Alberta Considers Making Parents’ Control over Education a “Human Right”
By Thaddeus M. Baklinski: EDMONTON, Alberta, March 23, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Alberta government will consider changes to its human rights law to give parents more control over what their children will be taught in school, according to a Calgary Sun report.
“Though there is some coverage of this issue under existing rules governing schools, the decision of parents would now be recognized as a fundamental human right,” the report explained.
“Parents would be given the opportunity to opt their kids out of instruction surrounding human sexuality, sexual orientation and other lessons counter to a family’s religious convictions.”
Though Lindsay Blackett, the Minister of Culture and Community Spirit and responsible for human-rights changes, would not comment on what changes will be discussed in the legislature beginning in April, he did say that, “When we ran as a party in the last election we ran on family values, we ran on families and communities. That’s what the premier led the last election on, and won.”
“As a government we talk about safe communities and all the members who make up that. At the core, it has to be parents in the household,” Blackett said.
Consideration is being given to bring Alberta’s laws concerning parental rights into alignment with the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, which says “parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.”
“The human rights stuff has been neglected for 12 years because people were too afraid to tackle the issue,” Blackett told Sun News. “But if you take a common-sensical approach and think what it means to your family and your community and look through that lens, the decisions are real easy to make.”
