Numerous times speakers were interrupted with chants of “we say no” and “save our children.”
Patrick Brown and Monte McNaughton, two Ontario Progressive Conservative leadership hopefuls, spoke. They both vowed to oppose the curriculum, urged those in attendance to let the government know they will not accept the curriculum, and insisted it was not yet a done deal. “This fight is not over,” McNaughton said.
Speakers included parents and pastors concerned about both the process that led to the “updated” curriculum and its content. Some said that soliciting the opinion of 5000 hand-picked parent council representatives was insufficient input from parents which speaker after speaker noted are the primary educators of their children. Maddie Di Muccio, vice president of the Society for Quality Education, said the curriculum undermines parents who want to instruct their children on the sensitive matter of sex when they, as parents, determine their children are ready for it. She garnered cheers when she stated that teachers and the government are not co-parents.
Jack Fonseca of Campaign Life Coalition focused on the content of the curriculum, including instruction on homosexuality in Grade 3 and gender theory in Grade 4, both of which could lead to “serious sexual confusion in the minds of the young.”
