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Two weeks ago, we highlighted a significant flaw in an otherwise excellent piece of legislation in Alberta. Bill 27, the Education Amendment Act (2024), requires parental consent or notification (depending on the child’s age) for a school to adopt a child’s newly chosen name or pronouns. It also makes any instruction on gender and sexuality opt-in rather than opt-out, which will reign in the indoctrination of children behind parents’ backs.

But the bill also originally required all schools, including independent Christian schools, to submit all “learning and teaching resources that deal primarily and explicitly with gender identity, sexual orientation or human sexuality” to the Minister of Education for approval. This requirement raised real concerns that the Ministry of Education would be put in the position of determining what was a legitimate – or illegitimate – Christian teaching on matters of sexuality and gender. That type of assessment is outside of the jurisdiction of the government. Governments are not arbiters of what is a correct interpretation of the Bible.

And so, we wrote a letter to the Minister of Education, and we encouraged all of you to contact your MLA and the Minister of Education, asking them to amend this legislation.

You did, and they did!

The Minister of Education has introduced an amendment clarifying that learning and teaching resources that provide religious instruction on matters of gender and sexuality would not require approval from the minister. Christian schools will continue to be able to teach a biblical view of sexuality and gender without any interference from the provincial government.

This is an excellent example of how your voice can truly make a difference. We can often become cynical that our government officials will never truly listen or act on concerns raised by people in the province, and so we don’t bother to bring our concerns to our elected representatives. But they do listen. And sometimes, as in this case, they do act.

We give credit to the government for thoughtfully making this amendment. Few bills are amended before they’re passed. Proposed amendments from the opposition usually don’t have the votes to pass, and governments who have the votes to pass legislation are often unwilling to acknowledge that they made a mistake or an oversight when drafting a piece of legislation. It is easier to simply push the original bill through the legislature. Over the last five and a half years (since the United Conservatives reclaimed government in Alberta), only one in seven (14%) of all government bills were successfully amended.

So, we’re thankful that the government was willing to listen and act. We’re thankful that many of you took the time to voice your concern over this detail of the legislation with your MLA and the Minister of Education. And we’re thankful that gender ideology is on its way out of the classroom and that the independence of Christians schools was upheld. Praise God!