From the Fraser Institute

By Michael Zwaagstra

Not only does Alberta have a fully funded separate (Catholic) school system, it also provides between 60 and 70 per cent operational funding to accredited independent schools. In addition, Alberta is the only province in Canada to allow fully funded charter schools. And Alberta subsidizes homeschooling parents.

This week, the Smith government in Alberta will likely pass Bill 27, which requires schools to get signed permission from parents or guardians prior to any lessons on human sexuality, gender identity or sexual orientation.

It’s a sensible move. The government is proactively ensuring that students are in these classes because their parents want them there. Given the sensitive nature of these topics, for everyone’s sake it makes sense to ensure parental buy-in at the outset.

Unfortunately, many school trustees don’t agree. A recent resolution passed by the Alberta School Boards Association (ASBA) calls on the Smith government to maintain the status quo where parents are assumed to have opted in to these lessons unless they contact the school and opt their children out. Apparently, the ASBA thinks parents can’t be trusted to make the right decisions for their children on this issue.

This ASBA resolution is, in fact, a good example of the reflexive opposition by government school trustees to parental rights. They don’t want parents to take control of their children’s education, especially in sensitive areas. Fortunately, the Alberta government rebuffed ASBA’s demands and this attempt to abolish Bill 27 will likely fall on deaf ears.

However, there’s an even better safeguard available to Alberta parents—school choice. Out of all Canadian provinces, Alberta offers the most school choice. Not only does Alberta have a fully funded separate (Catholic) school system, it also provides between 60 and 70 per cent operational funding to accredited independent schools. In addition, Alberta is the only province in Canada to allow fully funded charter schools. And Alberta subsidizes homeschooling parents. Simply put, parents who are dissatisfied with the government school system have plenty of options—more than parents in any other province. This means Alberta parents can vote with their feet.

Things are quite different in other parts of the country. For example, Ontario and the four Atlantic provinces do not allow any provincial funding to follow students to independent schools. In other words, parents in these provinces who choose an independent school must pay the full cost themselves—while still paying taxes that fund government schools. And no province other than Alberta allows charter schools.

This is why it’s important to give parents as much school choice as possible. Given the tendency of government school boards to remove choices from parents, it’s important that all parents, including those with limited means, have other options available for their children.

Imagine if the owners of a large grocery store tried to impose their dietary preferences by removing all meat products and telling customers that the only way they could purchase meat is to make a special order. What would happen in that scenario? It depends on what other options are available. If this was the only grocery store in the community, customers would have no choice but to comply. However, if there were other stores, customers could simply shop elsewhere. Choice empowers people and limits the ability of one company to limit the choices of people who live in the community.

Think of government school boards as a monopolistic service provider like a grocery store. They often do everything possible to prevent parents from going anywhere else for their children’s education. Trusting them to do what’s best for parents and children is like assuming that the owners of a grocery store would always put the interests of their customers first and not their own self-interest. Monopolies are bad in the private sector and they’re bad in the education sector, too.

Clearly, it makes sense to require schools to get proactive consent from parents. This ensures maximum buy-in from parents for whatever courses their children take. It’s also important that Alberta remains a bastion of school choice. By making it easier for parents to choose from a variety of education options, Alberta puts power in the hands of parents, exactly where it belongs. Parents in other provinces should want that same power, too.

Michael Zwaagstra

Senior Fellow, Fraser Institute

Canadian pastor Derek Reimer is thrown out of a drag queen story time event at a public library in Calgary.

From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

The Crown is seeking a long probation on top of a jail sentence for Derek Reimer, who believes that despite the ‘egregious sentence proposal,’ ‘there’s a good chance I will go home with my family after the sentencing verdict.’

Government lawyers are seeking a potential one-year jail sentence and probation for a Calgary pastor who was hit with criminal harassment and breaching bail condition charges for protesting “drag queen story hours” targeting children at a public library last year.

Pastor Derek Reimer of Mission 7 Ministries was in Alberta Court of King’s Bench court Thursday for sentencing regarding a guilty verdict issued in October.

Reimer told LifeSiteNews that despite the “Crown’s egregious sentence proposal,” he feels “encouraged that there’s a good chance I will go home with my family after the sentencing verdict.”

“Even if I don’t, I know the Lord will work it out for good and I will rejoice that I’m counted worthy to suffer shame for Jesus’ name,” he added.

In October, Reimer was hit with a criminal conviction and a $500 fine after a judge found him guilty of breaching his bail conditions because he spoke out against a “drag queen story time” event for children at another public library.

In court Thursday, the main Crown prosecutor claimed that Reimer had targeted a library manager with a “personal attack” and “hateful vitriol” and showed a “lack of remorse” after he confronted her to object to the library hosting kids “drag queen story time.”

In court, the Crown used two videos posted by Reimer after the incident to use against him.

The Crown is seeking a long probation on top of a jail sentence to, in its words, keep Reimer “on the straight and narrow” and to “ensure the public remains safe from criminal harassment.”

Reimer’s lawyer, Andrew MacKenzie, argued that the library manager had used the words “upset,” which he claimed do not constitute a type of reaction to one getting harassed.

Judge Heather Lamoureux is now looking at all the facts and has noted that she will consider that Reimer is his family’s sole bread winner and whose wife has a baby on the way before handing him his sentence.

Lamoureux hinted that a conditional sentence “could be more reasonable” than one that carries actual jail time. Sentencing will occur on December 3. MacKenzie has also asked the court for a conditional sentence in lieu of time already spent in jail.

The judge also noted that Reimer’s right to “protest LGBTQ events” is not what the case is about, and he can protest so long as he does not cross the “boundary of harassment” that the Crown has argued occurred.

Pastor: ‘I’m here to serve God’ and ‘expose what the Bible calls darkness and sin’

In court, Reimer noted that he is not the “man the court and the media made me out to be,” adding that is not how he lives his “life now.”

“I’m a man that’s been transformed by God’s grace, nine years ago,” he said, adding, “my past life has a totally different mindset behind it.”

He added that he is “concerned” with what is “happening to Canada” and that he feels he has been called by “God Almighty to preach His word, feed the homeless and protect children.”

“To expose what the Bible calls darkness and sin,” he said, adding, “I’m not here to hurt anybody. I’m here to serve God. What they’re doing is wrong, according to the Bible,” he said.

In late October, Reimer was visited by Calgary Police at his home after he was served a notice of appeal for a judge’s recent acquittal of his charges for protesting transgender story times at public libraries, LifeSiteNews learned.

The notice of appeal concerns a different incident, as reported by LifeSiteNews in September, in which Judge Allan Fradsham ruled that Reimer is not guilty of a criminal offense for protesting a pro-LGBT “drag” event marketed to kids called “Reading with Royalty” that took place at the Seton Public Library in Calgary in February 2023.

Reimer has been arrested many times for protesting “drag queen story time” and other pro-LGBT events.

He has also been the target of harassment for protesting these events. Last April, his van was vandalized with an anti-Christian message as well as a satanic symbol while he was in jail after, yet another arrest related to his pro-family activism.

Last year, Calgary passed a new so-called “Safe and Inclusive Access Bylaw” that disallows “specified protests” both inside and outside all city-owned and affiliated public buildings.

The bylaw means that anyone protesting pro-LGBT events at public buildings will be barred from getting within 100 meters of any such location.