[BRIEF NOTE] Fuck you, Tim, or, Not an endorsement of the Progressive Conservatives of Ontario

[rfmcdonald]

Homophobia and transphobia, sadly, have become campaign issues in Ontario.



Copied from A Rusty Little Box, this is a copy of an ad trying to criticize anti-homo/transphobia educational initiatives in Ontario at election time. It's been published in the National Post, which apologized the day after publication, and in the Toronto Sun, which ran the ad two days later and which has refused to apologize. The timing before the election on Thursday is no coincidence.

This set the stage for this ad.



Produced by Progressive Conservative candidate Ben Shenouda, this ad criticizing--inaccurately, of course--the Ontario Ministry of Education's anti-homophobia and anti-transphobia initiatives. Hate speech? As Torontoist observes, the ad is wrong on its particulars. Ivor Tossell's debunking is necessary reading.

Progressive Leader Tim Hudak actively defended this ad.

Hudak deflected specific questions about the flyers and instead went on the attack about the Liberals’ sex education plan.

“I think they reflect Dalton McGuinty's out-of-the-mainstream policy ideas to have a sex-ed curriculum that would begin with grade ones,” Hudak was quoted by the CBC. “And the notion that Dalton McGuinty thinks a priority in our education system is a sex-ed curriculum starting at Grade 1 when they should be learning their ABCs or math skills, tying their shoes — I just think this shows another example of how Dalton McGuinty's lost touch with mainstream Ontario.”

Spokespeople for the PC Party and for candidates who Liberals say distributed the homophobic and transphobic campaign materials did not return phone calls from Xtra on Oct 2 or 3.

Liberals fired back with press releases that debunked the claims put forward in the flyers. They also pointed out that no changes to the sex-ed curriculum have been made since 1998, when the PCs were last in power.

The quotes that appear in the flyers, which were taken from a Toronto District School Board guidebook called Challenging Homophobia and Heterosexism: A K–12 Curriculum Resource Guide, are exactly the same as quotes they say appeared in the TDSB’s 2002 guidebook Rainbows and Triangles: A Curriculum Document for Challenging Homophobia and Heterosexism in the K–6 Classroom, when Hudak was a cabinet minister in the Harris government.

Later in the day, the PC Party released a statement saying their objection is that "in the 2011 version, teachers are explicitly told not to consult with parents."

That also is untrue; the TDSB guidebook says that best practice is to inform parents of any equity issues that will be part of the curriculum at the beginning of the term.

Okay, Tim. If you're so ill-informed and ideologically overextended as to defend demonstrably false claims, and especially if you've the malign intent of enabling homophobia in the schools and elsewhere, fuck you and your party.

Everyone? If you are eligible to vote in Ontario, do vote; and, don't vote for the Progressive Conservatves.