The Ontario Liberal Party is calling a PC-endorsed flyer “dishonest and homophobic.”
The flyer, which states it’s authorized by the chief financial officer for the Ontario PC Party, was handed out in ridings in the Greater Toronto Area. It criticizes a Toronto District School Board document titled “Challenging Homophobia and Heterosexism: A K-12 Curriculum Resource Guide.”
The document intends to help educators fight homophobia in schools.
The flyer allegedly takes quotes from the document. However, one quote: “Cross-dressing for six-year-olds” isn’t found anywhere in the document.
“Read some traditional folk tales and fairy tales with the class. Have students write/illustrate their own ‘gender-bending’ versions” is another quote they say is pulled from the document.
“Don’t want this for your kids? Parents don’t have a say” the flyer reads. It ends with “Parents: have your say on October 6, vote against the McGuinty agenda.”
The Ontario sex-education curriculum has been in place since 1998 and remains unchanged, states a Liberal-issued news release. The “Challenging Homophobia” document is a curriculum guideline for the Toronto District School Board.
Thunder Bay-Superior North PC candidate Anthony LeBlanc said the attention this flyer is receiving is an example of the Liberals trying to avoid real issues, which is the sex-education curriculum the Liberals introduced more than a year ago but have since scrapped after receiving negative feedback.
“That’s the issue. Nothing else,” LeBlanc said when contacted by a tbnewswatch.com reporter Monday afternoon.
When asked if he thought the flyer was homophobic, LeBlanc said he didn’t use the flyer and just saw it for the first time online late Monday afternoon.
“My view is that the policies are what’s important, not the flyer.”
Liberal candidate Michael Gravelle issued a statement Monday stating that it “is extremely unfortunate that the Conservative party is playing the politics of division and fear when it seems to me that they should be focusing on bringing Ontarians together. Frankly, I find it sad to see a party using this kind of tactic at this important time in our history, particularly during an election campaign. “
NDP candidate Steve Mantis said he hasn’t seen the flyer yet, but said it is reminiscent of old-style, mud-slinging politics where one party dredges up something from the past to criticize the government.
“I think we need to move beyond this kind of thing,” he said. “I think we really want to focus on creating a society that includes everybody, that we’re not pointing fingers at each other for one thing or another. We need to spend more time getting to know each other and finding ways to build bridges through the diverse communities we have.”
