Ontario Minister of Education Stephen Lecce

Pronouns!  Parental “notification"!  Parental consent!

All of a sudden, the words “parental rights” are back in the news.

The hateful, anti-scientific “gender identity theory” has been spreading quickly throughout the world. Our schools have provided the platform for a group of fanatical “gender ideologists” to indoctrinate our children.

PAFE has been fighting this madness for years, mostly in Ontario, but, more recently, we have been expanding our activities to other provinces. Most of our efforts have been focused on highlighting the danger of gender ideology, and exposing the politicians who are in league with the gender ideologists.

This spring and summer, there was a tremendous breakthrough in the fight against gender ideology in our schools, and it came from a most unlikely place.  Seemingly out of the blue, New Brunswick PC Party Premier Blaine Higgs “lit the match,” so to speak, when his Minister of Education announced that the province was reversing its direction.  Contrary to its previous policy, New Brunswick would now empower the parents. 

New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs

Going forward, when children in New Brunswick’s publicly funded schools express a desire to change their name or even “change their pronouns,” the parents must first be notified and then their consent is required. 

The idea of “notifying” parents when their child attempts a name change or insists on new “pronouns” is one of those things that, once you mention it, seems like common sense, but the gender ideologists are now in full panic mode, desperate to stem the tide starting to sweep the country.

The suggestion that “parental consent” be required is setting the education establishment into full meltdown. After all, they think that THEY know what’s best for the children, and not their parents.

Since New Brunswick’s policy change, there have been stunning developments elsewhere, mainly in Saskatchewan, but there is a glimmer of hope in Manitoba and even Ontario.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe

In the midst of this emerging issue, veteran Canadian pollster Angus Reid conducted a nationwide survey in late August and found that 35% of Canadians “feel that parents should be made aware of any changes” regarding “students who wish to change their preferred name or pronouns” but “these changes should not require parental consent” while an even larger number – 43% - “say that parents should be informed and must give consent if a child wants to change how they identify.”  These two groups represent a whopping 78% of Canadians who, at the very least, support the policy of “parental notification.”  

This poll was announced on Monday August 28. Later that same day, when Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s mouthpiece on gender issues, Education Minister Stephen Lecce, was asked what he thought about all of this, he announced that parents should be “fully involved” in students’ decisions to change names or pronouns at school. 

“But as I say, as an overarching value system, I really do believe that parents need to be fully aware, fully engaged. And school boards need to be transparent with parents. I mean, they are the legal guardians. They love their kids. They want to be aware of what's happening in the life of their children in their schools.”

Though this statement represents not a “policy announcement” but merely Lecce’s personal opinion, it does represent quite a shocking turnaround for the “woke” duo of Ford and Lecce. What will happen next in Ontario?

PAFE needs to respond – immediately – to the new national opportunity, including in Ontario, to demand each province adopt some sort of parental consent / parental notification regulation or policy change on this issue for their respective provincial education system.

In the coming days, I hope to present to you a number of options for what you can do to help keep the momentum going.

We need to help to light the fire of parental rights in the other provinces too!