Province drops sex ed curriculum, drawing fire and praise in Windsor

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has made good on another election promise. His education minister has announced that Ontario schools will teach the old sex ed curriculum in the fall.

That's a curriculum that was last taught in 1998.

It's a move that parent Gregory Moore is praising.

"Oh we're completely excited the PC's dumped the curriculum," said Moore, a parent of four school-aged boys.

Moore and his wife have been vocal critics of the new sex ed curriculum since it was introduced in 2015.

"We feel like we as parents should be able to teach our children these things. It shouldn't be left up to the government."

City Councillor Rino Bortolin is also the treasurer of the parent council at  Victoria Public School, and ran for the Liberals in the election.

He said this sets the province back twenty years.

"This was a curriculum that was done to modernize sex education and in an era with cyber bullying and online access to anything you want at your fingertips. It's a much different landscape than it was in 1998," he said.

Bortolin said with the old curriculum, children could not communicate accurately to police whether they had been sexually assaulted or not. 

"It's dog whistle politics because it's scaring people with misinformation. It's inflammatory to things that aren't in the curriculum," he said.

The province is promising to revamp the curriculum after it holds consultations with the public.