Patrick Brown’s chief of staff was immersed in secret negotiations with social conservatives about a pledge by the PC leader to revamp the “controversial” sex-education curriculum, well before the Tories distributed a controversial byelection letter, the Star has learned.

The revelation raises new questions about Brown’s claim he was out of the loop when the Progressive Conservatives circulated 13,000 letters — under his signature — during the byelection campaign in Scarborough-Rouge River promising to “scrap” the health syllabus.

“I’m not going to comment on internal operations,” the Tory leader told the Star on Thursday. “I’ve said that a mistake was made. I’ve apologized for it and I’ve made my opinions on sex education abundantly clear.”

In an Aug. 18 email marked “confidential” and sent at 7:40 a.m., Brown’s top aide, Nicolas Pappalardo, told Queenie Yu, an independent candidate in the byelection, that the Tory leader had a statement ready to go on how a PC government would replace the Liberals’ sex-ed curriculum in 2018.

That timing is significant because the Elections Ontario deadline for withdrawing as a candidate was 2 p.m. on Aug. 18.

At the time, it was a heated byelection race in the longtime Liberal riding where PC candidate Raymond Cho, the eventual winner of the Sept. 1 vote, was running against Liberal Pirigal Thiru. Yu was campaigning on an anti-sex-education platform.

Asked Thursday if the party was trying to convince Yu to drop out to boost Cho’s chances, Brown declined to comment on “internal operations.”

In the Aug. 18 email, Pappalardo expressed frustration to Yu that a social conservative group called Parents As First Educators (PAFE) had sent a mass correspondence criticizing Brown.

The chief of staff suggested that was unfair and pointed to a 322-word message from the leader crafted to appease social conservatives and shared with them the day before, on Aug. 17.

“It’s the statement Patrick was prepared to make. Instead of a reply, I got the email blast this morning from PAFE. I don’t know how anyone can say in good conscience that he is backpedalling in this statement,” Pappalardo wrote.

“Instead of a win for the cause, the bridge is being blown up. It’s unfortunate she (a PAFE spokesperson) took such an all-or-nothing approach,” concludes the email signed “Nicolas.”

Pappalardo’s email appears to be an attempt on the part of the Tories to shore up support from social conservatives by assuring them Brown was committed to axing the sex-education curriculum.

Indeed, the leader’s draft statement was unequivocal about his opposition to the sex-education curriculum Premier Kathleen Wynne put in place last year.

“The Wynne Liberal government has ignored parents and introduced a controversial sexual health education curriculum against the will of parents,” the Tory leader said in the message.

“I believe parents are the primary educators of their children. When it comes to sexual health education, parents should have a say on how much their children are taught, and at what age. Teachers should teach facts, not values. Parents should decide who teaches their children about values,” he said.

“If elected, a PC government would introduce a new curriculum after thoughtful and full consultation with parents. That consultation begins now, almost two years before the next election, and we invite parents to be a part of it.”

Brown’s message concludes: “I believe sexual health education is important, but it cannot be taught or significantly changed without extensively consulting the primary educators of children, who have always been parents.”

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The party distributed a similarly worded letter dated Aug. 24 in English and Chinese that promised to eliminate the new sex-ed curriculum if elected in 2018.

On Aug. 25, Pappalardo, who was not available for comment Thursday, sent Yu an email tipping her off that the letter signed by Brown was being sent out in Scarborough-Rouge River.

“Queenie, as a courtesy, please find attached an open letter to parents from the leader of the PC Party of Ontario. It will be distributed in the riding this weekend. Best regards, Nicolas,” reads the message.

But the mailing caused outrage among Tories and, after five days of fallout, Brown finally renounced its contents in an Aug. 29 opinion piece in the Star.

He insisted he had never seen the letter, blaming the “mistake” on overzealous local activists in Scarborough-Rouge River, and stressed a Tory government would not axe the curriculum.

However on Sept. 2, The Canadian Press obtained Pappalardo’s Aug. 25 email, indicating Brown’s office was behind the move.

PC party president Rick Dykstra has also admitted that he knew the letter was going out.

“Well, the letter, obviously, when it was first put out, I knew about, yes, because it, obviously, was being distributed,” Dykstra, a friend of Brown’s, told CP24 during its live byelection night coverage on Sept. 1.

Brown has been unable to explain how his chief of staff and the party president knew about something done in his name without his approval.

But he was emphatic on Thursday that the existing curriculum, which teaches children about gender expression, same-sex relationships, and the risks of sexting, “will be intact” if he is premier in two years.

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