After months of heated debate, the province’s controversial rollback of the modernized sex-ed curriculum will be challenged in a Toronto courtroom beginning Wednesday.The two-day hearing, before three judges in Divisional Court, comes after two separate applications by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) and the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO). Both groups want the court to quash the government’s repeal of the 2015 Health and Physical Education (HPE) curriculum. The province, however, says those requests should be dismissed.“The official curriculum in Ontario has been changed — it used to be diverse and now it’s heterosexual only,” Michael Bryant, executive director of the CCLA, said before court proceedings.“Obviously, this is about homophobia. If the government is going to be homophobic with its curriculum, you can bet the Constitution will have something to say about that.”Sam Hammond, president of ETFO, told reporters outside court that they were acting on behalf of students “who have the right to be taught a current curriculum that stresses safety and inclusivity.”“Our legal case contends that the government’s mishandling of the (HPE) curriculum has had a chilling effect on teachers’ abilities to teach the curriculum in an equitable, diverse and inclusive way,” Hammond said. “This will have a detrimental impact on students and their ability to make safe choices in the world of 2019.”Read more:The naked truth about how the repealed sex-ed program compares to the 1998 one that replaces it Opinion | Emma Teitel: The support for a modern sex-ed curriculum is there but will Doug Ford listen?‘We want to have our voices heard,’ says teen behind provincewide student sex-ed protestThe legal challenges were launched after Premier Doug Ford fulfilled a campaign promise in August by scrapping the 2015 HPE curriculum for element ...
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