A group of 28 First Nation communities wants to have its say in a court case challenging the province’s use of an outdated sex-ed curriculum.

The Grand Council Treaty #3 — representing about 25,000 people in northwestern Ontario and Manitoba — says Indigenous youth are particularly vulnerable, and “by failing to provide accurate, modern and inclusive sex education curriculum to (them) … at young ages, Ontario is perpetuating the disadvantage and risk this population already experiences.”

It has asked its lawyers to seek intervener status in the Ontario Superior Court case filed by the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario on the first day of school.

“Last week at our Fall Assembly, the Treaty #3 Chiefs gave us a mandate to pursue strategies which would ensure that the health curriculum taught to Indigenous youth reflects their unique circumstances and needs,” Grand Chief Ogichidaa Francis Kavanaugh said in a written release.

“One of our strategies for doing so is to ensure an Indigenous perspective is part of the sex-ed litigation unfolding in Toronto.”

During the election campaign — and in a nod to concerns raised by social conservatives — Premier Doug Ford promised to scrap the modern, 2015 curriculum and hold consultations.

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Before classes began, school boards were told to use the old elementary curriculum — which was taught from 1998 to 2014 — in the meantime.

That curriculum — the most outdated in the country — was created before sexting, cyberbullying and same-sex marriage became legal, and is now the centre of four challenges — two before the courts, and two before the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal.

Education Minister Lisa Thompson recently launched an online portal where parents can have their say on a number of topics, including sex-ed and math instruction. Submissions will be accepted until mid-December.

The court cases — by the teachers’ union and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association — argue that Charter rights are being breached by using the 1998 materials, and the teachers say it also violates their professional duties and the Education Act.

“Sadly, there continues to be no group in our society for which the interplay of this disadvantage and harm is more acutely and directly felt than that of Indigenous young people,” said Douglas Judson, a lawyer and staff adviser with Grand Council Treaty #3.

Indigenous youth need “access to modern, fact-based health information that they are less likely than other kids to get outside of school,” he said.

Kavanaugh noted that “Indigenous youths continue to be one of the most vulnerable groups in our society. One of our responsibilities in responding to crises like missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls and youth mental health, self-harm, and suicide must be to provide Indigenous young people with information about healthy and safe relationships, sexual orientation and gender identity, and resources related to consent and gender-based violence.

“By putting in place antiquated health curriculum, the Ontario government is abdicating that responsibility and putting our young people at risk.”

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The teachers’ union case is to be heard in November, on the same date as a similar case launched by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

The cases before the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal were launched by LGBTQ youth and their families, saying the old curriculum is discriminatory, and the Ontario Human Rights Commission is seeking to intervene.

All the legal challenges are asking that the province be forced to use the up-to-date sex-ed curriculum.

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