Dear Editor,
Bill 24 is supposed to be about “safe and caring” schools by allowing students to create Gay-Straight Alliances (GSA’s).
It is great that our current government is concerned about inclusivity and the safety and well-being of our children. As a father of seven children and 24 grandchildren, I also deeply care about that.
Indeed, our children must feel safe to express their differences from others and to be helped to feel welcome and included in a diverse society.
However, is that what this bill is all about? Apparently not. Education Minister Eggen wants to force his opinion upon faith-based schools by bullying Christians and labelling them as haters.
For he wants to take away the parents’ rights to have their children taught in accordance with Christian beliefs.
He uses the delicate issue of sexual orientation as a wedge designed to do away with Christian independent schools and to have them assimilated into the public schools. He decreed that all references to religious belief and parental rights need to be stripped from any school policy.
There may no longer be any reference to men and women being made in the image of God, to men and women being equal in dignity and worth, to them having distinct and complementary roles, and to the Bible being God’s infallible Word.
He considers such statements to be offensive and non-welcoming.
It never bodes well for a government that imposes its own values on a diverse population. That was the mistake that the government and its supporting institutions made when they forced their cultural and doctrinal values on the First Nations by compelling their children to attend Residential schools. Let’s not repeat that horrible injustice.
The minister now threatens to pull the funding on private/independent schools, and to pull accreditation so that children from these schools will not be able to graduate with provincial diplomas. This will be an expensive undertaking, for parents who send their children to these schools pay a substantial amount out of their own pocket for infrastructure and school fees and therefore save the government millions of dollars.
From my interaction with those who have been in negotiation with the minister, it is clear to me that up to now Minister Eggen has not dealt with the various independent schools in good faith. Throughout the whole process of trying to be compliant, many questions and clarifications have been ignored and go unanswered.
In order to have a Safe and Caring Policy that will stand the test of time, and which does not just reflect the views and values of a political party, we must be willing to listen to and interact with one another so that our children can be safe in a diverse society.
Willem B. Slomp
Spruce Grove, Alberta
Formerly from Neerlandia
