Dear education friends and Attorney-General of Ontario Doug Downey,

I’m writing today with a significant update about the current “lay of the land” of the education system in Ontario, Canada.

As it currently stands:

When a man – who is transitioning to a woman – shows up to class wearing oversized prosthetic breasts with protruding nipples (as is the case in Oakville, Ontario, Canada with teacher Kayla Lemieux), it’s an expression of gender identity and expression.

According to the Halton District School Board, implementing a dress code for teachers would expose the board to “considerable liability” for violating the Ontario Human Rights Code. Further, they say, new rules can’t even be considered at this moment because of ongoing collective bargaining with teacher unions.

Yet:

When an education executive – who is female and not transitioning – speaks up about gender and race discrimination at the school board where she works as a function of her job, as an expression of her gender identity, and when professionally dressed, the female executive is publicly walked off the job, called “subversive” and “loony,” and promptly demoted – as was the case in the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board in Peterborough, Ontario a few years ago.

Yes, that is indeed the current “lay of the land” in the education system in Ontario, Canada.