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Home My WebLink AboutElementary teachers' union goes to court to quash sex-ed changes, 'snitch line' - Ottawa Citizen - 09/04/2018 - Ottawa Citizen - 09/04/20189/5/2018 Reevely: Elementary teachers' union goes to court to quash sex -ed changes, `snitch line' I Ottawa Citizen Reevely: Elementary teachers' union goes to court to quash sex- ed changes, 'snitch line' DAVID REEVELY Updated: September 4, 2018 %>,.n "",V eb �rdl'll i;, !II �, l It„I �I � I"fl til leJl q,tdl 'a b l lori n in i r (] 24, 2015, DARREN CALABRESE / THE On the first day of school for most students, the union representing elementary teachers went to https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/reevely-elementary-teachers-u n ion-goes-to-court-to-quash-sex-ed-changes-sn itch -I ine 1/9 9/5/2018 Reevely: Elementary teachers' union goes to court to quash sex -ed changes, `snitch line' I Ottawa Citizen court to fight the provincial government's rollback of Ontario's sexual education curriculum. Its application for an injunction also asks for a judge to shut down the government website that encourages people to report teachers who use material included in the 2015 version of the curriculum but not the 1998 version Education Minister Lisa Thompson told them to return to using this summer. The order is supposed to give the government time to hold a massive public consultation on the material in the 2015 version, which talks bluntly about body parts, the risks associated with various sexual acts, and bullying over characteristics such as gender identity. It also has components on things like sexting and same-sex marriage, which weren't issues in 1998. Premier Doug Ford won the Progressive Conservative leadership last winter with the help of a sizable bloc of support from social conservatives after promising to revisit the curriculum. 11fful'Id �rllil Lt l Li,r �,r,, f,lf if JkI,."',i,I. rh,bJwhi,Il `luJ",J,: 9/5/2018 Reevely: Elementary teachers' union goes to court to quash sex -ed changes, `snitch line' I Ottawa Citizen Thompson's ministry has replaced the sex -education portion of the new health curriculum with the old material but given teachers no professional - development guidance on how to teach the hybrid version, said Sam Hammond, the president of the 80,000 -member Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario, in a news conference Tuesday morning. ADVERTISEMENT "We have said from the very beginning that our members, teachers, need to continue to use their professional judgment ... to ensure that the students who are in their care are getting the education that they need for a 2018 environment in this society," Hammond said. But that's become a risky thing all of a sudden, he said. This violates constitutional rights to free expression, security of the person, and equal treatment under the law, lawyer Howard Goldblatt wrote in the union's court filing. "Their actions increase the risk of physical and sexual violence, transmission of STIs, cyberbullying and online exploitation," he said, sharing a microphone with Hammond on Tuesday morning. "Their actions perpetuate substantive discrimination against diverse and minority students, parents and members of society:' "We campaigned on a promise to give parents a voice when it comes to their child's education, and our government is fulfilling this commitment," wrote Ingrid Anderson, a civil -servant spokeswoman for the Ministry of Education. https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/reevely-elementary-teachers-union-goes-to-court-to-quash-sex-ed-changes-snitch-line 3/9 9/5/2018 Reevely: Elementary teachers' union goes to court to quash sex -ed changes, `snitch line' I Ottawa Citizen She responded to questions I emailed to Thompson's press secretary Kayla lafelice, saying the material was from the minister's office. Everyone should get involved in the consultations, Anderson wrote. But since this is before the courts now, "it would be inappropriate to comment further." Let's say, during class talk about families, a student points out that he doesn't have a mom and a dad, but rather two dads, Hammond said. Until 2015, the Ministry of Education didn't have much official to say about how a teacher might respond. There was a big gap — no guidance either way. Then for three years the ministry told teachers in to acknowledge same-sex marriages and gay couples' families as real and legal and not a thing you're allowed to tease your classmates over. Now it's told them to stop. "Is this government going to act and punish that teacher for doing that in 2018?" Hammond asked. ..rr...f1 �ri,rl l fl1'I� "1(l f °�r' I'?; dlt t:`I ff �a'f is e FFe"'ifI'e,tJlih r' lIrk r 20'15, PETER J. THOMPSON / POSTMEDIA NEWS It's certainly behaving as if it will. The ministry has set up that website for people to register complaints if they think teachers are teaching the suspended curriculum. "For the Parents," it's called. https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/reevely-elementary-teachers-union-goes-to-court-to-quash-sex-ed-changes-snitch-line 4/9 9/5/2018 Reevely: Elementary teachers' union goes to court to quash sex -ed changes, `snitch line' I Ottawa Citizen How the reporting website's supposed to work isn't clear. It's hosted by the provincial government but includes a note saying that complaints filed with it will be shared with the Ontario College of Teachers once a month. For identifying information you can enter an email address, but even that is optional. The College of Teachers, which licenses teachers and can discipline them, requires quite a bit more personal information before opening a file on a complaint — it explicitly does not take anonymous ones. The website thing doesn't really plug into the college's system at all. What will the college do with the monthly reports? "The only thing I can tell you, really, is we're looking forward to meeting with the new minister of education in the near future to discuss the college's role," spokesman Brian Jamieson said by phone Tuesday afternoon. That's a respectful way of saying the college has no idea. Anderson just ignored questions about what's the college is supposed to do with complaints filed through the For the Parents web page and whether the education ministry will use them for anything else. The union's case will probably end up joined with one filed last week by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, Goldblatt the lawyer said. (Goldblatt's firm often takes up leftish political causes. He's also representing a group of candidates opposing the province's abrupt changes to Toronto's municipal wards in mid -election campaign. Partner Steven Shrybman might be best known in Ottawa for representing the Friends of Lansdowne in their attempt to stop the Lansdowne Park redevelopment a few years ago.) The two challenges to the curriculum are related but different: the first case is mainly about how the move on sex education affects students; the union's case is mainly about how it affects teachers. The association's case is scheduled to be heard Sept. 24. dreevely@postmedia.com (mailto:dreevely@postmedia.com)- twitter.com/dayidreeyely_(http://twitter.com/davidreevely.). https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/reevely-elementary-teachers-union-goes-to-court-to-quash-sex-ed-changes-snitch-line 5/9 9/5/2018 Reevely: Elementary teachers' union goes to court to quash sex -ed changes, `snitch line' I Ottawa Citizen EDUCATION (HTTPS://OTTAWACITIZEN.COM/TAG/EDUCATION) ------------ HOWARD GOLDBLATT (HTTPS://OTTAWACITIZEN.COM/TAG/HOWARD-GOLDBLATT) LISA THOMPSON (HTTPS://OTTAWACITIZEN.COM/TAG/LISA-THOMPSON) PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE PARTY OF ONTARIO (HTTPS://OTTAWACITIZEN.COM/TAG/PROGRESSIVE-CONSERVATIVE-PARTY-OF-ONTARIO) QUEEN'S PARK (HTTPS://OTTAWACITIZEN.COM/TAG/QUEENS-PARK) SAM HAMMOND (HTTPS://OTTAWACITIZEN.COM/TAG/SAM-HAMMOND) SEX EDUCATION (HTTPS://OTTAWACITIZEN.COM/TAG/SEX-EDUCATION) TRENDING STORIES No credits and $4,000 in debt: Algonquin College strike still resonates a year... Olivia Moore, a 19 -year-old single mom who struggles with mental health issues and a learning disability, thought that enrollin... https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/reevely-elementary-teachers-union-goes-to-court-to-quash-sex-ed-changes-snitch-line 6/9 9/5/2018 Reevely: Elementary teachers' union goes to court to quash sex -ed changes, `snitch line' i Ottawa Citizen This Week's Flyers PETSMARTThe I II°Illover for I11::11yeir Comments (�iom�iir miouy oe»»�i o0000o ioom»»�� 'p r[f^�r/l�u ONS FiV{4^M1M1^II1L.� C�Ll1TiONS ..i u v° Powered by We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page (http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/story.html?id=7195492) for more information. 2 Comments Add a comment... Heath Massey Who needs the elected gov't, we have teachers unions to tell parents what values to be taught. Like • Reply • 3 • 12h Tony Butler mmlll Requiring a secular and public school system to teach a political party's position on science, t( required to change its educational material to satisfy a small group of religious fundamentalist is at its most basic an infringment on the secular nature of our society and on the primacy of s The religious dogma is requiring that teachers remain silent on what is known as facts, for tea the rights of the children to satisfy politcal strategic vote getting. Ford has made it clear that he is doing this to satisfy a small religious fundamentalist element this was to win the PC leadership and to win election to government by miking as many votes element. https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/reevely-elementary-teachers-union-goes-to-court-to-quash-sex-ed-changes-snitch-line 7/9 9/5/2018 Reevely: Elementary teachers' union goes to court to quash sex -ed changes, `snitch line' I Ottawa Citizen Children should not be sacrificed on the political ambitions of premiere Ford. Like • Reply • 10h J Beverley Bell Tony Butler Requiring a secular and public school system to teach a political party's position o system be required to change its educational material to satisfy a small group of representativ basic an infringment on the rights, responsibility and authority of parents to not have others irr You know, perhaps through proper public consultations and discussions with all those who ha' the Wynne curriculum may well be reinstated. And maybe it won't. Ontarians sent a massive r Ford about what they wanted a new government to do, and they're doing just that. The Union they're thumbing their noses at the very people who pay their salaries. Like • Reply • 1 • 8h Erin Thiessen prefered the article published by the Citizen a few days ago by the labour lawyer who pointed out tha provided everything to the Ontario government for the government to take the union to court. We need unreasonable power that the teachers unions in this province have taken as their right. It is not. Like • Reply • 1 • 11h Tony Butler mm Teachers have a moral and legal obligation to resist the overriding of science and civil liberties religious fundamentlist group. The ministers have admitted that none of the lies from the religious right about the 2015 matei justification other than political ambition in removing scientific material or in overriding the righ Teachers are disappearing and are not attracting replacements. Classes are running at 40 plu schools can't over needed courses by qualified teachers. Yep - do the Thatcher unthinking dis UK? Not very well in the near term. Fire teachers or force a lock out? On the battle ground of forcing religious fundamentalism on group? Even Ford isn't that stupid. Like • Reply • 10h NEII c3 Beverley Bell ii Tony Butler A small religious fundamentalist group? Which group would that be Tony? Ever of Conservative, and not a one of us belongs to a religious fundamentalist group, or any other gr taxpayers. Teachers have a moral and legal obligation to do the job they were hired to do, the the authority - to decide what to teach our children. That is the sole purview of the Ministry of I with Wynne's sex ed curriculum, and while there wasn... See More Like • Reply • 1 • 8h Tony Butler mm Beverley Bell A lot of people were misled by the lies told about the sex ed. The number of pec Christians, Muslims and Hindu fundamentalists - with a large number of protestors being Musl The Ministry of Education did decide in 2015. Now we have the PC party deciding what is beir between a secular process to decide what is taught in school compared with a political party c political ambitions, what gets taught in any subject? https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/reevely-elementary-teachers-union-goes-to-court-to-quash-sex-ed-changes-snitch-line 8/9 9/5/2018 Reevely: Elementary teachers' union goes to court to quash sex -ed changes, 'snitch line' I Ottawa Citizen That iathe antithesis n...See More FacebonkCwmments Pllugin /UTT�� ,7V[�U� 201nc, AU riGhha naaen^sd Und�atilbut�on. or ,trid�y proh�bibad bv\�QnjPr��8��mV�P(hUps�0vipwQrdpmaeoom/7 uir��ourue=vip_powera��wpcom&uim_medium=vveb&utm_compo�gn=V�P962OFoo0ar��2OCredd&u�m�arm=oUevveciUzenconn> n|un-goos-tv-cvux-tv-qvavh-»o»ed-cmanovs*nnuh-|mo 9/9