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TORONTO — Ontario’s Progressive Conservative leader now says it was a mistake to pledge to scrap the Liberal government’s sex-ed curriculum if his party wins the 2018 election.

In a letter distributed last week, just days before a byelection in the east Toronto riding of Scarborough-Rouge River, Patrick Brown wrote that a Progressive Conservative government would “scrap the controversial changes to sex ed.”

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The curriculum was updated last year, for the first time since 1998, but some parents complained that the government didn’t consult them enough and others were angered by mentions of same-sex relationships, gender identity and masturbation.

In an op-ed published by the Toronto Star, Brown writes that the Scarborough-Rouge River campaign letter went “too far” in saying he would scrap the curriculum because he will not.

The curriculum changes are “hot topics” in the riding, Brown says, and that while parents should be consulted, it doesn’t mean “opening the door to intolerance.”