If Canada’s Bill C-389 passes, transgenderism will be taught in kindergarten: CLC

by Patrick B. Craine

OTTAWA, Ontario, February 7, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – If the Canadian ‘transgender’ bill passes, children at four and five years of age can expect to tackle ‘gender identity’ issues in kindergarten, says the pro-family group Campaign Life Coalition (CLC).  Bill C-389, which seeks to add “gender identity” and “gender expression” to the Canada Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code’s hate crimes section, comes up for a final vote in the House of Commons on Wednesday.

Campaign Life Coalition’s Alissa Golob told LifeSiteNews.com that the passage of Bill C-389 will only cement the government agenda to bring the controversial issues into kindergarten classes. 

“Two school programs advanced by Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty’s government last year gave parents a glimpse of what will only get worse and more overt should Bill C-389 pass,” she said.

The first of these, the failed sex-ed curriculum, which was scrapped in April after backlash from parents, had grade 3 students exploring “gender identity,” and being required to “demonstrate an understanding” of “gender identity” by grade 8. The second, the new all-day kindergarten program, requires teachers to combat “preconceived notions” about the gender of the five-year-olds.

“Preconceived notions about children’s ... gender ... create barriers that reduce engagement and equitable outcomes,” says a document outlining the program.

“These attacks on the family will only get stronger if C-389 passes,” warned Golob.  “The activists behind this legislation will have the perceived ‘moral authority’ to demand that transgenderism be taught in school as something that is natural and normal.”

The bill, sponsored by NDP MP Bill Siksay, won support from a majority of MPs at report stage in December, in a vote of 143-131.  If passed on Wednesday it will move to the Senate.  It has been dubbed a ‘bathroom bill’ by pro-family leaders who warn that it would allow men who say they are women to use women’s washrooms, with a danger of increasing bathroom attacks against women.

They say the bill promotes the notion that gender is fluid and a question of social construct, and will have wide social ramifications for government, businesses, and single-sex groups, who will be forced to accommodate those who feel they were “assigned” the wrong gender at birth.

“We have real concern for those who struggle with gender identity disorder, and believe this bill will do them grave damage in the end.  It does them a disservice to politicize their plight for the sake of a sexual agenda,” said Golob.  “We want them to get the true help they need to be the people they were created to be.”

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