1ST ANNUAL
SPINATHON FOR AUTISM
100% OF PROCEEDS GO TOWARDS AUTISM CANADA
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10 hour spin class Smokin Q Food Truck Bean Bag Toss CanJam Game Free ATP Samples
- Kids games - Nutrition Booth - Membership discounts! & MUCH MORE!
- Beauty Booth - Wash-Out Blue - Braids - Buzz Cuts
SATURDAY JULY 28 TH 2018 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM
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07 | 19 | 2018 VOLUME 23 | ISSUE 28
MCC THRIFT STORE MARKS 40 YEARS IN ELMIRA VENTURE PAGE 12
COMMENT PAGE 6
ILLEGAL CROSSINGS A SYMPTOM OF BROKEN SYSTEM
Local kids off to day camp
SUMMER OF FUN!
EDUCATION / ONTARIO
Educators react strongly to PC bid to roll back Ont. sex ed. curriculum Conservatives take aim at changes made in 2015, look to base coming school year on 1998 document, maybe
VERONICA REINER THE WOOLWICH SUMMER CAMP has evolved over the years since it started in 2009. This year, its newest integration is a summer camp leader-in-training development program, which trains youth 13-16 to become camp leaders and awards volunteer experience. “It’s a new program, it’s more hands-on and immersive,” explained Emily Orr, the WMC summer camp coordinator. “So if someone wants to be a camp leader, or work with children, or just have a summer volunteer experience, there are two sections to the program now. The first part is a training component, where they get trained in skills that are fitting to a camp setting but also transferrable in general, so like communication skills, teamwork, program planning, behaviour manSUMMER CAMP | 2
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FAISAL ALI
Bolender Park was the just the place to be in Elmira on Wednesday for a bit of summertime revelry.
[FAISAL ALI / THE OBSERVER]
ONTARIO’S NEW GOVERNMENT LAST week announced plans to scrap the Liberal’s updated health curriculum in favour of the version used in the 1990s, effectively taking sexual education in the province back by about 20 years. The announcement, fulfilling a key campaign promise, means teachers across the province will be dusting off their old curriculums for the 2018-19 year, at least until a new curriculum can be written. The announcement was met with universal opprobrium from teachers, educators and health professionals in the province, who said the move would put children at risk by providing badly outdated information in the classrooms.
“During the election, we made a promise to the people of Ontario that we would cancel the curriculum and launch a fulsome consultation with parents before implementing a new one,” said newly minted Education Minister Lisa Thompson. “While these consultations occur, we are reverting to the full health and physical education curriculum that was last taught in 2014 (the 1998 curriculum). This curriculum leaves ample space to discuss current social issues.” Absent from the 1998 curriculum, however, are the last 20 years of social, political and technological changes, including the rise of the internet, the legalization of gay marriage in 2005, and the recent CURRICULUM | 4
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