Canada’s National Post angered equality campaigners last week when it published an ad by a right wing evangelical group that attacked the Toronto Curriculum for promoting equality. The ad, which calls on people to sign a petition and visit a website which campaigns against corrupting children, shows a young girl in close up and has a headline saying: ‘Please! Don’t Confuse Me’ followed by the subtext: ‘I am a Girl. Don’t question me if I’m a boy, transsexual, transgendered, intersexed ot two-spirited’. The ad, commissioned by The Institute for Canadian Values, then goes on to attack the curriculum and lament that teachers cannot express their true beliefs or reject saying things that offend their religious principles.
The Posts Sales manager defended publishing the offending ad on the grounds that, “Everyone has a freedom of speech”, although several other newspapers refused to publish it.
