Hey Ontario - Unitarians Offer Comprehensive Sex Education Program

The Canadian Unitarian Council (CUC) announces the availability of the sex education program, Our Whole Lives (OWL), to Ontario schools and parents. 

Toronto, Ontario, Canada – August 29, 2018 – The Canadian Unitarian Council (CUC) advocates for fact-based sexuality education, which is provided in many Unitarian congregations through its progressive Our Whole Lives (OWL) program. 

The CUC believes that the Ontario government’s decision to repeal the comprehensive 2015 Health and Sex Education curriculum and reinstate the curriculum from 1998 will leave children at risk and adversely impact schools’ ability to create cultures of inclusion, safety and consent. Neither does it prepare students of all genders and sexual orientations to develop healthy, consensual relationships.

To fill the gap of the important information and content that is missing from the 1998 curriculum the Canadian Unitarian Council supports and promotes Our Whole Lives (OWL). OWL is an extensive  lifespan sexuality education program created almost 20 years ago by the Unitarian Universalist Association and the United Church of Christ in the US. The curricula includes age ranges from kindergarten to adulthood, and has been updated regularly to stay current. The 2018 OWL program provides honest, accurate, and developmentally appropriate information about a range of topics including relationships, gender identity, sexual orientation, sexual health, and cultural influences on sexuality.

OWL supports and encourages family conversations about sexual values and healthy decision making. The curriculum is based on the principles of self-worth, sexual health, responsibility, justice, and inclusivity, and helps people of all ages make informed and responsible decisions about their sexual health and behaviour. The program dismantles stereotypes and assumptions, builds self-acceptance and self-esteem, fosters healthy relationships, improves decision making, and has the potential to save lives.

“Through our experience offering Our Whole Lives, we understand the profound effect that inclusive, respectful, fact-based sex education can have on young people,” says Vyda Ng, Executive Director of the CUC. She adds “Our Whole Lives empowers children, teens and others across age lifespans to understand not only their bodies but also their relationships and the importance of consent and respect in building healthy relationships.”

The Canadian Unitarian Council is deeply concerned that the loss of comprehensive sexuality education in Ontario schools will leave children and youth vulnerable at a time when they most need accurate information and empowerment to make good decisions. Asha Philar, OWL Coordinator for the CUC states, “The Our Whole Lives program gives youth the tools to make healthy and age-appropriate choices and helps LGBTQ youth find self-acceptance and support. Without access to accurate information and learning opportunities, Ontario students are put at risk and we fear that LGBTQ youth will face even more barriers to acceptance.” 

OWL programs are available through many Unitarian congregations from September to May. To find out more about the OWL program and where workshops for ages kindergarten to adult are available, contact owl@cuc.ca.  

More information about the CUC’s Our Whole Lives Sexuality Education program can be found on the CUC website.  https://cuc.ca/congregations-leaders/religious-exploration/our-whole-lives-owl/ or email owl@cuc.ca.

Additional information and calls to action: 

Members of the CUC and its congregations are invited to sign the following petition calling on Premier Ford to keep Ontario’s 2015 sex-ed curriculum: https://you.leadnow.ca/petitions/doug-ford-keep-ontario-s-sex-ed-curriculum

Please phone Education Minister Lisa Thompson to reinstate the 2015 Ontario Health and Sex Education curriculum:  https://www.leadnow.ca/call-to-save-sex-ed/  

About the Canadian Unitarian Council

The Canadian Unitarian Council / Conseil unitarien du Canada (CUC) is the national association of Unitarian Universalist congregations in Canada. We are a diverse faith community bound by a common commitment to equity and justice. We covenant to a set of principles, which calls us to seek peace, liberty and compassion, to search for truth and meaning, to respect the inherent worth and dignity of every person, and to uphold democratic processes.

Media Contact:

Vyda Ng, Executive Director
executivedirector@cuc.ca 

Open Letter to All Leaders

Dear Leaders please be aware of the war we are waging, between profit and sustainable life.  

"The planet is transitioning under our onslaught to a new era called the Anthropocene. This era is the product of violent conquest, warfare, slavery, genocide and the Industrial Revolution, which began about 200 years ago, and saw humans start to burn a hundred million years of sunlight stored in the form of coal and petroleum. Chris Hedges, Saying Goodbye to Planet Earth. 

Then there is this report by Guy Dauncey: BC's Climate Intentions Papers: A Timid Response and Twelve Solutions We Really Need: 

1. 100% Renewable Energy by 2040, 
2. 95% Green House Gas Reduction by 2040, 
3. Legally mandated annual carbon budgeting,  
4. Province wide public engagement, 
5. Stand firm against the pipeline, 
6. All new cars to be EV's by 2015, 
7. Massive support for urban cycling, 
8. Huge expansion of Transit, 
9. All new buildings to be zero carbon by 2024, 
10. Building energy labelling, 
11. No oil-heated building by 2025, 
12. Climate test for all new industrial projects, and zero carbon by 2040.

So, just in case you are wondering, like I am, why our powerful interests wish to keep sending us back to the end of the Roman Empire with its brutality and toxic machismo - ask yourself where has even one of these things been achieved or is seriously attempted? None?  Then ask yourself what is the common theme in the solutions to save the planet.

Life perhaps?  Has it come to this, that ruling powers are afraid of life, love and all the energies and information that shows a reverence for life? Does it look as though any political candidate who wants to save our world is going to be first tossed out by a group sabotage?

Spite is the sign of defeat

It's easy to rule the world if you have absolute power. You own the military, the civil institutions, the law and all the people. You rewrite the theology of your religion and kill those who argue. You can blame everything on those who have less power than you. Marry and behead your wives if they don't produce sons. Public executions end debate about right and wrong. You can threaten other nations with trade sanctions.  You can lie and demand that everyone calls it truth.

You can dismantle the UN, blow up cities, exterminate ethnic groups, shut down schools, ban music and theatre, fund fascism and hate groups, take children away from their parents and raise them on propaganda. 

None of this is new of course. George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, Margaret Atwood and many others have written about dystopian worlds where no trace of integrity or justice can be found.  But men and women who worship power are eager to suck up whatever crumbs that fall from the table, in order to gain more for themselves.

Pundits are ever ready to sell themselves for a few points: -  Tory MP declares that diversity will destroy us; young man gunned down in road rage; man flies his plane into home after fight with wife; Conservatives side with authoritarian regime that beheads, crucifies, and flogs citizens.

If revenge, spite, guns and killing are the only subjects discussed in my community, it leaves me without agency or representation. Those who have done all they can to keep a job, rent a home, feed their family - still end up jobless and homeless, are led to believe they have two choices - blame themselves or blame others. It's a universal problem. 

In trickle-down economics, it's not wealth but propaganda, a hierarchy of importance, a class system, a pecking order, a food chain. It's easy to rule the world because those with the largest arsenal of weapons have the capacity to invent the gimmicks to keep the rest of us occupied until it is too late to see what we have lost. Then all that's left is to kick the dog for revenge, attack the minority, send back the refugees, watch the beheadings of those who dared to speak up, vote for the politicians who campaign on punishment, and so on. 

After the shooting on the Danforth in July, Matt Gurney wrote in The Walrus "I wanted these people who had seen violence first-hand to care more. Not to be traumatized, of course. But I wanted to see signs of engagement or curiosity or a focus on policy."


When spite is the only thing we have left, we have nothing but misery. This is the boot on the face of humanity, polished and paid for by an ideology that worships power, not life, not struggle, compassion, or vulnerability. 

350 Newspapers in the US decry Trump's description of the media

From CNN:

About 350 newspapers in the United States had editorials Thursday decrying President Donald Trump's description of the media as the "enemy of the people."

Here are some of the newspapers blasting Trump's anti-press rhetoric:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/16/politics/newspaper-editorials-trump-list/index.html

Gabriola: The Integrity and Inspiration of Art

DRUMBEG HOUSE ANNUAL STUDIO SALE
When: Sunday, August 26th 10 am - 4 pm
Where: 3085 Mander Road

This is probably the last time we will have a day when the general public will be invited to visit the Wakan home and studio. Naomi turns 87 this year and, while she will have books for sale on the day, all present and future sales of her books are being handled by the bookstore at Page's Marina (mail@pagesresort.com). 

Eli, too, is slowing down. Several of his large pieces will be available for silent auction at a low reserve bid, so now's a chance for you to get a "big statement" for your home, or office. If you're interested in negotiating a purchase before then, please check out the sculptures at www.eliaswakan.com 

Whether you're thinking of buying, or just want to drop by, we welcome everyone to help us celebrate our 22 years of creativity on Gabriola. This is a free event. We will have refreshments for you to enjoy.

Naomi Beth Wakan
3085 Mander Rd
Gabriola, BC, V0R 1X7
www.naomiwakan.com
naomi@naomiwakan.com

Is it possible to create radical change without violence?

(first posted August 24, 2016)

"The climate crisis is here, now, but a compromised, corrupted media doesn’t want to know." says George Monbiot (The Purse is Mightier Than the Pen)

Who controls culture? Is it media, public opinion, or money?

Culture is starved of wisdom if we abandon it to the authority of the purse.  If leaders are mesmerized by money they will follow trends. They will believe they have no choice, and what has happened to western culture is the wholesale sacrifice of life to the altar of profit.

The Library of Social Science researchers and scholars have hypothesized a law of sacrifice in six ways, the first of which is "Cultures invent or create ideological concepts that they elevate into “absolutes”— worshiped as the essence of society. But how do people persuade themselves that the ideas their society has constructed are real? "

Propaganda is very sophisticated, and we often can't see how we are being persuaded if not manipulated. Our own desires are reconfigured to lead us to accept horrible outcomes. Like war, for example - do we leave our home and family to slaughter strangers or let the enemy slaughter us?

We are raised to fit into the community, to trust the authority of parents and teachers, who help and protect us, and who will punish us if we don't obey.

But what constitutes  a well functioning society? One that makes clear the rules and laws and where the masses are seen as stakeholders. It's not fear that preserves this but social responsibility and integrity.

The radical change comes from the actions of an observant citizenry that is informed, educated on history and politics, who understands the principles of fairness and the power of inclusion. Those who watch and listen to what is going on around them and weigh that against media headlines. Those who ask who benefits and who choose the greater good, and who do not trust an institution just because it has power.

This would be the seed of the radical - that we practice citizenship and refuse ideological absolutes.

Often what is presented as radical is an invasion of hostile ideologies that persuade us to sacrifice our lives for God, country, communism or capitalism. These require violence and human sacrifice in the thousands because they are a transfer of power.

Whatever is worth defending is that which asks our input and attention, our care and help - to live for it, not to die for it.