After meeting with two young Ontarians leading a charge to make consent a topic in the province’s updated sex-ed curriculum, Premier Kathleen Wynne underlined her plans to make that happen, starting as early as Grade 1.

Wynne, who first instructed Education Minister Liz Sandals to include consent in the new curriculum last month, told reporters Monday that while the new curriculum isn’t yet finalized, starting in the junior and primary grades students will begin learning the foundation of what consent means by developing active listening skills and the ability to read body language.

“I think that very early you build the building blocks for that kind of interpersonal ability and intelligence,” Wynne said at a news conference at Queen’s Park.

Earlier in the day, Wynne had met with Tessa Hill and Lia Valente – two Grade 8 students who joined her at the news conference – of the We Give Consent campaign, which has garnered more than 37,500 signatures in support of including consent in the updated health and physical education curriculum expected to be in place for the 2015-16 school year.

In their petition, Hill and Valente wrote, “We live in a culture in which rape and sexual violence is expected and accepted as a norm.”

“When young people don’t learn about the importance of consent in a sexual relationship, it can lead to unhealthy relationships and ultimately perpetuates rape culture," they wrote in the petition.

Wynne said the We Give Consent campaign targets exactly what the province wants in its updated curriculum.

“I want students to understand what it means to say ‘no,’ and what it means to give ‘active consent,’” she said. “We want to put our young people on the path to a healthy future.”

This will be the first planned change to the province's sex-ed curriculum in 17 years, after an update was abandoned by Dalton McGuinty’s government in 2010 because of push-back from parents and other groups against the idea.

The updated curriculum will focus on areas including diversity, technology and healthy relationships, including guiding teachers on how to address web-based sexual-health topics including online porn, “sexting” and chat boards.

The curriculum hasn’t been updated since the early days of the Internet in 1998, making it the oldest sexual health and education curriculum in all of Canada.

During her recent post-secondary tour, the premier spoke with university and college students on the issue of sexual harassment where she heard that students want to be part of discussions about developing initiatives around these issues on campuses.

The issue of sexual assault and harassment has been brought to the spotlight recently as the CBC fired star radio host Jian Ghomeshi in October amid a scandal that sees him facing criminal charges over allegations of sexual assault and choking.

Since then, discussions around what action the province should take on sexual harassment swirled around the legislature, ending up with the formation of a select legislative committee to travel the province next year to examine the issue and report back by the end of 2015.

New sex-ed curriculum to start teaching consent as early as Grade 1, premier says

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