THUNDER BAY — Thunder Bay’s two largest school boards and groups representing local teachers and students presented a united front Wednesday, condemning a march held earlier in the day that called for schools to be less welcoming to LGBTQ+ youth and to eliminate gender and sexual identity content from the curriculum.
Over 200 people attended what was billed as a “healing rally” at city hall Wednesday evening, eclipsing the 60 to 80 people who had marched against accommodations for LGBTQ+ students at the same location earlier in the day, part of a cross-Canada event dubbed the “1 Million March 4 Children.”
Organizers of the national march, which drew thousands of supporters and counter-protesters in larger cities, say they want to remove lessons touching on sexual and gender identity from provincial curricula, along with “pronouns, gender ideology and mixed bathrooms in schools."
Marchers in Thunder Bay held signs with slogans like “my child, my choice” and "save children, remove porn from schools" while circling city hall Wednesday morning.
An organizer of the march declined to speak with TBnewswatch, along with most participants.
One protester, Destin Dumais, said he has no hate for the LGBTQ+ community, but was marching “to protect our children from ideology that we don't agree with."
"I just want to protect my children against stuff that I don't believe should be taught to preschoolers and little kids in school,” he said.
The Ford government last updated Ontario’s sex ed curriculum in 2019, largely preserving changes made by the Liberal government in 2015.
Sexual orientation is not a mandatory subject until students are in Grade 5, while concepts like gender identity aren’t taught until Grade 8.
Austin Burr, a teacher at Westgate CVI and representative on the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) human rights committee, believes participants in the march have fallen prey to misinformation about what’s actually being taught in schools.
“I think a lot of it is rhetoric blowing up from the [United] States, and you see a rising tide of anti-trans rhetoric there,” he said during an interview at Wednesday's rally. “If you read the curriculum document, there’s nothing in there that’s inappropriate at any grade level.”
That message was echoed by students at the rally, who said while schools have become far more supportive of LGBTQ+ students, curriculum content relating to diverse gender and sexual identities is minimal.
“Throughout my five years in the high school education system, I have received one lesson pertaining to queer history,” St. Ignatius student Gwen Carrasco told the crowd. “There is no indoctrination in schools, there is no pressure to be queer.”
Carrasco and other students said people should be more concerned about the discrimination and bullying they said LGBTQ+ students can still face, manifesting in disproportionate rates of violence and self-harm.
Ellen Chambers, who chairs the Lakehead District School Board, agreed misinformation had fueled the morning’s march in comments at the rally.
“There is no indoctrination,” she said. “The sex education is all age appropriate. It has been designed by experts, it has been vetted by the government.”
Those in attendance at the rally, organized by the Thunder Pride Association and Rainbow Collective of Thunder Bay, included Mayor Ken Boshcoff and Couns. Shelby Ch'ng and Kristen Oliver, MPP Lise Vaugeois, leaders with the Lakehead District School Board and Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board, teachers’ unions and other labour groups, and students, as well as community members.
Boshcoff highlighted that unity – and the rally’s larger attendance compared to the march – in a brief address.
“It tells you that our community is standing together, it’s strong, and I think we’re going to prevail,” he said.
Earlier in the day, the two school boards issued a joint statement responding to the ‘March 4 Kids’ without directly naming it.
“Anti-trans discrimination and harassment create toxic learning environments for our students and staff, and will not be tolerated,” the statement read in part. “We support the human rights of transgender, transitioning, and gender non-conforming students and staff, and their right to learn and work in safe, inclusive and equitable schools.”
Educators at the rally also criticized Premier Doug Ford and his Progressive Conservative government, suggesting his recent comments had fueled misinformed narratives about schools.
Earlier this month, Ford had addressed the question of whether parents must be informed if students ask to be addressed by a different name or pronoun at school – a step many educators and advocates have said could put some children at risk.
"Most important is the parents' rights, the parents' rights to listen and make sure they are informed when their children make a decision," Ford said at the time. "It's not up to the teachers, it's not up to the school boards to indoctrinate our kids... it's the parents' responsibility to hear what the kids are doing."
Chambers appeared to take direct aim at that comment on Wednesday.
“[The] premier says, ‘I don’t know what goes on in school boards’ and that parents have rights. But above parents’ rights, are children’s rights. That is in our human rights code, it is in our criminal code that you cannot discriminate against gender identity or gender expression.”
