TORONTO

Despite efforts by the Liberal government to distance itself from suggestions that disgraced bureaucrat Benjamin Levin had a hand in crafting the sex-ed curriculum, there’s ample evidence he put his fingerprint on what Ontario children learn in the classroom.

Levin — a former deputy education minister who is expected to plead guilty to child porn-related charges Tuesday — repeatedly highlighted his role as overseeing curriculum issues.

In a 2009 newsletter, the then-deputy minister said he was “responsible for ... everything that they do” and to “implement” the “new” approach.

This was the beginning of the 63-year-old’s involvement in the controversial curriculum change. Once a professor at the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, there are many interpretations about Levin’s part in the curriculum, but it’s his own definition that should clear it up.

On March 6, 2009, Levin wrote and signed a memo that put himself in charge of Ontario’s school curriculum.

“Dear colleagues, I am writing to provide an update on our sector’s agenda ... I will be filling the ADM (assistant deputy minster) position previously held by George Zegarac ... The division formerly headed by George Zegarac will be renamed as ‘Learning and Curriculum.’ It will have responsibilty for curriculum and for Special Education including Provincial Schools.”

Then on April 6, 2009, Levin penned a memo saying, “Today, the ministry released its new equity and inclusive education strategy paper ... This provincewide strategy has been a priority for our Minister of Education Kathleen Wynne and me.”

On June 24, 2009, Levin wrote that the “Realizing the Promise of Diversity: Ontario’s Equity and Inclusive Education Strategy” sets out a “vision for an equitable and inclusive education system.” He wrote “the principles of equity and inclusive education should be embedded into all aspects of board and high school operations including program, employment, research, curriculum, resources, instructional and assessment practices.”

These memos end the confusion as to just what was his involvement was in the curriculum that expands the traditional two genders understanding to a more “equitable” and “inclusive” six.

In an interview with OISE’s winter 2009 newsletter, Levin said: “I was the deputy minister of education. In that role, I was the chief civil servant. I was responsible for the operation of the Ministry of Education and everything that they do; I was brought in to implement the new education policy.”

The controversial parts has students as young as six learning about “consent” who by 12 are given an introduction to same-sex relations.

For some, it’s a question of what children should be learning. For others, it’s about age appropriateness. But for many, the key question is should such a strategy be moved forward when the man at the top of it is accused with crimes against children?

No matter what side people sit, these documents should end the narrative that Levin had nothing to do with the curriculum. He was in charge of it.

But the pushback continues. In fact, Premier Kathleen Wynne, when pressed on it after he was charged with seven counts of child pornography in 2013, downplayed the involvement of her transition team member.

“Ministers and deputy ministers do not write curriculum,” Wynne told reporters. “Curriculum is written by subject experts in conversation and in consultation with a wide array of people and curriculum is reviewed and written on an ongoing basis.”

Wynne has also said: “So you know, any suggestion that there was that kind of interference, it just demonstrates a lack of understanding of how curriculum actually is written ... ministers and deputy ministers don’t write curriculum.”

Education Minister Liz Sandals was quoted Feb. 18 by the Sun’s Antonella Artuso as saying: “I can guarantee you that Ben Levin was not in any way directly involved in developing the curriculum.”

On Feb. 25, 2015, Wynne spokesman Zita Astravas wrote in an e-mail that “the following was sent to reporters on Feb. 18 ... Ben Levin had no involvement in the development of the content of the curriculum. Curriculum is developed by subject experts and is based on research in addition to consultations with a wide array of people, including teachers, parents and students.”

No involvement?

Memos show Levin announcing he is taking over the “renamed” Learning and Curriculum department and “will have responsibilty for curriculum.” It’s nonsensical and troubling to suggest Levin was not involved. In the interest of children, with these documents now public, members of the legislature should sanction the premier and minister for spinning attempts.

After all, inside the strategy Levin was pushing, under the heading “Curriculum and Courses,” it states revised curriculum policy documents contain a section on “antidiscrimination education that encourages teachers to recognize the diversity of students’ backgrounds, interests, and experiences, and to incorporate a variety of viewpoints and perspectives in learning activities. New courses are also being created that focus on gender studies, equity studies, and world cultures.”

Under the “Safe Schools Strategy” it says it “includes revising the curriculum to ensure that gender-based violence, homophobia, sexual harassment, and inappropriate sexual behaviour are discussed and addressed in the classroom. It also includes the use of sample school climate surveys to help principals assess perceptions of safety by students, parents, and school staff to inform prevention and intervention plans.”

It’s all there in black and white.

The strategy offered in the first new curriculum in 2010 was on pages 56 and 57 and was called Realizing the Promise of Diversity: Ontario’s Equity and Inclusive Education Strategy but it was scrapped by then-premier Dalton McGuinty who promised more public consultation. After what she calls extensive public input, Wynne reintroduced it last month to be taught in schools in September. The 2015 version — called Equity and Inclusive Education in Health and Physical Education — is on pages 66 and 67 but is essentially the same.

The Equity and Inclusive Education Strategy was the introduction document that covered “gender-based violence, homophobia, sexual harassment, and inappropriate sexual behaviour” to be “discussed and addressed in the classroom.” The strategy is “embedded” into both the 2010 and 2015 versions.

That strategy was introduced in 2009 by Levin. There should be no more denying it.

“No matter how it is spun this radical curriculum that teaches a lurid sex to little children is Ben Levin’s curriculum since he was the person in charge of it,” said Charles McVety, of Canada Christian College, who led the first successful fight on this in 2010. “The introduction of teaching new gender definitions of male, female, two-spirited, transgender, transsexual, intersex is going to confuse children. If it is not changed, parents opposed will have no choice than to withdraw their children.”

While the premier’s office claims the curriculum has been vetted by many in education, Lambton-Kent-Middlesex MPP and Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Monte McNaughton feels with Levin’s fingerprints on it, like poisoned water, it must be dumped.

joe.warmington@sunmedia.ca