When Kathleen Wynne was first sworn in as Premier of Ontario on January 23, 2013, she had already indicated plans to re-introduce the 2010 Health Curriculum, which her predecessor, former Premier Dalton McGuinty, had withdrawn . Following her party's return to majority status in June of 2014, the only question was when. That answer in the late fall of 2014, with Premier Wynne and Education Minister Liz Sandals promising to have the updated sexual health components online for September 2015. How did the original curriculum get killed, and how did it take five years to make a return? Here's the backstory. As I previously blogged here , in April 2010, the Ontario government -- led by then-Premier Dalton McGuinty -- launched an ill-fated revision to the 1998 Health and Physical Education document. I say, "ill-fated," because the Premier would withdraw the curriculum within two days, later replacing it with an interim document -- minus content deemed too controversi...