Canadian conservative politicians are beginning to roll back Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s pro-transgender policies.
On Monday, the right-of-center conservative government in Ontario announced that parents should be told when their children adopt an opposite-sex persona in schools.
“We understand though that parents must be fully involved and fully aware of what’s happening in the life of their children,” said Stephen Lecce, the education minister of Ontario, which is Canada’s largest province.
Lecce is a member of the Progressive Conservative Party, which is headed by Ontario Premier Doug Ford. He added:
I mean, often there are health implications [of transsexualism], and I think we have to respect the rights of parents and recognize that these can be life-changing decisions, and I think parents want to be involved so that they can support their kids. And I think that’s a really important principle that we must uphold.
CTV News reported:
The comments were made at a news conference on Monday morning, where Stephen Lecce was outlining the changes students and parents can expect at Ontario schools come September.
They also come as Saskatchewan adopts a new gender and pronoun policy, joining New Brunswick in legislating parental consent for students under the age of 16 who want to change their given names and/or pronouns at school.
The statement is a corrective change by Ontario’s semi-conservative government which is now facing strong public opposition to its pro-migration policies.
In June 2023, for example, Lecce endorsed the display of pro-transgender flags at Catholic schools. In May, The Toronto Star reported:
Lecce said raising the Pride flag is “a tradition that’s been done by all levels of government, all politicians of all stripes for many years. I think it’s something that’s done to send a signal of respect and inclusion, and I would welcome that in publicly funded schools.”
The party’s rhetorical change follows the public’s changing views towards Trudeau’s government-promoted transsexualism.
The shift helps to shore up the party’s political support which is suffering because of the party’s deep, donor-driven support for more rent-spiking, wage-cutting migration.
In 2022, Ontario’s population grew by 500,000 people. The flood spiked Canadians’ rents and flatlined their wages but also generated vast profits for the conservatives party’s donors in homebuilding and real estate.
In the United States, leaders in the GOP have eagerly echoed the public’s opposition to transgenderism — while also trying to dodge public opposition to donor-backed migration.
Luckily for the Canadian progressive conservatives, their cautious and modest steps back towards the civic center have prompted howls of media-ready protest from transsexual advocates and their progressive allies.
The pro-transgender groups now portray limits on the sexualization of children as a radical new policy.
“Lecce is following in the footsteps of the reactionary anti-trans policies introduced in New Brunswick and most recently in Saskatchewan, where governments have faced national backlash for similarly watering down protections for trans youth without any public consultation,” said a press statement from Unifor, one of Canada’s largest unions.
“Parents don’t have rights … Kids have rights,” insisted a Canadian “queer” advocate via Twitter:
Children who are old enough to understand a concept are old enough to provide their own independent consent to that. And if a kid knows what pronouns are, then frankly, they’re able to consent to changing their own pronouns and their parents do not need to be involved in that decision.
But she acknowledged that the new child protections are sought by voters:
But the number one thing that this really shows is that Doug Ford and Ontario conservatives are absolutely willing to get in there and start slinging mud at the 2SLGBTQIA+ plus community if they think it’ll win them an election.
We are not immune from this in Ontario. And while me as a queer person who gets protested and has these things happen to them, knows that, I hope that for the people who haven’t experienced it directly that this is a bit of a wake-up call. They are saying this to test the waters to see what the reaction is: Does their base like it? Does their base not really respond? Then say it gets her getting motivated to vote, hopefully the last one!
“Transphobia is a cancer and they need to cut it out,” she declared.