A motion to debate the recognition of gender identity and have it removed from the Ontario sex ed curriculum passed at a convention for the Ontario Progressive Conservative (PC) Party on November 17. Two days later, Premier Doug Ford announced that the non-binding resolution would not go through the provincial government.
The motion was introduced at the convention by Tanya Granic Allen, a former MPP for Mississauga Centre, who was removed by her party as their candidate in the riding in this summer’s election after a video of her making homophobic remarks was released online.
The motion called gender identity a “highly controversial, unscientific ‘liberal ideology.’”
Earlier this year, the Ford government scrapped plans for a new sexual education curriculum introduced by former Premier Kathleen Wynne, opting to revert to a curriculum that was last updated in 1998. Wynne’s abandoned curriculum included education on gender identity, consent, and same-sex marriage.
Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Justice Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education Lauren Bialystok believes that the policy, even without being implemented, can still do harm.
Speaking with The Varsity, Bialystok said that the majority PC provincial government passing such a resolution could validate hostility toward transgender and non-binary students, and would be “devastating” to everyone trying to create inclusive spaces, especially educators.
Bialystok said that many transgender and gender nonconforming students face harassment and erasure of their identities, citing a 2011 study from the Egale Canada Human Rights Trust.
“While [Ford] has stated that he will not table the resolution from the policy convention about gender identity, there is no reason to trust that Ford will make fair decisions about future policy matters,” Bialystok added.
“He has displayed loyalty to some of the most radically conservative voices in Ontario,” Bialystok continued, “some of whom appear to believe that religion should dictate public policy.”
In an email to The Varsity, Matthew Campbell, President of the U of T Campus Conservatives, a group officially affiliated with the Ontario PC Party, said that despite the group’s respect for “opinions founded in faith and moral conviction,” he believes that the issue was “distorted” by Allen and supporters of the motion.
He saw the resolution as a political stunt for Allen and believed that few party members were actually awake to vote for the motion due to the “youth wing Christmas party and hospitality suite programming that went past midnight” the night before.
“Political parties are like families. You can’t pick your relatives, and [everyone has] got a few whack jobs,” Campbell concluded.
