Scrapping sex-ed curriculum doesn't violate Constitution, Ford government argues

The Ontario government's move to scrap controversial parts of the province'ssex-edcurriculum in no way violates the Constitution oranyone's human rights, lawyers for the province will argue this week.

The government laidout its case in a 126-page legal document filed ahead of ahearing that begins Wednesday inOntario Superior Court.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) and the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO) are both challenging the government's move to scrap the health and physical education curriculum that was introduced in 2015 under the previous Liberal government of Kathleen Wynne. Ontario schools are now teaching from the previous curriculum, originally developed in the late1990s.

The groups want the court to order the province to reinstate the 2015curriculum, while the province wants the case dismissed.

The Progressive-Conservativegovernment argues that its changes to sexual educationrelate to "educational policy and democratic decision-making, not constitutional law."

"The Constitution of Canada does not entrench any particular elementary school curriculum," says the government in its written arguments, known as a factum. "It does not prescribe the sexual health topics that must be taught, the level of detail with which they must be articulated, or the particular grades in which they must be introduced."

The province's lawyers say the pre-2015 curriculum is not discriminatory, does not infringe on freedom of expression and does not deprive anyone of the key constitutional values of "life, liberty or security of the person."

If Ontario was not violating the Charter of Rights and Freedomsbefore the 2015 curriculum was implemented, returning to that curriculum now cannot be unconstitutional, the province argues.

ETFO's written argumentssay that Ontario children are being exposed to a greater risk of harm by reverting to the previous curriculum. The teachers' union says the sexual educationbeing taught now is "based on a document created prior to the advent of social media, same-sex marriage, and human rights protections for gender identity, to say nothing of contemporary understandings of consent."

• Students across province walk out of class to protest sex-ed changes

CCLA's written arguments say the government's move "stigmatizes, degrades, and alienates" LGBT students and parentsbecause references to sexual orientation, gender identityand same-sex relationships have been deleted from the curriculum.

The government counters that teachersare required to deliver the current curriculum "in an inclusive way" and "in a way that reflects diversity."

"A curriculum is not a script for teachers to recite, or a list of mandatory or prohibitedwords," says the province's legal filing. "The fact that the words 'gender identity'do not specifically appear in the 2018 learning expectations does not mean that teachers may not teach about this topic."

The curriculum that was introduced by Wynne's government was greeted with strong enthusiasm by sexual health educators and progressive groups, but with fervent protest from social conservatives and religious groups. Its opponents claimed the curriculum introduced topics such as gender identity and body parts at too early an age.

Shortly after taking office last summer, Premier Doug Ford announced that Ontario would revert to the older sex-ed curriculum for the 2018-19 school year.He had campaigned on a promise to scrap the 2015 version.

His government recently wrapped up a province-wide consultation on school reforms that received some 72,000 submissions. Online submissions on the first day of the consultation indicated widespread support for the 2015 curriculum.

Ford said in December that "certain groups"flooded the websiteon its launch and may have skewed the results, but he didn't name the groups.

The government's legal argument says the consultation that resulted in the 2015 curriculumwas far too limited to reflect the full range of public opinion.

• Ford says 'certain groups'flooded sex-edconsultations to skew results
• Teachers' union launches legal challenge against sex-edrollback