Protests and counter-protests framed around gender and sexual education in schools are taking place across the Greater Toronto Area Wednesday, and many more are planned across the country.  

The initial protests were organized under the banner of the “1 Million March for Children,” with the group’s website saying its intent is to “protect our children from indoctrination and sexualization.”

Counter-protests were organized in response, with groups meeting at Queen’s Park. Mom and former educator Jane Agosta told CBC News that she came out in support of her child, who is currently transitioning. She said she wanted to speak out against the “inflammatory messaging” of the provincial government, spurred on after Premier Doug Ford said at an event earlier this month that teachers were “indoctrinating” kids.

“We spend a lot of time just keeping children safe and loved and accepting of themselves — and to insinuate that we might actually be spending time indoctrinating them is absolutely ridiculous,” she said.

“We just want our children to be safe, loved, [and] cared for.”

Demonstrator Nathan McMillan, meanwhile, said he was at Queen’s Park to “support children and the importance to maintain their innocence,” while citing concerns around gender curriculum and age-inappropriate books.

“There’s a lot of political rhetoric going on right now about what’s going on in our schools,” he said. “I think it’s important that we keep kids out of these important discussions that really are between parents and their children. Teachers and institutions, unions, big money, they shouldn’t be having these types of conversations with kids in such an overt fashion.”

School boards support LGBTQ community

In separate statements issued before the protests, the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), Peel District School Board (PDSB), Durham District School Board (DDSB) and Halton District School Board (HDSB) all said they support the LGBTQ community.

“We support everyone’s human rights and expression of gender,” reads a statement from the TDSB, signed by Director of Education Colleen Russell-Rawlins, alongside four associate directors.

“Harassment, discrimination and hate have no place in TDSB. In our schools, we do not tell students who they should be, but welcome them as they are. We do this by focusing on their academic learning and fostering feelings of belonging as expected in the Ontario curriculum and the Ontario Human Rights Code.”

In Peel, officials wanted to “make it unequivocally clear that PDSB stands with our Two Spirit and LGBTQIA+ students, staff and families, and we support everyone’s human rights and expression of gender.”

Ontario’s current sexual education curriculum was introduced in 2019, and requires school boards to allow parents to exempt children from teachings on human development and sexual health.

WATCH | How to handle family talks about gender identity:

In 2018, the Ford government repealed curriculum introduced by the former Liberal government that included lessons on sexting, same-sex relationships, and gender identity. Educators were then instructed to teach students material that borrowed heavily from a 1998 curriculum while the government completed consultations with parents and other stakeholders.

When the province unveiled the current curriculum a year later, it still included many of the controversial topics covered in the discarded one brought forth by the Liberals, but in some cases pushed back the introduction of certain topics so students would be older when they were discussed in the classroom.

For example, concepts of gender identity — previously introduced to students in Grade 6 — are now taught in Grade 8. 

Other concepts however, like sexual orientation, are being taught in Grade 5 instead of Grade 6.

You can read an overview of the curriculum on the province’s website.

Contextualizing curriculum

Annie Kidder, executive director of People for Education — a non-profit focused on public education — told CBC News that context around the curriculum is key.

She says people need to understand that what’s being taught in Ontario stems from research and consultation with a wide range of groups including experts in health, mental health and well-being.

“There isn’t just sex education per se — there is physical and health education in Ontario schools,” she said. 

“And part of the research said that it was important that kids learned about things like gender identity … those aspects of their own [humanity] as early as possible so that they understand themselves before they may be suddenly facing questions or confusion about what was going on with their body or in their minds or in their feelings about themselves.” 

Wednesday’s protests come as gender identity protocols in schools have spurred increased public debate in recent months, with changes around parental consent for pronoun and name changes in New Brunswick and Saskatchewan both making headlines.

Ford weighed in on the controversy earlier this month at Ford Fest in Kitchener, telling supporters that he believes parents should be made aware of any decisions kids make.

“Most important is the parents’ rights, the parents’ rights to listen and make sure they are informed when their children make a decision,” he said. “It’s not up to the teachers, it’s not up to the school boards to indoctrinate our kids … it’s the parents’ responsibility to hear what the kids are doing and not the school boards.”

In a statement issued Wednesday morning, Education Minister Stephen Lecce said the province is “committed to the safety and well-being of all children in Ontario schools,” adding the government’s priority is getting students “back to basics” for education.

“Our firm commitment is to continually support the voices of parents across Ontario’s education system, so that their children can graduate with the real-life and job skills they need to succeed,” Lecce said.