Pope Leo XIV clarifies Church teaching on marriage and family

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/pope-leo-xiv-begins-the-month-of-the-sacred-heart-by-praising-marriage-and-family/

(LifeSiteNews) — On this episode of Faith and Reason, Catholic political activist and former publisher and editor of Crisis Magazine Deal Hudson joins John-Henry Westen and Deacon Keith Fournier once again to discuss Pope Leo XIV’s re-affirming of Catholic teaching on marriage and family. The trio also discusses the pontiff’s controversial bishops’ appointments, the election of Catholic Karol Nowrocki as Poland’s next president, and more.

The panel opened the episode by looking at Pope Leo XIV’s most recent Sunday homily for a Mass celebrating a Jubilee event for “Families, Children, Grandparents and the Elderly.” In his sermon, Leo praised marriage and the family.

Hudson emphasized how Leo seemed to indirectly denounce abortion while also praising charity.

“(Pope Leo XIV) said people are using the principle of human kindness, which we could call love or friendship, and they are using it to do evil. They are using it to abort. He didn’t say abort, but that’s clearly what he (meant),” Hudson said. “He put his finger on something that only someone well-trained in moral philosophy and theology would do. And I think that’s a real sign of hope for all of us.”

READ: Pope Leo XIV begins month of Sacred Heart by praising marriage and family

Deacon Keith echoed those sentiments, noting that the pontiff’s homily reminded him of the words of Pope John Paul II and Sacred Scripture.

“(The homily) was just wonderful. He spoke to families, children, grandparents, and the elderly, and it was so filled with hope and clear teaching on the sanctity of marriage and family and conjugal love and the importance of parents… It was so solid, and it was so (uplifting),” he said.

Deacon Keith continued: “It really seemed like I was listening to John Paul II, whose apostolic exhortation on the role of the Christian family in the modern world is still such a treasure.” Leo “seemed to be speaking right out of that beautiful tradition of the Church and the teaching of the … 2,000 years of teaching on the Christian family.”

Later in their discussion, the panel examined remarks Leo made about cohabitation and marriage during a recent seminar organized by the Vatican’s Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life. His comments appeared to correct previous statements made by Pope Francis about how cohabitation was “real marriage.”

Pope Leo XIV had described sacramental marriage as “not an ideal but the canon of true love between man and woman, total, faithful, fruitful love.”

Judge Not – But Do Not Be Silent | Fr. Leon Pereira

Message on the Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus His Eminence Frank Cardinal Leo Metropolitan Archbishop of Toronto 1 June 2025

 

Message on the Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

His Eminence Frank Cardinal Leo
Metropolitan Archbishop of Toronto
1 June 2025

 

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

May Jesus and Mary be in your hearts.

Among the Christian People, it is our privilege and delight to honour in a very special way the most Sacred Heart of Jesus. I earnestly invite therefore all the faithful of the Archdiocese of Toronto this June to join in celebrating Jesus in the reality of his loving, burning, sacrificial and life-giving Heart. This year the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart is commemorated on June 27th though the entire month is dedicated to this long-standing and much appreciated devotion in the Church. As Pilgrims of Hope during the Jubilee Holy Year we recall the words of Pope Francis, “Hope is born of love and based on the love springing from the pierced heart of Jesus upon the cross” (Spes non Confundit, 3).

The Sacred Heart is one of the most profound and enduring symbols in Catholic devotional life as it encapsulates the depth of Christ’s love for humanity, his freely chosen passion, and his ongoing intercession for the world as our Mediator and Eternal High Priest. When viewed through the lens of hope, this timeless devotion takes on a new depth of transformative power. It is important for us to remember that the Sacred Heart does not merely refer to Jesus’ physical heart, but to his entire interior life—his will, emotions, thoughts, desires, and love. It signifies the love that motivated the Incarnation, Our Lord’s earthly ministry, his Passion, and ultimately the offering of himself on the Cross for the redemption of the world (cf. Dilexit Nos, 3-8). In this way the Sacred Heart becomes not just a symbol of the greatest love that ever existed, but also a wellspring of hope and endurance in the face of suffering, sin, and uncertainty for all those who approach the Sacred Heart with faith, humility and trust.

While hope anchors us in the love of God amidst the turbulent seas of life, it is fundamentally oriented towards our future glory with God in His Kingdom (cf. CCC, 1820). Simply put, whereas faith believes in God and charity loves him, hope longs for union with him and trusts that, despite our human frailty and suffering, such union is truly possible (cf. Rm 8:31-19). We have a foretaste of this union in the Eucharist, and we recognise that in the Divine Person of Jesus Christ, God and humanity are forever united, accomplishing the union we hope for and making Jesus Christ the revelation of hope incarnate (cf. Dilexit Nos, 65-70).

In meditating on the Sacred Heart, we are drawn into the discovery of the personal face of God. For men and women of faith, God is more than a concept, an ideal, the divine law-giver or the mysterious “Someone up there, somewhere”. He is the God who has revealed himself, his very life and his plan for us; he is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of the living and not of the dead. He is the God who knows, listens, cares for, loves, gives of himself and saves. He is the God of Jesus – the only God.

The Sacred Heart of Jesus, understood as a source of new life, helps us to avoid divinizing anything in this world since there is only the one true God and idolatry is a one-way boulevard to spiritual slavery. The danger is to put our faith in an impersonal and distant God, one who does not care or have any interest in our lives. The result of this false credence is that we allow ourselves to live any which way because it does not matter in the end. Nothing can be farther from the truth. Jesus’ Sacred Heart is a reminder that no one can replace God; nothing is more important than to know, love and serve him, and that the choices and decisions we make, as well as the lifestyle we lead, do matter, they matter to God. Jesus’ Sacred Heart points to his nature as both God and man: as God we are to glorify and praise him; as man, he understands our human condition. Jesus’ Heart retells us the sacred truth that God does very much care about everything in our life, because he loves us; God does have a plan for our life and wants us to be holy, because he loves us. God is interested in what we think, say and do because he loves us; God is a close, caring, just and compassionate God who sees us and wants us to grow spiritually and humanly, because he loves us. And God will never abandon us to our woes and difficulties, because he loves us.

The Sacred Heart which depicts Christ’s physical heart, pierced and surrounded by thorns calling to mind his suffering and imbued with the inextinguishable flame of his love, is ultimately the only symbol we really need which underscores our human dignity, our call to holiness of life, Jesus’ sacrificial love for humanity, how precious we are to him and how ugly sin is as an offence to him. We should all honour the Sacred Heart in every home, parish, school, convent, hospital and Catholic institution. Symbols are important as they convey meanings in what they represent, and they point beyond their own reality to something else, someone else. Our very own Catholic symbols help us to deepen our faith and shape our prayer life, not to mention the lives we lead and the choices we make. They are like bridges joining together the material and spiritual worlds, and reveal to us the Gospel truths. They showcase what our values are, what is important to us and how we intend to live our faith. We need to make sure that the symbols we use are consistent with our Catholic faith and not borrowed from ideological fora, promoted by lobby groups and endorsed by political movements. We ought to honour and respect our traditions and not compromise the integrity of the faith by using symbols that are contrary to God’s divine revelation. We do good to use our own symbols to tell our own story without resorting to trendy, misguided and inadequate symbols that do not represent us as Catholics but rather contribute to confusion, distortions and ambiguities about what the Catholic faith truly teaches regarding the human person, human nature, and natural moral law.

Finally, during this month of June, I would encourage you to take time to renew your consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. If you haven’t already consecrated yourself, your family and household to the most Sacred Heart, please consider doing so. In addition, I recommend you take up Pope Francis’ Encyclical, Dilexit Nos, which is dedicated to this wonderful devotion and spirituality.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us. Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

Medical organizations and media let Canadians believe gender medicine is safe and universally accepted. It’s not: Physicians are starting to speak up

 https://macdonaldlaurier.ca/medical-organizations-and-media-let-canadians-believe-gender-medicine-is-safe-and-universally-accepted-its-not-14-physicians-sign-statement-for-inside-policy/

Alberta government of Premier Danielle Smith announced plans to ban pornographic books from school libraries throughout the province.

 https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/with-pride-month-looming-alberta-takes-on-pornographic-books-in-school-libraries/

Ensuring school library materials are age-appropriate - May 26, 2025

Please welcome to the podium Minister of Education and Childcare Demetrios Nicolites

1:32

Thank you Garrett Good morning everyone Thank you for uh joining me here today I think as we can all agree school

1:39

libraries uh spark imagination and foster a lifelong love of learning

1:45

within our children When kids go to school uh go to school and visit their school library we want to know that

1:52

they're finding age appropriate materials on the shelves Yet unfortunately through investigations

1:58

conducted by my office we have found books in K to2 schools that show

2:04

extremely age inappropriate content I'm here today to discuss an

2:10

important initiative that Alberta's government is undertaking to ensure that materials in our school libraries

2:16

particularly those with graphic sexual content are developmentally

2:23

appropriate And I want to be clear right from the onset This is not a question of

2:29

banning specific books or specific titles but rather establishing clear

2:36

policies and guidelines for all school divisions to follow Alberta does not have a single

2:44

provincewide standard to guide school boards in selecting school library materials that contain graphic sexual

2:52

content So as a result different boards have taken different approaches to choosing these kinds of materials for

2:58

their school libraries In some instances sexually explicit material has made

3:03

their way onto school library shelves raising significant concerns for parents

3:09

These materials contain nudity and graphic explicit depictions of sexual

3:15

acts and images including oral sex For example in one graphic novel found

3:22

in K9 schools in Calgary and Edmonton The book contains significant

3:29

mature content including graphic depictions of sexual activity and

3:34

graphic depictions of sexual nudity In another example found in our

3:40

schools again found in K to9 schools in and high schools in

3:46

Edmonton Another title contains mature content such as sexual nudity and sexual

3:52

activities In another graphic novel found with students in K to9 range in

3:59

Edmonton and Calgary The book contains mature content

4:04

such as child molestation sexual activity and nudity in addition to other

4:10

mature content such as alcohol use drug use profanity and other derogatory terms

4:18

Another example again found within elementary junior high and high schools

4:24

in Calgary and Edmonton contains sexual graphic depictions of sexual activity

4:31

and nudity in addition to other mature content including depictions of self

4:37

harm violence profanity and other derogatory terms I would show these images to all of you

4:44

here and to the media but they are too graphic for a live stream media event

4:50

These examples while graphic illustrate the kind of content that raises concerns

4:56

amongst parents Today I'm announcing that Alberta's government will begin work to develop

5:02

new standards to guide school boards in selecting and managing materials with

5:08

sexual content in their school library collections And we're looking for input

5:13

from Albertans I want to tell you a little bit more about how we're approaching these new requirements

5:21

Having a consistent set of standards across the province will give parents reassurance that when it comes to

5:27

materials in school libraries their children are seeing books and other material that is appropriate for their

5:33

age We want to ensure transparency for parents so that they know what is

5:38

available in their school library and to have a process for complaints and concerns about book materials and other

5:46

library materials Some initial polling we have explored confirms that parents and the public

5:54

support this general direction In May a survey found that 51% of respondents

6:00

believe that materials containing explicit sexual depictions or descriptions of sexual acts should not

6:08

be permitted in any library accessible to children However 94% of respondents said that

6:16

these materials should not be available in elementary schools and 85% of parents

6:22

said it is important that parents have a say in what materials are present in their school

6:28

library By establishing clear consistent standards we hope to provide stronger

6:34

guidance for our school boards and address concerns effectively

6:40

We value and recognize the expertise of librarians administrators and other school staff By developing new standards

6:47

we will support their important work with consistent guidance to base their

6:53

decision on selecting and managing school library materials But first we are asking

6:59

Albertans to provide their input by completing a short survey We will use

7:04

that feedback to develop provincewide standards that would apply to public

7:09

separate franophhone charter and independent schools In addition we will be engaging

7:17

with school board trustees and other administrators to gain their insight and

7:22

feedback as to how book selection can be more appropriately be managed

7:28

The standards would not affect materials in public libraries in the province including 55 municipal public libraries

7:36

located inside schools My department will work with school boards to ensure

7:42

successful implementation by the start of the next school year The survey will

7:47

be on alberta.ca CA And I do again warn everyone that takes a survey that images

7:54

of the books contained within the survey may be off-putting to some

8:00

viewers These new standards are a necessary step to ensure transparency and appropriateness of resources in our

8:06

school libraries By addressing the concerns of parents providing clear

8:12

guidelines and involving the community in the decision-making process we can create a more transparent and supportive

8:19

environment for our students We're committed to working closely with our education partners to ensure these

8:25

standards are implemented effectively and that all students feel supported in their learning environments So in

8:32

closing I encourage anyone with concerns to provide their valuable in input via

8:38

the survey The survey again is on alberta.ca and will be available until June 6th I am confident that together we

8:46

can make a positive impact on the educational experience of our students in an age appropriate way Thank you and

8:52

happy to take your questions Hey folks so member one question one followup Only

8:57

minister's at the podium so clearly it'll be for minister Uh please state your name and your outlet And there's

9:03

the media mic just over there If you could please use that and we'll go to the first reporter at the mic Go ahead

9:10

Hi Colleen Enderwood CBC Calgary First question just what actually has been

9:15

done with the books that you raised or parents raised concerns with have those been removed from schools have any as of

9:21

yet been removed uh the provincial government does not have the authority to remove individual

9:27

books nor am I suggesting that we have that authority here today Um we have

9:33

raised those concerns with the individual school boards that uh we have um seen some of these books Uh and so I

9:41

would have to defer you to them uh with respect to additional action that they may have taken And you mentioned some of

9:47

the other uh we're the only or we don't have a provincewide um policy Do you

9:52

know of any other place that does that would uh you'd compare to yeah I I'm not

9:57

familiar offhand with any other province that has uh provincewide standards Um of

10:03

course each province has different approaches in managing their education system generally Um we do as I mentioned

10:10

have voluntary guidelines and so that has created a variance of policies and

10:15

approaches So we just want to put some more uh provincialwide guard rails in

10:20

place to make it more consistent Next reporter at the mic please And thank you

10:27

Um Karolina Vendano the Epoch Times Uh Minister you have provided some examples

10:32

of the books that you say are age inappropriate Um I'm wondering if there was a particular incident that prompted

10:38

these measures For example if a parent found these books or children came home talking about it what prompted these

10:45

right now yeah exactly In fact um a group of parents approached me uh and uh

10:52

provided me with excerpts from many of these um many of these books and um

10:58

other material Initially to be very honest I was very skeptical I thought that this was maybe examples from other

11:04

jurisdictions or other countries Uh they showed me information though that suggested that it was indeed available

11:10

at a variety of different schools And what really got me concerned is when they indicated that they had information

11:15

that demonstrated this was available in elementary schools Uh so that's why we took a closer look over the next couple

11:23

of months to see if this was indeed the case and validated and verified the information which we've confirmed is

11:29

indeed the case So that was the particular incident that kind of uh raised this to our attention Thank you

11:34

Minister My followup is um what recourse will parents or schools have if they

11:39

disagree with a decision to either remove or keep a school a book in the library yeah so this is one of the

11:46

things that we want to explore as as part of the engagement that we are launching here today Um you know there

11:52

there are mechanisms already in place for parents to be able to challenge the um the the content of any particular

11:59

book that may exist in a school library Um and but I think there's a little bit more work that we need to do in that

12:05

regard So I hope that we can get a more robust answer from parents and from school trustees and administrators as we

12:11

conduct this engagement over the next few months Next reporter at the mic please Heather your ex West Global

12:17

National I can anticipate there'll be concerns um from LGBT advocates that this could result in less access to

12:24

pro-LGBT or gender gender diverse um materials your your response to that

12:31

um I I don't think it should Um I don't think that um there's any reason why

12:37

these standards should limit content related to any subject or any topic The

12:43

standards that we're looking at will relate specifically to uh uh books that

12:50

contain graphic sexual images or graphic depictions Um that's what our concern is

12:56

So this is not related to any kind of particular subject area If there was a book on astrophysics that had graphic

13:02

sexual content I would have the exact same concerns And do you know what kind

13:08

of um repercussions there might be for for schools that don't want to um abide

13:14

by by these new standards and protest perhaps yeah Well I um I would hope that

13:20

all school boards would would follow the procedures and guidelines that the province sets in place Um again we'll be

13:26

chatting with them to see that uh if there are some serious areas where they can't um follow the guidelines but I

13:33

don't think it should be a big problem to follow guidelines that broadly say you can't have graphic sexual images in

13:40

elementary schools or in junior high schools or I I don't think that should be a big problem Right Thank you And uh

13:46

last reporter at the mic before we go to lines Kaden Bradshaw LiveWire Calgary uh you mentioned wanting books to be age

13:51

appropriate but you listed a lot of different grades where these books have been available How do you define uh for

13:57

a certain book what age is appropriate for the students to be reading yeah this is an important question that we're

14:02

going to need to address and it's part of the reason why I want to conduct a little bit more engagement with with parents to get their perspective um

14:09

because I think it's ultimately their their final decision as to what kinds of uh material their children should be

14:15

exposed to Um and as we mentioned in some of the preliminary uh research and survey work that we've done I think it

14:22

was well over 90% said that uh books containing graphic sexual images should not be available anywhere in an

14:28

elementary school environment So we want to uh dig a little bit deeper and hopefully through that research help to

14:34

define where those lines should be Yeah My follow-up is in a world where most of these kids have access to the internet

14:39

where this sexual content is readily available how and mo most kids don't read as many physical books anymore how

14:46

will uh changing the content on these books make that big of an impact yeah well it will make an impact You know we

14:52

recently put in new standards regarding the use of personal mobile devices in schools And similarly uh within that

14:58

policy announcement also provided that um uh students would not be able to access uh certain sites uh including

15:05

social media sites uh while at school So those restrictions and those kind of parameters are already in place Um and

15:12

so the same should occur in in our school libraries uh you know what students do in their private time or at

15:18

home is obviously none of our consideration but as it relates to material that is available in a public

15:24

school library then uh or in any school library for that matter then it's something I think that warrants our

15:29

attention thanks minister you're welcome all right last reporter at the mic and then we'll go to the lines hi my name is

15:35

oruma compil radio Canada uh so minister how do you uh intend to uh draw the line

15:41

between what's uh inappropriate artistic or you know with educative uh material

15:48

Sure Um again I think we have to talk a little bit more with parents to get their understanding of where that line

15:54

is Um you know I'm a parent myself and I don't believe that books containing

16:02

graphic depictions of oral sex are appropriate in an elementary school environment And um some of the authors

16:09

in fact of some of these particular titles that we've identified have even suggested themselves that these are not

16:15

appropriate for children So we're happy to follow the advice and guidance of the

16:21

individual authors and uh the general direction of parents Great Um follow-up

16:26

question Uh so you're putting together a team that is going to you know be able to reflect on all that Who is going to

16:33

be part of the team yeah So we uh we've already started conversations in fact with uh schoolboard trustees and uh

16:40

superintendents and administrators Of course the school board trustees and the administrators are the ones who set the

16:47

policies procedures and practices of a school division Um so we'll be chatting primarily with them Uh and of course

16:54

other staff librarians would be important partners for us to have conversations uh school librarians I

17:00

should say as it relates to this issue and and parents So these will be the the three primary categories of individuals

17:06

that we'll be discussing with All right operator please put through our first caller

17:12

Don Bradid with Calgary Herald Uh Minister uh you sure woke me up on a

17:18

Monday morning I'll tell you that Um I just wonder how uh your people uh

17:25

dealt with this They had a report from parents and you checked into that Did you actually send officials into the schools to see this material for

17:32

themselves we uh we did in a couple of instances um look to go into particular schools where

17:39

the books had been identified to see if they were indeed on the shelf Um and so that was confirmed and validated Uh

17:45

further many of our school divisions have publicly accessible digital cataloges of all of the books that they

17:51

have available in their school libraries and whether they're on the shelf and or checked out So we were also able to uh

17:58

look through that information uh with some of these titles to explore if they were indeed in a school's collection

18:06

Just as a followup I I it's pretty uh some of this stuff is pretty stunning

18:11

for sure And my question is how does it get there there there are companies uh in Alberta I believe there are three

18:17

companies in Alberta that uh actually sell these books uh graphic novels and

18:22

it's kind of an industry because schools aren't you know a lot of people in schools are older and they're not used

18:28

to graphic novels and they need some advice on how to handle them and the content and they get that from some of these reputable companies and buy

18:36

according to what the companies provide So my question is how do things like this which certainly have got to be

18:42

outliers these books you pointed out how do they get in you know I think that's that's a very

18:48

important question and one of the main questions that uh I want some answers to as well Um I want to get a little bit of

18:55

a better understanding of how this occurred in the first place and how these books ended up on school shelves And I'm not I don't want to point

19:01

fingers I don't want to cast dispersions or or blame anyone you know there's clearly something with respect to

19:07

process and procedure that has faltered here Um and uh I intend to uh

19:13

investigate that in a little bit more detail get a better understanding from our school board trustees and

19:18

administrators directly and work to address it That's our goal so that these types of books do not end up in uh in

19:25

the hands of of a 5-year-old or a six-year-old Operator next phone please

19:31

Sean Amato with City News Hi Minister I just want to get an

19:36

understanding of uh what your objection to the word ban is I guess I take your point that you're not going after

19:42

specific titles but the point of uh changing this process or these rules is

19:48

to get rid of these books that you've deemed inappropriate So it is in effect a de facto ban is it not no I would

19:55

completely disagree A book ban is a selection of specific uh titles and

20:00

through some government instrument order uh directing that those books those specific titles not be available in

20:07

schools Um that's not what we're doing here today What we're doing is engaging

20:13

with our school trustees administrators and parents to understand what should the guard rails

20:20

be of provincialwide policies Again schools already have policies in place So you

20:27

know to to your logic we might all we might already be able to say that school boards themselves are banning books

20:32

because they have policies in place um regarding the selection of of materials So they already have policies in place

20:39

There's no there are no provincialwide standards And that's what we intend to do is to have some clear standards

20:47

something as simple as to say that you can't have graphic depictions of oral sex in elementary schools and books of

20:53

that topic are are not permitted in elementary schools So that's what we aim to do with our policy revision Followup

21:00

Sean what if somebody complains about the Bible because um there are you know not

21:06

graphic depictions I don't believe but there are written accounts of of things like rape and murder and uh some things

21:13

that probably are not uh topics that are not necessarily appropriate for elementary schools to your point So so

21:20

what would happen if somebody raises objection to some of the explicit content that we see in all kinds of

21:26

books including the Bible an individual has the opportunity to raise any objection that they have with any um

21:35

book found in a school library They they can do that uh currently as we go through the next couple of months in

21:41

engaging on the development of these policies Our intent is to uh ensure that

21:47

uh extreme offenders such as these ones that have been identified are do not make their way into a school library Of

21:53

course there are lots of of um um lots of examples of

21:59

uh in in um in a variety of different novels and uh other important works that

22:06

maybe contain references to violence and uh and other pieces So that's where I

22:11

think we need to work on helping to develop the standards You know is it is it a challenge to have a book that has

22:18

commentary about violence probably not Is it a problem to have a graphic a

22:24

graphic novel that has graphic depictions of rural sex probably So that's where I think we need to work to

22:29

to draw some of those lines Operator next caller please

22:37

Sheila Gunreed with Rebel News Sheila Gunreed with Rebel News Minister

22:44

these materials aren't uh they aren't appropriate for TV or a live stream but

22:50

will a published list of these books be made available so that people can see for themselves what is now being

22:57

eliminated from school libraries in the public survey that we will be providing to Albertans we will have a link into

23:03

that survey for individuals to see some of the the suggestible content that we're referring to because of course

23:10

it's so hard to put all of this into context um without uh without uh

23:15

providing some examples of what we're actually referring to So there will be some links uh available through the

23:20

survey where an individual if they so desire can have a look at the material that uh is causing concern followup

23:27

Sheila Yes Is the Alberta government prepared to go to court to defend this policy if

23:35

activists or civil liberties groups try to sue uh well I wouldn't want to jump

23:40

too far ahead of myself Um you know I would have to explore if something like

23:45

that happens what the merits of that are and uh and determine next steps from there So I couldn't give you a detailed

23:52

answer unfortunately at this point in something that uh may occur Uh but we do firmly believe that um children in our

24:00

schools should not have access to books that contain graphic depictions of sexual acts

24:07

Operator next caller Tamir Durani with Glob and Mail

24:13

Hello Minister Thank you so much for taking our questions today Um I want to sort of get a real understanding here of

24:20

what exactly it is you're doing with specific books here because I'm from the

24:25

examples that we've been provided ahead of this announcement Um and right now that you're talking about some of which

24:31

you're saying are inappropriate for this the four of them are all graphic novels right you've said there's multiple books

24:37

that you've investigated and found Um but you've listed only four that are

24:42

graphic novels each and many of which a majority of which deal with LGBTQ

24:47

subjects So I guess I'm trying to understand is it only graphic novels or are you also talking about written

24:53

novels and are they only LGBTQ subjects or are there other subjects that might be more graphic could you give us an

25:00

understanding of what it is exactly uh which novels that the province is going to help people out with in the standards

25:06

that the boards need to be setting here Sure We we haven't we don't have a definitive answer and we haven't made a

25:12

final decision on those questions Um what uh what I'm announcing today is

25:18

that we're going to spend the next couple of months getting more information from parents getting more information from trustees administrators

25:25

and others about where these lines should be and where how we should craft

25:30

the policy So that's what we're going to spend the next couple of months doing is is getting more perspective and then um

25:37

in a future point we will be releasing the the policies that we develop So um I

25:43

think a lot of your questions will be answered in the coming months when we actually firmly develop these policies

25:50

and make them publicly available Um our big concern though is around uh the the

25:56

graphic depiction of of uh molestation sexual acts and self harm

26:02

That is that is my biggest concern is is around the graphic depiction of some of these acts So we still have to work on

26:10

developing these policies and exactly you know where the lines will be drawn and I'll be very happy to provide you

26:16

with those details when the policies are ready Followup Yeah you know I get a limited

26:23

number of questions here in the way that we're asking you today but I do want to say Minister you know the to your

26:28

question at this point the reality is you know these things do happen in the real world Um and kids do see these

26:34

things online in many different ways In a book form it's a very different thing So I understand where you're coming from

26:40

with this but these are graphic novels that are written in a graphic novel sort of way This is not usually in the way

26:46

that you're depicting pornographies per se I take that point and I want to I hope you could address that as well But

26:52

my real question here which because I get a limited set of questions I do want to ask you about you know you mentioned

26:57

earlier that you the province does not have any authority per se to be able to book ban and that's why you don't you

27:03

know have uh you don't want to call it a ban that what you're doing here is that so we won't use that word we can use

27:09

prohibiting I imagine or some other word that you would prefer but I want to sort of understand here um are you going to

27:15

create any legislation to get that authority then are you going to how are you going to do this I mean Because what

27:21

you what we've been told is that the 2025 to 2026 year is when this will get applied That only leaves a few months

27:28

this summer Will you be able to come up with these policies for the school board to concretely develop and follow by the

27:34

fall could you give us an insight into that is there legislative action happening no we don't anticipate any

27:40

legislative action I do anticipate we will be in a position to have the new policies and standards in place in

27:46

advance of the upcoming school year uh the the current legislative authority and the education act does provide the

27:52

minister of education with authority to set policies and standards related to the provision of education So there is

27:58

already broadly that authority for the minister to set standards and policies with aspects that deal with uh with

28:05

education So um but but that's that's the the difference here right i don't

28:10

have the any kind of authority to uh go and pick a particular book off the shelf and say we're not allowing this book in

28:16

our schools We we can't ban books The minister doesn't have that authority There's no legislative authority to do that The minister though does have the

28:23

authority to develop policies And so we will be developing a new policy again as I mentioned that will simply say

28:29

something to the effect that um books containing graphic depictions of sexual

28:34

acts molestation or self harm um cannot be permitted in elementary schools or in

28:40

junior high schools um that you know that that'll be at a a very high level some of the guard rails that we're

28:45

looking to establish We don't intend or desire to reduce content on any

28:51

particular subject but again we just want to make sure that that subject is communicated in an age appropriate way

28:58

and I should reference again um some of these authors of some of these specific graphic novels have even said themselves

29:04

they do not recommend these books for children All right we have time for one more

29:10

question operator please put through the caller Jack Farah with the Canadian Press

29:17

Hi Mister I'm I'm a little bit confused You you go back and forth between saying that you don't think these these four

29:23

graphic novels you you brought up here are appropriate for junior high school kids and elementary school kids and then sometimes you just say elementary school

29:29

kids So I guess my question is that are these four books fine in high schools but not in junior and elementary schools

29:34

are they fine in junior high schools and high schools and not elementary like what's your clear position there yeah my

29:40

my clear position is that that these specific examples are are not appropriate for kids Full stop Um I

29:47

wanted though talk with parents and get a better understanding uh to see what their collective view is Um we did that

29:54

with the implementation of the cell phone policy as well We talked with parents to get their perspective about

30:00

what extent of cell phone use they thought is appropriate during breaks not during breaks only during learning time

30:08

Uh so that's my personal position but uh that will not inform the final

30:13

development of the policy I'm going to sit down and get some more perspective from parents uh understand more from

30:19

administrators and schoolboard trustees and then we'll take a um uh an

30:24

insightful approach into developing the final policies Followup Yeah And I'm I'm kind of curious how

30:32

this plays into you know sexual education in schools Obviously like school library materials and and classroom materials are different but if

30:38

your concern is you know sexual material available to kids through books it it applies to me that you know that would

30:44

be the same for for sexed in schools And my real question for you though is why is uh sex topics of sexual nature and in

30:52

in this sense like as we see in these graphic novels why is that wrong for high school kids that in some cases can

30:59

vote can drink can drive and why why is it like necessary to protect them from

31:06

you know sexual education uh this is not about protecting them from sexual education Um students in

31:13

high school uh for the most part are minors Uh for the most part cannot uh

31:20

cannot drink alcohol cannot vote You have to be of course 18 There are cases where you have 18 year olds in grade 12

31:26

but um for the most part uh they are not And and so this isn't about protecting them from sex education We do have a

31:33

robust sex education curriculum uh that we work towards delivering Um but uh you

31:40

know that this part of the reason why we aren't able to show some of these images There's there's a potential that you

31:46

know there there could be some issues with displaying uh pornographic images

31:51

to minors which is a criminal offense So this is this again I just want to be

31:57

very clear that we're talking about very extremely graphic depictions of acts

32:03

We're not talking of books that say that another individual likes another person or something of that nature But these

32:09

these are I'm I'm sure as you've probably seen from the pre-release these are extremely graphic depictions of

32:15

molestation of self harm of suicide uh and of uh oral sex and other kinds of

32:22

graphic depictions So I don't think a minor should uh be uh be viewing this

32:27

type of material All right folks Thank you very much for your time today Hey if we didn't get you round to you please give me an email And uh yeah thank you

32:34

very much Thank you