THUNDER BAY – A member of the Conservative Party of Ontario’s executive says he’ll staunchly oppose any attempt to remove the teaching of gender identity from Ontario’s classrooms.
Thunder Bay’s Derek Parks, who on Saturday was re-elected to the party executive, said Policy Resolution No. 4, brought forward this past weekend by one-time candidate Tanya Granic-Allen and subsequently passed for debate at the PC party convention, is just one of many policy issues looked at by the party and by no means does it signify it will ever become law.
“The PC’s are a big blue tent and there are a lot of people who are in that tent who would not necessarily agree with that resolution,” Parks said on Monday. “It passed. It’s a discussion that’s going to happen. I don’t think it’s going to go anywhere, but it’s on the table and we have to have these discussions because we’re a big party and that’s the grassroots approach to government that we take.”
Granic-Allen’s motion asked the party to recognize gender identity theory for what she believes it is, a “highly controversial, unscientific liberal ideology,” and as such, wants the PCs to remove the teaching and promotion of gender identity from Ontario schools and its curriculum.
Prior to the election, Doug Ford, now Ontario’s premier, removed Granic-Allen as the PC candidate in Mississauga-Central, saying “her characterization of certain issues and people has been irresponsible.”
Granic-Allen earlier this year ran against Ford for the party leadership, after the ouster of former leader Patrick Brown. A hard-line social conservative, she was adamantly opposed to the use of the 2015 sexual education curriculum being taught in Ontario schools. Ford has since reverted to the 1998 curriculum in elementary schools, which limits what younger students can be taught, including the removal of the concept of consent.
Parks said only two members from Thunder Bay-Superior North and about six from Thunder Bay-Atikokan attended the convention, and he suspects when a full vote on the matter is held the motion will be dead in the water.
“With something like this that’s coming up on the docket, you will see higher numbers and you probably will not see this resolution (made into) official policy,” Parks said. “The other thing to note is that what passed this weekend is non-binding on the government.”
The resolution drew swift rebuke across the political spectrum.
London North Centre NDP MPP Terence Kernaghan called the resolution pure bigotry and hate in a tweet sent on Saturday, after it passed.
Fort Frances Coun. Douglas Judson said he was livid at the decision.
“Today was the day the (Ontario PC Party) began adopting – unabashedly – policies of hate,” said Judson, who was initially tabbed to run for the party in Kenora before giving way to former long-time Conservative MP Greg Rickford.
Judson went on to say LGBT people are not safe in Ontario.
The Toronto Star’s Robert Benzie on Monday tweeted that Education Minister Lisa Thompson said Granic-Allen’s proposal will not become government policy, which was later reiterated by Ford.
