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Updated Friday September 20th 2012
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History Leading Up to Bill 13
June 2008 - Controversial School Board Policy
2009 - Ministry Mandates Regulation 157
2009 - Ministry of Education Mandates Equity and Inclusive Strategy
2010 - Health and Physical Education Revised
April 2010 - McGuinty Faces Severe Criticism from Parents
2011 - Ministry uses Toronto District School Board to Revise Provincial Curriculum
November 2011 - Provincial Government Election
December 2011 - Liberals Introduce Bill 13
June 6, 2012 - Bill 13 Passes 3rd Reading
Should Christians be Concerned?
Frog in the Kettle - Again!
June 2008 - Controversial School Board Policy
When PEACE first started, it was as a result of one school board (Hamilton) adopting (June 4, 2008) a controversial sexual orientation policy as part of its Equity Policy.
The Board of Education claimed that the primary goal of the policy is to develop an environment where children from LGBT households, LGBT staff are able to achieve their full potential. Staff Awareness presentations specifically state  “the policy is not intended to subvert the belief systems of staff, students and community”. The church community understands the intention, but is concerned that the implementation techniques (e.g. integration of positive LGBT messaging every subject, every grade level) will result in collateral damage to the biblical-Christian values of young Christian children (see Frog in the Kettle). As a matter of fact, the policy has been titled by one trustee as the “The Unlearning Process”.
After the adoption of the policy A recent meeting of 42 pastors, from 11 different denominations and 16 independent churches) concluded that this policy, which was written to address the needs of the LGBTTTIQQ (lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgendered, transsexual, two-spirited, Intersexual, Queer, Questioning) community “will result in the deconstruction of our children’s traditional Christian beliefs and values by an LGBT agenda”.
2009 - Ministry Mandates Regulation 157
Once 18 urban school boards had adopted similar sexual orientation policies, the Ministry of Education implemented Regulation 157 – the Safe Schools Act. Part of Regulation 157 requires school boards to build positive relations with the LGBT support groups in the community.
Another section dealing with responsibilities of principals, tells principals they are to report to parents of victimized children what happened to the child, and how the school is dealing with it, UNLESS the child self identifies as homosexual, and is concerned as to how his/her parents would respond. If the principal deems that the parents would not be supportive of the child’s decisions, the principal is to honour the child’s expression by connecting him/her with counselling from the LGBT support organizations – without the knowledge of the parents.
2009 - Ministry of Education Mandates Equity and Inclusive Strategy
 Equity Policies are based upon the Equity and Inclusive Education Strategy. This EIE Strategy was written under the direction of then Education Minister, Kathleen Wynne, an open lesbian and champion of the gay agenda.
The EIE Strategy is a terms-of reference document that must be used to revise curriculum. As School boards implement equity policies they are to integrate affirming messages about alternative lifestyles. An example of this is found on p. 17...
As such, it will lead to the creation of a school environment that conflicts with the Charter rights to freedoms of religion and conscience by teaching ideas which violate the moral and/or religious beliefs of various faiths.
To avoid parental scrutiny, the EIE Strategy uses three Trojan horses to sneak the Ministry’s agenda of sexual revolution into the classroom: (1) DIVERSITY, (2) EQUITY, (3) INCLUSIVE EDUCATION.
The EIE Strategy threatens the right of parents to direct the moral values of their own children, by displacing the values of traditional-principled families with the government’s values that place no limits on sexual orientation.
As the legislation is intended to, ‘encourage a positive school climate and prevent inappropriate behaviour, including bullying, sexual assault, gender-based violence and incidents based on homophobia, transphobia or biphobia’.
How does a system teach that all sexual lifestyles are accepted, respected, and should be encouraged, without interfering with the traditional belief that sexual activity is best limited to monogamous, heterosexual relationships?”
Traditional faith communities believe this way for, arguably, healthy reasons. The beliefs of the Traditional faith groups are protected under the Charter of rights and freedoms – messaging that directly conflicts with the traditional beliefs of these families will lead to confusion in the minds of the child about what is right or wrong from their faith perspective.
2010 - The first curriculum revised in January 2010 was the Health and Physical Education.
 The Equity and Inclusive Education Strategy is a terms of reference document for revising all curriculum. The first curriculum document revised was the Health and Physical Education. IN January 2010 the document was put on the Ministry of Education’s website.
The response from parents in the province, was very clear. There were parts of the document they were incensed by:
- Gr. 1 ( 6 year olds) learn about the sexual parts of the human body
- Gr. 3 would learn about homosexuality and “gender fuidity” (the idea that it is ok and normal to have a male body but self-identify as a woman, and vice versa, and over time, you may choose to change your gender).
- 10 year olds were to learn that “gender identity” and “sexual orientation” cannot be changed
- 6th graders were to learn about the pleasures of masturbation and vaginal lubrication
- 7th graders were to learn about alternative methods of sexual gratification anal and oral sex.
These expectations, although consistent with the value to respect differences, often conflict with the traditional lifestyle teachings of the home, and may lead to confusion about what is right or wrong from that traditional belief perspective.
Not only is the content in conflict with the values of traditional families, educators felt that to present the factual evidence to encourage children to be very cautious if they engaged in such activities (e.g. the HIV infection rate as reported by Public Health for the Men who have Sex with Men –MSM) would be biased and should not be presented with the lessons about these activities.
April 2010 - McGuinty Faces Severe Criticism from Parents
At first McGuinty defended the K-8 Sex Ed curriculum, by claiming that his government had “consulted parents groups”. Which parent groups would allow such harmful sex ed curriculum? A close examination of the parties who had been “consulted” by the government reveals a collection of homosexual-activist lobby groups called the Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights in Ontario. Do these gay lobby groups represent the values of the average Ontario parent?
As a result of all the criticism, McGuinty had the curriculum removed from the website, promising it would be reviewed. There has been no review, but MPPs Kathleen Wynne and Glen Murray have stated the curriculum is appropriate and will eventually make its way into the classrooms.
2011 - Ministry uses Toronto District School Board to Revise Provincial Curriculum
 When the Ministry could not revise curriculum directly, they assigned the task to the TDSB that has created a curriculum document Challenging Homophobia and Heterosexism- A K – 12 Curriculum Resource Guide.
This document has 12 sample lessons at each level modelling for teachers how to integrate positive LGBT messages throughout the K- Gr. 12 curriculum. This document also tells teachers not to inform families of sensitive curriculum (page 9 and 10).
The document is freely downloadable from the internet, and referred to at teacher training seminars held around the province – hence parents in other school boards are not aware of what the teacher is bringing into the classroom because the lessons are not available to you, unless you ask.
Some of the ideas for integration include:
- Community units... primary students will learn about alternative families
- Music Class... new songs in primary music class about alternative families, attending Gay Pride Parades, etc
- Drama class – students will be provided with LGBT themes to create skits and plays
- Pride week/parades in schools
- Drama class assignments portraying LGBT issues
- Math class problems will include alternative family situations
- Queer Hero strategy – successful people from the various academic disciplines who were homosexual will have their sexuality identified in class/curriculum materials. NOTE – this does not apply to successful heterosexuals.
What will this look like in the classroom? PEACE has a link to clips from a training video that has been used by the Elementary Teacher’s Federation of Ontario since the late 1990’s. To see what will happen in the classroom, visit the see it page.
November 2011 - Provincial Government Election
December 2011 - Liberals introduce Bill 13
To build upon the previous components, and to force through into our schools this alternative instruction, the government of Ontario presents legislation intended to change the traditional principles of the people by:
- Mandating sexual alternative clubs in schools
- Mandating the integration of positive messaging for all sexual alternative lifestyles, all subjects, all grade levels (Note: the specific lifestyle references are not listed because in 10 years there may be other socially acceptable ways for sexual expression)
- Mandating that all organizations that rent school facilities follow the provincial code of conduct – the code of ethics followed in schools – meaning church groups will have to ignore their sincerely held beliefs and instructions in scripture.
June 6, 2012 - Bill 13 Passes 3rd Reading
Should Christians be Concerned?
Effect on Curriculum:
All curriculum will now be examined through the coloured lens of the Equity and Inclusive Education Strategy, and will be modified to reflect the sexual diversity of the community.
 As part of the integrated curriculum approach, children in Junior Kindergarten to grade 3, when learning about family and their community, will be exposed to LGBTTTIQQ lifestyle curriculum materials such as stories like Daddy’s Wedding, and Heather has Two Mommies. During a meeting with the public school Equity Policy administrators the question was asked, “Are the critical thinking skills of Christian children developed to the stage where they can positively deal with this type of value conflict and not compromise their values?” The committee members did not address the question, but defended the use of the materials because they support the goals of the policy.
At the grade seven and eight levels, the sexual health curriculum has been modified to reflect the sexual diversity of the LGBTTTIQQ community. At this grade level the health curriculum requires students to learn about heterosexual activity (intercourse). Since, the policy requires the curriculum to reflect the sexual diversity of the community, the HWDSB health curriculum for these grades now requires students to learn about alternative forms of sexual activity - specifically sexual activity characteristic of, LGBTTTIQQ relationships.
The way the policy is designed, implementation strategies will undermine (intentionally or unintentionally) the faith of Christian children in the truth of Scripture, while promoting a hyper-focus on sexuality in the school system.
This policy will interfere with the values taught at home, and will lead to confusion in the minds of our children.
Frog in the Kettle - Again!
 Parents and churches work hard to develop in the children a biblical Christian world view, however it is widely known that Barna Research studies demonstrate there is very little difference between the attitudes and values of Christian teens compared to secular teens.
As parents we need to look carefully at the negative influence of society and social institutions on the values of our children. This phenomena is often described as the “Frog in the Kettle Syndrome”. When a frog is placed in a pot of water and heat is gradually added, the frog’s physical body systems adapt to the changes- its body temperature adjusts to the surroundings and the frog appears to be doing just fine. Once the temperature reaches a critical point, the frogs systems can no longer function at such a temperature and the frog flips over and expires. This example is often used as an analogy to explain how our Christian values, particularly the values of our children, adapt to their surroundings and cause most Christian children to have values very similar to their secular counterparts. Should we be concerned – absolutely!
Has the affect of living in a secular society negatively affected spiritual development – YES!
Reginald Bibby, a well-respected Canadian Researcher on the attitudes of teens, surveys teens every eight years, He has noted a Spiritual Culture loss. The chart below is a summary of the responses from children to the question, ``Do you relate to any particular faith?”
Christian parents have a responsibility to raise their children in a spiritually healthy environment - an environment that respects the rights of others to decide differently, AND respects the values of people of faith to follow the teachings of their faith, and to desire to make decisions that are honouring to God.
Our rationale - by doing so our children will be raised in a life that is honouring to God and the reward would be to achieve eternal life with our Lord and Saviour.
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