Education
Cheryl Bernard headlines 16th Annual Kings and Queens Scholarship Breakfast.
On April 10, accomplished businesswoman and successful Canadian curler Cheryl Bernard will share her message about resiliency, and the power of choice and perspective at the 16th Annual Kings & Queens Scholarship Breakfast. As the 2010 Olympic curling silver medalist and four-time Alberta women’s curling champion, Bernard knows first-hand the value of goal setting.
The two-time Olympian is well-known for her accomplishments on the ice but has also had success in business, starting an insurance brokerage at the age of 23 and building it up to a multi-million dollar company. A lifelong volunteer, Bernard also dedicates her time to supporting a variety of non-profit organizations.
At the Kings & Queens Scholarship Breakfast, she will inspire audience members to take control of their future and make their dreams come true through strategic planning and making positive choices with her engaging presentation You Hold The Pen. Andrew Jones, a third-year member of the RDC Kings Curling team and 2018 Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) Men’s Curling silver medalist, is especially excited for this year’s event.
“Growing up watching curling on TV, Cheryl has been a long-standing role model to me and many curlers around the country as she chased her dreams,” he says. “I am looking forward to hearing her speak about dealing with adversity along with providing tools to help me shape my own success. She has been through a lot, and the wisdom and experience she has will resonate with everyone in a different and meaningful way.”
Jones, co-chair of the RDC Student-Athlete Advisory Council, is thankful how scholarships allow student-athletes at Red Deer College to compete in their chosen sport while receiving a quality education. The Scholarship Breakfast raises funds for the Athletics Leadership Fund which supports the sustainability of the RDC Athletics Scholarship program.
“The positive impact of scholarships and the Scholarship Breakfast is vast. The scholarships that I have received allow me to attend RDC and curl without having to work during the academic year,” says Jones, a Bachelor of Business Administration General Management student. “I can fully commit myself to my studies, my sport, and make time to give back to the community, which is a core value of RDC Athletics. Every year I am amazed by the generous support from the community, which gives us all the opportunity to become the best versions of ourselves in the classroom and during competition.”
Tickets are now on sale for the Kings & Queens Scholarship Breakfast. For more information about the breakfast and Cheryl Bernard, please visit: rdc.ab.ca/breakfast.
To purchase tickets online, please visit: rdc.ab.ca/tickets.
Censorship Industrial Complex
TDF and James Kitchen appeal Monique LaGrange decision to Alberta Court of Appeal
Written by TDF’s Legal Team
The Democracy Fund (TDF), together with lawyer James Kitchen, will appeal a recent Alberta Court decision involving school trustee Monique LaGrange. Mrs. LaGrange was a trustee of the Red Deer Catholic school board until the board disqualified her as a result of memes she posted and media interviews she gave, of which a majority of the trustees disapproved.
Mr. Kitchen has now filed his Notices of Appeal with the Alberta Court of Appeal, which can be read here and here.
In 2023, Mrs. LaGrange shared a meme on her personal Facebook account outlining her concerns about the increasing indoctrination of students into Queer theory and transgender ideology. The meme featured two side-by-side images: one of young children holding swastika flags and the other of young children holding pride progress flags, accompanied by the caption, “Brainwashing is brainwashing.” The post garnered support but also criticism, especially from teachers and other school trustees. One of the trustees submitted a complaint alleging that by posting the meme Mrs. LaGrange had violated many sections of the new trustee code of conduct.
Following a hearing in September 2023, a majority of the board of trustees determined Mrs. LaGrange had breached the code of conduct. The board imposed several sanctions, including that she cease making any public statements in areas touching upon or relating to the 2SLGBTQ+ community, issue a public apology, and complete sensitivity training at her own expense.
Mrs. LaGrange refused to issue an apology and maintained that her actions were consistent with her commitment to protecting children, stating, “I was elected to stand up and protect our children, and that is what I am doing.”
Shortly thereafter, another trustee submitted a complaint about Mrs. LaGrange, alleging that she had again violated the code of conduct and also breached the sanctions by posting another meme and doing two media interviews. The meme was a popular one depicting a wolf with colourful make-up with the caption, “I just want to read some books to your chickens”.
After a second hearing, a majority of the trustees again determined Mrs. LaGrange had breached the code of conduct and the sanction regarding public comments. The board then disqualified her as a trustee, effectively kicking her off the board.
The lawyer for Mrs. LaGrange, James Kitchen, said:
“This case is the first of its kind. Never before has an Alberta board of school trustees kicked another trustee off the board for what effectively amounts to a disagreement regarding expressed political and religious beliefs (disguised, in our view, as trustee misconduct). Such an outcome has been made possible by the recent adoption of trustee codes of conduct by Alberta school boards. These new codes enable a majority of trustees to censor and cancel individual trustees with whom they politically disagree. In this case, it appears that a majority of politically left-leaning school trustees applied the code of conduct to a politically disfavoured trustee in order to censure, humiliate, and remove Monique for her outspoken opposition to the sexualization and indoctrination of young students.”
TDF and Mr. Kitchen challenged the board’s decision at a judicial review at the Alberta Court of King’s Bench. The Court varied the board’s apology requirement but otherwise upheld all of the board’s findings.
TDF litigation director Mark Joseph expressed concern over the broader implications of the case, stating:
“Disqualifying a democratically-elected representative based on public comments sets a dangerous precedent. It undermines free speech rights, tolerance for political diversity, and representative democracy by allowing officials to impose ideological purity tests on electoral candidates. The proper response to allegations of bad policy is repudiation at the ballot box rather than official disqualification. If upheld, this decision will pose a significant threat to democratic rights in Canada.”
About The Democracy Fund
Founded in 2021, The Democracy Fund (TDF) is a Canadian charity dedicated to constitutional rights, advancing education and relieving poverty. TDF promotes constitutional rights through litigation and public education. TDF supports an access to justice initiative for Canadians whose civil liberties have been infringed by government lockdowns and other public policy responses to the pandemic.
From the Fraser Institute
According to a recent poll, the vast majority of parents in Canada easily understand letter grades on report cards but are confused by the nouveau “descriptive” grading adopted in British Columbia. This should serve as a warning to any province or school board thinking about adopting this type of convoluted descriptive grading.
In September 2023, despite overwhelming opposition from British Columbians, the B.C. government replaced letter grades—such as A, B, C, D, etc.—on K-9 report cards with a “proficiency scale,” which includes the descriptive terms “emerging,” “developing,” “proficient” and “extending.” If these four terms seem confusing to you, you’re not alone.
According to the recent poll (conducted by Leger and commissioned by the Fraser Institute), 93 per cent of Canadian parents from coast to coast said the letter grade “A” was “clear and easy” to understand while 83 per cent said the letter grade “C” was “clear and easy” to understand. (For the sake of brevity, the poll only asked respondents about these two letter grades.)
By contrast, 58 per cent of Canadian parents said the descriptive grade “extending” was “unclear and difficult” to understand and only 26 per cent could correctly identify what “extending” means on a report card.
It was a similar story for the descriptive grade “emerging,” as 57 per cent of Canadian parents said the term was “unclear and difficult” to understand and only 28 per cent could correctly identify what “emerging” means on a report card.
It’s also worth noting that the poll simplified the definitions of the four “descriptive” grading terms. The B.C. government’s official definitions, which can be found on the government’s website, speak for themselves. For example: “Extending is not synonymous with perfection. A student is Extending when they demonstrate learning, in relation to learning standards, with increasing depth and complexity. Extending is not a bonus or a reward and does not necessarily require that students do a greater volume of work or work at a higher grade level. Extending is not the goal for all students; Proficient is. Therefore, if a student turns in all their work and demonstrates evidence of learning in all learning standards for an area of learning, they are not automatically assigned Extending.”
So, what are the consequences of this confusing gobbledygook? Well, we already have some anecdotes.
Before the B.C. government made the changes provincewide, the Surrey School District participated in a pilot program to gauge the effectiveness of descriptive grading. According to Elenore Sturko, a Conservative MLA in Surrey and mother of three, for three years her daughter’s report cards said she was “emerging” rather than clearly stating she was failing. Sturko was unaware there was a problem until the child’s Third Grade teacher called to tell Sturko that her daughter was reading at a Kindergarten level.
Former B.C. education minister Rachna Singh tried to justify the change saying descriptive grading would help students become “better prepared for the outside world” where you “don’t get feedback in letters.” But parents in B.C. clearly aren’t happy.
Of course, other provinces also use terms in their grading systems (meeting expectations, exceeding expectations, satisfactory, needs improvement, etc.) in addition to letter grades. But based on this polling data, the descriptive grading now used in B.C.—which again, has completely replaced letter grades—makes it much harder for B.C. parents to understand how their children are doing in school. The B.C. government should take a red pen to this confusing new policy before it does any more damage. And parents across the country should keep a watchful eye on their local school boards for any plans to replace the ABCs with vague terminology open to interpretation.
Paige MacPherson
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