[Viva] Fwd: Ontario’s new 2019 Health and Physical Education Curriculum

[Denise Wozniak]

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Jill McNall (HALC) <McnallJ at lao.on.ca>
Date: Mon, Aug 26, 2019 at 4:14 PM
Subject: Ontario’s new 2019 Health and Physical Education Curriculum
To: Jill McNall (HALC) <McnallJ at lao.on.ca>


Hello HALCO email list subscriber,



In August 2018, the Ontario Minister of Education issued a Directive
requiring all elementary public school teachers (grades 1 to 8) to cease
using the 2015 Health and Physical Education (HPE) Curriculum and revert to
the 2010 version until a new HPE Curriculum could be developed. This meant
that up-to-date information related to HIV and HIV stigma, sexual
orientation, gender identity, same-sex relationships, and issues of consent
from the 2015 HPE Curriculum was no longer included in mandatory teaching
material.



The Directive was challenged in court, and HALCO and the Canadian HIV/AIDS
Legal Network intervened
<https://www.halco.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Sex-Educ-Statement-2019Jan8.pdf>.
The Ontario Superior Court of Justice (Divisional Court) released its
decision
<https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onscdc/doc/2019/2019onsc1308/2019onsc1308.html>
in February 2019, which confirmed that the *Canadian Charter of Rights and
Freedoms* (Charter) and the *Ontario Human Rights Code* require that sexual
health education be taught in an inclusive way. However, the Court
ultimately found that the Directive did not breach the Charter.



On August 21, 2019, the Ontario government released the 2019 HPE Curriculum
for elementary schools. While we have serious concerns with some aspects of
the curriculum, including with the timing of introduction of discussion of
gender identity, we are very pleased to see that key HIV information,
including content about the harms of HIV stigma, remains. For example, the
assertion that “[o]ne of the best things you can do to stop HIV is to stop
the stigma that is associated with having the infection” is still included.
We are extremely pleased to see that the curriculum also newly incorporates
updated science underlying the U=U message
<https://www.catie.ca/en/positiveside/summer-2017/uu>, with the statement
“HIV treatment can reduce the amount of HIV in someone’s body to the point
where it cannot be transmitted.”



We will be providing further information about other aspects of the new
curriculum at a later date.



Ontario’s new 2019 Elementary HPE curriculum is available at the Ministry
of Education online here:
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/2019-health-physical-education-grades-1to8.pdf
.



(This update is also available on our website in pdf format:
https://www.halco.org/2019/news/new-sex-ed-2019aug.)



Thank you,



Amy Wah

Staff Lawyer

Pronouns: She/Her



HIV & AIDS Legal Clinic Ontario (HALCO)

1400-55 University Avenue

Toronto, ON  M5J 2H7



Tel: (416) 340-7790, ext. 4046

Toll-free: 1-888-705-8889

Fax: (416) 340-7248

E-mail: waha at lao.on.ca

www.halco.org
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