We live in a culture in which rape and sexual violence is expected and accepted as a norm. In Canada 1 in 4 women in will experience at least one incident of sexual assault in their life. Half of these assaults will be against women under 16 years of age.
“YES MEANS YES!”
Hi. We’re Tessa and Lia, two grade 8 students who’ve started a petition to make sure our peers know what we mean when we say that.
The goal of our campaign, “We Give Consent” is to make consent a topic in the Ontario health curriculum.
We’re meeting with Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne in just over a week. She recently announced that she wants to work to include the topic of consent in the new curriculum, which is a major milestone for our campaign! BUT, our work is not done. We need to gather many more thousands of signatures before our meeting to show the government that Ontarians agree the time has come to put consent in the curriculum! That’s why we’re asking you to sign and share our petition.
As students in Ontario we know how much sexism and harassment takes place. We hear stories from our friends about catcalling and slut shaming in the hallways and in the classroom. We also know that there is a lack of awareness about safe sex and what it means to give consent.
The current curriculum is from 1998, and there is no mention of consent. The Ministry of Education is introducing an updated version of the curriculum this year. In 2010, when a draft of a new curriculum that included consent was released, there was pushback from various groups, which prompted the government to pull the draft. We need to build a strong movement so that this doesn’t happen again!
We want health education that teaches youth in Ontario that “Yes means Yes,” and that affirmative consent is an enthusiastic “Yes Please!” between two people. We want education that teaches us that there are many ways to say no, that silence is not consent, and that “No means No.”
We need a curriculum that explains that consent is not valid when either person is intoxicated, and teaches that sex without consent is rape. We need a curriculum that addresses real life issues and helps to make us safer.
Please take a moment to show your support by signing our petition.
If you want to learn more about our campaign, check us out Facebook and Twitter.
Thank you!
Tessa and Lia
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