Good morning. It’s Caroline Alphonso here, The Globe’s education reporter. Alberta has proposed new changes to classroom discussions of gender identity and sexual orientation – more on that below, along with a Toronto hospital’s success using AI to cut ER wait times and the foreign interference inquiry’s final hearings. But first:
Today’s headlines
- India calls the expulsion of diplomats from Canada ‘preposterous imputations’ driven by Trudeau’s political agenda
- Lebanon contemplates a possible Hezbollah-free future as Israel pounds the Iran-backed guerrilla force
- Appeal court warns trial judges not to toss cases before the time limits spelled out in a Supreme Court ruling
Roseline Carter, director of programs at the Centre for Sexuality, an organization that provides education and counselling services in Calgary.LEAH HENNEL/The Globe and Mail
Education
The new classroom rules
It seems like a lifetime ago, but I clearly remember covering the political drama surrounding Ontario’s sexual-health curriculum in 2018. Doug Ford, the Progressive Conservative leader vying for the premier seat at the time, vowed to scrap the curriculum the Liberals had revised, which included topics such as consent, gender identity and the dangers of sexting.
At the end of the day, his government revised it slightly by moving topics of gender identity and gender expression to later grades. Ultimately, even with all the election-time bluster, the new curriculum largely mirrored the previous one.
Elsewhere in the country, governments have raised similar discontent about classroom discussions around gender identity. Some politicians have spoken about parental rights, which essentially means they believe parents should have more of a say in what happens in the education system.
With that in mind, places like Saskatchewan and New Brunswick have recently brought in contentious policies that force teachers and principals to inform parents if their children under the age of 16 ask to change their pronouns at school. Advocates for transgender and non-binary students stress that students should be able to express their gender identities at school without involvement from their parents, who may not be supportive.
And now, Alberta has joined the chorus.
In a social media video message earlier this month, Premier Danielle Smith said her government will propose legislation with sweeping measures, including a similar pronoun policy and – just as significant – a requirement that parents be notified and opt-in for sexual-health education lessons. Up to this point, families can opt-out of sexual-health lessons in Alberta and elsewhere in the country.
I know in my household, my kids, especially the youngest, can forget to pull out the forms in their backpacks. (Not to worry – I get to them when I also pull out the lunch bag.) But that has me wondering: What will happen to all those letters that go home in Alberta asking parents to opt-in for important sexual-health lessons? Will they be signed or left in backpacks? Will email notifications go unnoticed? Who will be in classrooms learning valuable information about healthy relationships, consent and sexually transmitted infections?
Sexual-health education is a small portion of the overall health and physical education curriculum, even though it garners such a huge outcry. Researchers, such as Jessica Wood at the Sex Information and Education Council of Canada, say that developmentally appropriate sexual-health education reduces the prevalence of sexually transmitted infections and teen pregnancies, for example. She and others worry what Alberta’s opt-in process could mean to young people’s ability to access this information in a safe and supportive environment.
“We often think of sexual-health education as an investment in the health and wellbeing of young people,” Wood said.
What’s even more troubling is that the proposed legislation comes at a time when it’s vital for students to receive lessons in sexual health. The most recent data from Alberta Health Services in 2022 shows cases of chlamydia, HIV and infectious syphilis have gone up. In 2019, Alberta Health declared a syphilis outbreak, and cases continue to be reported in 2024. Cases continue to increase across the country and around the world, and Alberta Health said such high levels of syphilis have not been seen since the 1940s.
Both my children in Ontario have lessons in sexual health as part of their school curriculum. My eldest knows about consent, STIs and online harms. Not every parent is comfortable having conversations on these topics with their children, and that’s fine. I’d rather they learn it in the classroom than on the internet.
The Shot
‘Who needs a bed? How quickly can I get them there?’
The Command Centre at Humber River Health in Toronto.Yader Guzman/The Globe and Mail
Humber River Health may have the busiest emergency department in Ontario, but its NASA-style command centre harnesses AI to move patients from the ER to a bed faster than any another Toronto hospital. Learn more about Humber River’s plans to build on that technology here.
The Week
What we’re following
Today: Statistics Canada releases the latest inflation data – though stronger-than-expected employment numbers mean we might not be in for a larger rate cut later this month.
Today: Jury selection begins in Buffalo for the trial of the man who stabbed Salman Rushdie on a lecture stage two years ago.
Tomorrow: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to testify at the foreign interference inquiry, as the final phase of hearings wraps up.
Tomorrow: The leaders of New Brunswick’s three main political parties sit down for a roundtable at 6:30 p.m. AT, ahead of the election on Oct. 21. Here’s where they each stand on some of the issues.
Saturday: B.C. casts their ballots in a tight race between NDP Leader David Eby and Conservative Leader John Rustad.