On September 24, 2011, the National Post, a major daily newspaper in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, ran an advertisement paid for by the Institute for Canadian Values (ICV). The advertisement argued against the teaching of LGBTQ-related sex education topics in the Ontario school curriculum, and was criticized for alleged discrimination against transsexual, transgender, intersex, and two-spirited people. It was supported by the Canada Christian College, which houses the ICV.
Following the controversy, the National Post apologized for the advertisement on September 30 and withdrew the ad from circulation. Two days after the National Post’s apology, on October 2, 2011, the Toronto Sun, a major Toronto conservative newspaper, ran an abridged version of the ad, derivatives of which also ran on subsidiaries of the Sun's then-owner, Sun Media. The Sun refused to apologize for running the ad, arguing it was a "principled defence of freedom of speech", though their publisher apologized and stated the Sun had agreed to never run the ad again.
The advertisement was heavily criticized by the LGBTQ community in Canada.
Background
The National Post, owned by Postmedia Network, is a major Canadian newspaper and one of the core newspapers of Toronto. It was founded in 1998 around the Financial Post, a Canadian business newspaper first published in 1907, that was eventually reorganized to become the Post's financial section. The National Post aligns itself with the views of the Conservative Party of Canada.
The Toronto Sun, then owned by Sun Media and currently owned by Postmedia, is a major newspaper in Toronto and also one of the core newspapers serving Toronto. It was founded in 1971 as the "spiritual successor" to the Toronto Telegram, which ceased operations that same year. Like the National Post and the Toronto Telegram, the Sun aligns itself with the views of the Conservative Party. The Sun has previously been described as an example of tabloid journalism.
The Institute for Canadian Values is an organization that describes itself as "a national think-tank dedicated to advancing knowledge of public policy issues from Judeo-Christian intellectual and moral perspectives". It is housed and supported by the Canada Christian College.
The Canada Christian College is an Evangelical Christian Bible college located in Whitby. The College's ability to grant degrees and its status as a university has been contested over time; as of 2022, it is an accredited private degree-granting institution that does not have official university status. The College has been criticized over allegations of controversial political and religious views, efforts to proselytize members of other religions, poor quality of teaching with few job prospects, and the actions and statements of its president, evangelical minister Charles McVety, a prominent figure of the Canadian Christian right.
Advertisement publication
National Post
The advertisement first appeared on the September 24, 2011 edition of the National Post. It was paid for by the Institute for Canadian Values and was supported by the Canada Christian College.
The full-page advertisement depicted a sad-looking young girl with the caption "I’m a girl. Don’t teach me to question if I’m a boy, transsexual, transgendered, intersexed or two spirited". The ad opposed proposed curriculum for LGBTQ sex education in Ontario schools, which included teaching children between junior kindergarten and Grade 3 about sexual orientations and LGBTQ-related topics. It quoted several lines from the actual curriculum, mostly taken out of context, claiming the lessons and activities described would become mandatory. The ad argued that such teachings would be confusing to children and would have a corrupting influence, and called on political figures such as Dalton McGuinty, Tim Hudak, and Andrea Horwath to take action against the proposed curriculum.