A Teacher Blogs

A year after appearing to pledge support for revised sexual health components of Ontario's Health and Physical Education curriculum, Progressive Conservative Party Leader Patrick Brown seems to have changed his mind. Mr Brown, who represents Simcoe North, recently distributed a letter promising to withdraw the curriculum if the Tories win a majority in a projected 2018 Provincial election. The release of the letter, which coincides with a byelection in Scarborough-Rouge River has been seen as a move to bolster the chances of Raymond Cho, the Tory candidate for the riding. Meanwhile, activists opposed to the curriculum had been hoping to make this a wedge issue in the election. Mr Brown's apparent change of heart is not really a surprise, but that's going to take some explaining. We begin with Mr Brown, speaking to Toronto Life magazine in an article published July 29, 2015. When asked about his views on children learning about gender identity, given that he had voted ag...

As I write this, Canada's federal election is five days away , with Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party enjoying a lead as Tory fortunes decline. And Thomas Mulcair's New Democratic Party settles into third place.  "Nothing to see here. Move along," you might say. Normally a Liberal win is welcome news among the party's traditional base of new immigrants. This demographic has fortified the Liberals since the days of Pierre Elliot Trudeau and forged inter-generational loyalty to the party. And, of course, the Tories know this. So this happened. CBC News: Conservative ads aimed at Chinese, Punjabi voters claim Trudeau backs brothels, pot sales to kids And there's this from Jason Kenney , our Minister of National Defence, formerly Minister of Employment and Social Development and Minister f...

Twenty years ago, while attending a conference on equity for post-secondary educators, I happened to meet an Anishnaabe woman who had been a survivor of Canada's residential school system. Along with her siblings and friends, she had been taken from family and community and placed in a government funded school operated by the Catholic Church. (The United and Anglican Churches of Canada also operated such schools.) The purpose of the system was to Canadianize her -- to remove all vestiges of her aboriginal heritage. During our conversation, she described beatings, verbal abuse and sexual assault.  What stands out vividly in my recollection of our conversation was a rule of the school's dining hall requiring students to retrieve and eat any scraps deemed edible by the staff from a slop bucket they scraped their plates into.  We were eating dinner later when she teasingly admonished me to clean my plate. Then she had to push her own plate away. The memory of the slop bucket ...

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...

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...