Doug Ford at Pride Parade in York, Ontario in June, 2019. Image retrieved from X.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said “something” about parental rights on Friday September 8 in Kitchener. What did he actually say?

At first glance, Ford seems to be shifting back to his rhetoric – no action, but rhetoric - from the 2018 PC leadership, when, in an insincere effort to secure the effort of parental rights supporters, he promised to repeal the Wynne sex ed curriculum.  He also aggressively campaigned in 2018 against the teaching of gender identity theory in the classroom. Of course, since becoming Premier, Ford has done neither. 

Now, facing sinking approval numbers, and desperate to distract from the Greenbelt financial/ethics scandal, Ford is trying to distract Ontario with talk of “parental rights.”

Here is EXACTLY what Ford said this past Friday evening:

“But most important, most important, is that parents’ rights -  that parents’ rights, that listen, and make sure that they are informed when their children make a decision.

You know, it’s not up to the teachers, it’s not up to the school boards to indoctrinate our kids.

You know, it’s the parents' responsibility to hear what the kids are doing and not the school boards’.

I can't even figure out what school boards do nowadays, by the way.”

I assure you that the quote is exact. It if sounds like the rambling incoherence of a liar and charlatan, you are probably not far from the truth.

Let me take a brief look at what he actually said:

• Consider the first paragraph. Note that Ford’s rhetoric here is about “children” and when they “make a decision,” seemingly a reference to a child’s “decision” to “transition” to another “gender. (See my email and blog of August 27 on how groomer Ford is assisting the gender ideologists in “transitioning” children through his failure to guarantee parental consent on these matters.)
  
  
• It’s terrific that Ford is using the word “indoctrinate” but we’ve heard this from him before, back in 2018, before he was Premier. After 5 years of running this province’s education system, the “indoctrination” is worse now than it was in 2018. Not only has Ford done nothing to curtail the indoctrination, this Ontario PC government has, repeatedly and explicitly, authorized the indoctrination to continue.
  
  
• Ford says “it’s the parents’ responsibility to hear what the kids are doing and not the school boards.” No, Doug Ford, that’s not quite it. Parents’ indeed have responsibilities, and rights, but these go far, far beyond simply “to hear what the kids are doing.”  Consider what the teachers are actually teaching… and with Ford’s permission! Yes, it is the parents’ responsibility and right to know what is going on, but whose responsibility is it to make sure that the school boards and teachers keep the parents informed? Hmmmm…. That would be the Ontario government.  Does Ford know what he is saying hear?  He is either totally ignorant of the issues, or a scheming liar, or a total idiot, or some combination of the above.
  
  
• Nowhere does Ford even hint at parents' natural and God-given right to give or withhold their consent for anything that happens to their children while in one of Ford’s schools.
  
  
• When Ford says “I can’t even figure out what the school boards do nowadays” he is disingenuous. Ford is trying to trick Ontario into thinking that he bears zero responsibility for what is going on in Ontario schools. In fact, the opposite is true: the Ontario government has total and ultimate authority for everything that goes on in the publicly-funded schools. Ford certainly knew that when he promised action in 2018. And now?  He has for most of the last year been trying to deflect all of the responsibility to the school boards.

There isn’t any policy shift here, but what we see is a rhetorical strategy to distract us from the ethical woes of the embattled and ethically challenged Ford government.

Still, why would Ford use the gender ideology / parental consent issue as the “distraction” instead of some other issue? 

Parents are FINALLY waking up to malignant nature of gender ideology being taught in our schools. Everyone is talking about it.  PAFE has been saying this for a long time.

Now Ford is paying lip service to “parental rights.” Ford and his advisors are gambling that the parents might not notice that Ford is actually still doing NOTHING about the issue. Indeed, Ford is spewing empty rhetoric while doing exactly nothing about this issue. He takes us all for fools.