Censorship: The New Human Right in Alberta

The Alberta provincial government (Canada’s version of Texas ?) is currently in the process of legislating possibly the largest step backwards yet this century, in terms of human rights (in Canada). 

Bill 44 is a Trojan horse piece of legislation that the gov’t is using to effectively limit the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.  Basically, while every other province has included sexual orientation in their human rights provincial legislation, since the historic (and Alberta created) Vriend case, Alberta has been able to avoid this responsibility for 10 years.  Finally, after pressure from just about everyone reasonable, the AB government has promised under bill 44 to include sexual orientation in it’s human rights legislation.

The story should end there. But it doesn’t. Included in bill 44 is a section that would enshrine “parental rights” as well.  This law would ‘protect’ the rights of parents to pull their children from "courses of study, educational programs or instructional materials, or instruction or exercises, prescribed under (the School)Act (which) include subject-matter that deals explicitly with religion, sexuality or sexual orientation."

I can’t even begin to describe the multitude of problems this starts to create. 

Restricting a teacher’s ability to speak about certain topics has the danger of silencing them when it comes to "controversial topics."  At best this is problematic in an academic setting, where topics will be avoided or skimmed rather than rigorously examined. At worst, this will encourage staff members to stay silent when issues concerning human rights arise.  At times in schools, issues of sexual orientation are brought forth as a direct result of some sort of marginalization that occurs in the school setting.  For example, when a student is being harassed by other students for being (or being perceived as) gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered it is not be uncommon for a teacher to discuss issues of homophobia in order to foster a safe community, where acceptance is expected. Would that teacher need to send a form home for that? And what if some of the students who were responsible for the bullying were to ‘opt’ out? Traditionally LGBT youth have been linked to higher suicide rates . How can school be a safe place for these students when their peers are able to ‘opt out’ of any kind of discussion that might address homophobia?  Likewise, what might happen if a student asks a married gay male teacher if he has a "wife"? Will that teacher need to send home a form to be able to say that he is married to man? How is that not a violation of his rights when clearly no heterosexual teacher has needed to do the same this thus far?

Human rights legislation was created, in part, to protect groups of people who have been and continue to be, discriminated against.  As most of the parental groups who have vocalized their concern over this legislation have confirmed, parents in this regard are not marginalized and have not been consulted on this issue .  Parents have clear, outlined procedures and processes which to follow if there are concerns about their child’s education.  To enshrine these as ‘human rights,’ de-values the meaning of human rights and the experiences of those who are being discriminated against.

This bill was clearly meant to limit the protection and rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals.  The fact that our provincial government is using the term ‘human rights’ to target an already marginalized group is dangerously Orwellian, shamelessly discriminatory and disgustingly embarrassing.

Provincial, National and International pressure can’t hurt:

1.Contact your MLA (Alberta residents)
http://www.assembly.ab.ca/net/index.aspx?p=mla_home ,

2. Lindsay Blackett (Minister of Culture and Community Spirit)
calgary.northwest@assembly.ab.ca, (780) 422-3559;

3. Dave Hancock (Minister of Education)
edmonton.whitemud@assembly.ab.ca, (780) 427-5010; and

4. Premier Ed Stelmach
fortsaskatchewan.vegreville@assembly.ab.ca, (780) 427-2251.

Disclaimer: This post was written by a Feministing Community user and does not necessarily reflect the views of any Feministing columnist, editor, or executive director.

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