News & Analysis

Thousands of Ontario parents are feeling vindicated about their distrust of Kathleen Wynne's controversial Sex Ed curriculum, after a recent announcement that the man in charge of writing that curriculum will soon plead guilty to child pornography-related charges. Critics of the explicit, age-inappropriate curriculum accused it of sexualizing elementary school children. Parents even feared that the curriculum was "grooming" children in order to make them available for sex. 

Dr. Benjamin Levin was the Deputy Education Minister who oversaw the writing of the Liberal government's 2010 Sex Education curriculum. Even after his departure from the government in 2009, Levin continued to help shape education policy, as evidenced by confidential emails from the subsequent Deputy Education Minister and Levin. For an example of one in which the sex-ed (aka. Health & Physical Education) curriculum is mentioned, click here.  During an international child pornography sting working with police in New Zealand and London, Ontario,  police charged Dr. Levin with seven counts of child exploitation, including one count each of making and distributing child pornography. His lawyer, Clayton Ruby (who also defended arch-abortionist Henry Morgentaler), announced on January 16th that his client would be pleading guilty.  We have no doubt this will be part of a deal with the prosecution in return for a lighter sentence.

The controversial curriculum outraged parents in 2010 when they learned that it encouraged children in Grade 6 to masturbate as "a pleasurable" means of self discovery, and discussed vaginal lubrication within the same lesson plan. It would also:
- teach about "anal sex" and "oral-genital contact" in Grade 7;
- celebrate homosexual marriage and homosexual family structures in Grade 3'
- confuse 8 year olds with the disputed theory that being male or femal is merely a "social construct" that is changeable depending how you feel at any given time;
-teach kids in Grade 4 about "being more than just friends";
- get 6 year olds talking about genitalia in grade 1
...plus other eye-brow raising lesson plans.

After a mere 3 days of complaints from parents, then Premier Dalton McGuinty retracted the curriculum, promising that the whole thing would be done over from scratch, but next time by letting parents "lend shape to a curriculum with which they are comfortable".  After learning that an alleged pedophile, soon to be convicted of at least some charges related to child porn, parents are even less comfortable in 2015 with the Liberal sex ed program than they were in 2010. It is legitimate and necessary to question if Levin influenced the curriculum to get children "primed" for sex. 

Kathleen Wynne was the Education Minister at the time, but now with the power of being Premier and possessing a majority Liberal government with no election in sight, she has pledged to reintroduce the Sex Ed curriculum in September 2015.  A sham parental "consultation" was slapped up which made no real attempt to involve parents. 

Especially in light of Levin moving from the category of "alleged" child pornographer to "convicted", concerned parents and other citizens are encouraged to pressure their school trustee, their child's teacher, and their local MPP to reject Premier Wynne's proposed reintroduction. CLC has made it easy to write your MPP using our Action Alert Email software which vastly reduces the time you have to spend composing a thoughtful letter. Go to it here.