Kathleen Wynne's former Deputy Education Minister Ben Levin has been out of the news for a long time now. He was arrested last summer for a slew of charges related to child pornography but the case has not yet come to trail.
Among the bizarre and shocking elements of the scandal is that Levin, who remained an adviser to Wynne's government, was responsible for introducing a controversial curriculum which was condemned for including overtly sexualized material to children at an inappropriately early age. The public backlash against that proposed curriculum was was so severe that then-Premier Dalton McGuinty withdrew it. Although Kathleen Wynne, who was Education Minister and Levin's boss when the curriculum was created, has said that she would re-introduce it as Premier. At the time of his arrest, Levin was serving as a senior professor at the radical Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, which also promoted the hyper-sexualized curriculum.
There was a publication ban imposed by the judge on matters discussed at Levin's July 2013 bail hearing, but that ban only applied to matters discussed in court on that date. Most of Toronto's media has been extremely sympathetic to Kathleen Wynne, and by extension has been shy about reporting extensively on the Levin matter. Perhaps that is why they have neglected to report anything about the fact that Levin has had about five subsequent hearings or what happened at them. The most recent was just a couple of months ago, with another to take place in a few weeks and a trial date yet to be set.
The charges against Levin, which have yet to be proved in court, are listed below:
For a more recent update, see HERE
JAN 16, 2015: LEVIN TO PLEAD GUILTY!
12 comments:
Hi there - any further updates on this? I'm interested to know, especially since their sex ed program has hit the news again
I understand that Mr. Levin's preliminary hearing is underway this month (Nov/2014). Am trying to find out more and will create a new post if I learn anything in the next week or two.
why is the media being "sympathatic" to Ben Levin, he should be treated no differntly than anyone else, in fact he should be held to a higher standard as a very top educator...I guess money does talk.
Thank you for your insights and the information you are sharing. Please keep reporting on this case.
His next court date is Dec 11 2014
at 1000 Finch court house Toronto. I say we get as many people as we can to be there with signs! This new sex-ed the children in public schools will have to endure (unless their parents remove them from the public schools...like I did). Has a lot to do with him along with Wynne. He was a public figure and no publication ban should be allowed!!
Faith Goldy reports this on her Twitter:
BEN LEVIN UPDATE: council in court today, Levin was not-- whole thing was over in about 5 mins. Next court date January 9, 2015.
Any update(s) on this? His trial was, IIRC, to have occurred the week of December 9?
See comment above - next court date scheduled for Jan 9, 2015
Next court date is Jan 16 at 2:30 pm.
Update
Ben Levin will enter his guilty plea on March 3, 2015 in room 307 at the Finch Courthouse. Sentencing will take place April 13-15 in room 305.
http://www.torontosun.com/2015/01/16/ben-levin-to-plead-guilty-to-some-charges-in-march
FYI MSM
http://www.thestar.com/news/crime/2015/01/16/university-of-toronto-professor-benjamin-levin-to-plead-guilty-to-child-exploitation-charges.html
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