Exciting new changes in educational policy are on the way in Alberta!

As we mentioned last week Alberta Premier Danielle Smith released a video on Jan 31 announcing new policy changes with regard to gender dysphoric students in the areas of education, medicine and sports. It’s not clear at this point how much these changes will be implemented through policy and how much will be through law; nor do we know the timeline as yet.

What we do know is that Smith’s changes will significantly strengthen parental rights in that province!

Smith’s proposed educational policies build on policies and laws put in place last year in New Brunswick and Saskatchewan.

New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs was the first to take a stand on the “pronoun” issue last spring, when he introduced educational policy 713 to require consent from parents before children could change their names or pronouns in school.

Since Higgs took action, Premier Scott Moe went even further in Saskatchewan by enacting legislation invoking the notwithstanding clause to protect the right of parents to be informed about their children’s proposed name or pronoun changes.

Educational innovations

Following in the footsteps of Higgs and Moe, Smith announced that going forward parental consent will be required from parents before their minor child (under 16 yrs) can use a new name or pronoun at school. Older students of 16 to 17 years old will require parental notification before adopting new names or pronouns at school.

No longer will parents in Alberta be kept in the dark by schools about their children’s mental and physical health only to be later blindsided by steps their children have been taking publicly at school to socially transition.

Smith will further take Alberta in the right direction by requiring parental notification and parental opt-in before gender ideology is taught in schools and parental opt-in. Having an opt-in means children won’t be educated about gender ideology as the default. Parents win more than they do by having an opt-out. Here in Ontario parents have an opt out for sex education only, and it is of little or no help in preventing the spread of gender ideology, as it can be taught in any other class.

For this reason PAFE does not think that Smith went far enough in addressing the roots of the social contamination of children’s minds with a harmful ideology that can lead them to want to aim themselves and deny biological reality. It doesn’t do as much good to notify parents  as it would do to prevent the sickness from reaching children in the first place. Only by removing instruction in gender ideology from classroom altogether will children be meaningfully protected.

Finally, Smith said that going forward the government will now have to approve all third-party resource materials or presentations related to “gender identity, sexual orientation or human sexuality” for K-12 students. The province of Saskatchewan made similar reforms blocking third-party organizations from making such presentations in August, 2023 after a deck of sexually explicit cards was distributed by Planned Parenthood to members of a grade 9 class.

It is certain that opponents will fight Smith’s proposals by legal means, and it will be interesting to see whether or not they are successful in the courts and furthermore what Smith’s reaction will be at that time.

We congratulate Premier Smith on taking this courageous stand on the importance of the importance of the parental role within the family. PAFE is pleased to see that as each province has introduced new changes they have been incrementally stronger than the ones before, generating palpable momentum for parental rights!