TORONTO – Her bodyguards were rattled, but Kathleen Wynne insists she was unfazed by a tense confrontation with hundreds of raucous anti-sex-ed protesters who jostled and shouted her down in Mississauga late last month.

But what truly bothers the premier is her belief that such protests may be politically motivated — orchestrated by federal Conservative activists profiting from parents’ fears in order to boost their own partisan ambitions in a “despicable” way.

Interviewed Friday in her Queen’s Park office, Wynne said she believed the Mississauga event was organized behind the scenes by federal Tory activists trying to use sex education as a wedge issue to fan parental fears. And she is braced for more of the same in the months leading up to a federal election this fall.

“I think the federal Conservatives are going to use this issue in certain communities in the federal election, which I think is despicable,” Wynne said. “It’s something that we need to call them out on.”

The campaign would be organized in the background and rolled out in targeted ridings, without being part of a general province-wide strategy, according to Wynne.

“I think it will be a ground campaign, and I think it will be an attempt to paint all Liberals with somehow . . . this very negative patina, and I just think it’s despicable,” she continued.

Although the sex education curriculum falls within provincial jurisdiction over education, the federal Tories see an opportunity to rechannel local anger against the federal Liberals led by Justin Trudeau, she says.

Last month’s chaotic encounter — which received sparse coverage because Wynne decided only at the last minute to meet protesters face to face — “was organized by a federal Conservative candidate,” the premier asserted in the interview.

Wynne’s office later clarified that she was referring to party activists seeking Conservative nominations (not candidates) but could offer no evidence of direct involvement by them or the federal party. Her staff pointed to public statements by two Tory MPs in Ottawa blasting the provincial government’s curriculum update (Parm Gill from Brampton—Springdale, and Cheryl Gallant from Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke).

A spokesperson for the federal Conservatives did not respond to a request for comment.