Toby Goes to Catholic School - Gender Expression, Human Rights, and Ontario Catholic School Board Policy

Oct 15, 2026

Analysis of Ontario Catholic school board policy documents (N=179) examines how boards address Canada’s newest human rights grounds: gender expression and gender identity. Findings show most Catholic boards do not implement these grounds at the policy level, even after Toby’s Act (2012), and this undermines the legislation’s intended spirit. Results complicate simplistic binaries about Catholic boards versus public secular boards regarding gender diversity. The study argues for doctrinally compatible protections and provides policy recommendations to reduce conflation errors.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages33

Reading Time1 h 23 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Background on Ontario Catholic schools and human rights laws

Toby Goes to Catholic School: Gender Expression Human Rights, and Ontario Catholic School Board Policy Lee Airton Queen’s University Jacob DesRochers Queen’s University Kyle Kirkup University of Ottawa Lindsay Herriot University of Victoria Abstract In this article, we share findings from an analysis of Ontario Catholic school board policy documents (N= 179) containing Canada’s newest human rights grounds: gender expression and gender identity. Our major finding may be unsurprising—that Ontario Catholic boards are generally not responding to Toby’s Act (passed in 2012) at the level of policy, as few boards have added these grounds in a way that enacts the spirit of that legislation. Canadian Journal of Education / Revue canadienne de l’éducation 45:3 (2022)©2022 Canadian Society for the Study of Education/ Société canadienne pour l’étude de l’éducation [www.cje-rce.ca](www.cje-rce.ca) While this finding is likely unsurprising, our study also yielded findings that unsettle any facile binary of“Catholic boards/bad” and “public secular boards/good” in relation to gender diversity. We also leverage our findings to suggest a striking possibility for a vigorous and doctrinally-compatible embrace of gender expression protections in Catholic schools, if not gender identity protections. We argue that fear of gender expression protections may stem from an erroneous conflation of“gender expression” with “gender identity” when these are in fact separate grounds—a conflation that is also endemic within secular Ontario school board policy; this doubles as a conflation of gender expression with “transgender,” as the latter is unfailingly linked with gender identity human rights. We make a series of recommendations for policy, and a case for Catholic schools embracing their legal duty to provide a learning environment free from gender expression discrimination without doctrinal conflict and arguably with ample doctrinal support, so that students of all gender expressions can flourish regardless of whether they are or will come to know they are transgender. Keywords: gender expression, gender identity, transgender, Ontario, school boards, policy, Toby’s Act, human rights Résumé Dans cet article, nous partageons les résultats d’une analyse des documents de politiques des conseils scolaires catholiques de l’Ontario (n = 179) comprenant les plus récents fondements ayant trait aux droits de la personne du Canada : l’expression de genre et l’identité de genre. Notre principale conclusion n’est sûrement pas surprenante : les conseils scolaires catholiques de l’Ontario ne répondent généralement pas à la Loi Toby (adoptée en 2012) sur le plan de leurs politiques, puisque peu de conseils ont décidé d’ajouter ces fondements de façon à permettre que l’esprit de cette loi soit respecté . Bien que cette constatation ne soit pas vraiment surprenante, notre étude a également obtenudes résultats qui remettent en question la notion du binarisme rudimentaire « conseils catholiques, mauvais » et « conseils publics laïcs, bons » en ce qui a trait à la diversité des genres. Nos résultats permettent également d’entrevoir la possibilité prometteused’une adoption enthousiaste et doctrinalement compatible à la protection de l’expression de genre dans les écoles catholiques, voire à la protection de l’identité de genre. Nous Canadian Journal of Education / Revue canadienne de l’éducation 45:3 (2022) [www.cje-rce.ca](www.cje-rce.ca) soutenons que la réticence entourant la protection de l’expression du genre a peut-être pour fondement la confusion des termes « expression de genre » et « identité de genre », alors qu’il s’agit en fait de fondements distincts. Cette convergence est également endémiquedans les politiques des conseils scolaires laïcs de l’Ontario, ce qui entraîne en même temps la convergence des termes « expression de genre » et « transgenre », ce dernier étant indéfectiblement lié aux droits de la personne portant sur l’ide

FAQs

What policy topics does the article analyze in Ontario Catholic school boards?

It analyzes Ontario Catholic school board policy documents focused on the human rights grounds of gender expression and gender identity.

What is the main finding about how boards respond to Toby’s Act?

Most Ontario Catholic boards do not respond to Toby’s Act (2012) at the level of policy, with few boards adding these grounds in a way that enacts the legislation’s spirit.

Why does the article argue that fear of gender expression protections may persist?

It argues that fear may come from conflating “gender expression” with “gender identity,” and that this conflation is also present in Ontario secular school board policy.

Oct 15, 2026

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