The Ontario government's move to scrap controversial parts of the province's sex-ed curriculum in no way violates the Constitution or anyone's human rights, lawyers for the province will argue this week.

The government laid out its case in a 126-page legal document filed ahead of a hearing that begins Wednesday in Ontario Superior Court.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) and the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO) are both challenging the government's move to scrap the health and physical education curriculum that was introduced in 2015 under the previous Liberal government of Kathleen Wynne. Ontario schools are now teaching from the previous curriculum, originally developed in the late 1990s.

The groups want the court to order the province to reinstate the 2015 curriculum, while the province wants the case dismissed.

The Progressive-Conservative government argues that its changes to sexual education relate to "educational policy and democratic decision-making, not constitutional law."

"The Constitution of Canada does not entrench any particular elementary school curriculum," says the government in its written arguments, known as a factum. "It does not prescribe the sexual health topics that must be taught, the level of detail with which they must be articulated, or the particular grades in which they must be introduced."

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The province's lawyers say the pre-2015 curriculum is not discriminatory, does not infringe on freedom of expression and does not deprive anyone of the key constitutional values of "life, liberty or security of the person."

If Ontario was not violating the Charter of Rights and Freedoms before the 2015 curriculum was implemented, returning to that curriculum now cannot be unconstitutional, the province argues.

ETFO's written arguments say that Ontario children are being exposed to a greater risk of harm by reverting to the previous curriculum. The teachers' union says the sexual education being taught now is "based on a document created prior to the advent of social media, same-sex marriage, and human rights protections for gender identity, to say nothing of contemporary understandings of consent."

CCLA's written arguments say the government's move "stigmatizes, degrades, and alienates" LGBT students and parents because references to sexual orientation, gender identity and same-sex relationships have been deleted from the curriculum.

The government counters that teachers are required to deliver the current curriculum "in an inclusive way" and "in a way that reflects diversity."

"A curriculum is not a script for teachers to recite, or a list of mandatory or prohibited words," says the province's legal filing. "The fact that the words 'gender identity' do not specifically appear in the 2018 learning expectations does not mean that teachers may not teach about this topic."

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