A lawyer for the board that operates the Covenant Canadian Reformed School (CCRS) in Neerlandia says they are mulling over their options after Alberta Education Minister David Eggen threatened to cut their funding earlier this month for not complying with Bill 24: An Act to Support Gay-Straight Alliances.
“They’re considering their position,” said Jay Cameron of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF). “They are reviewing the response of the Minister and they will make deliberations and respond accordingly.”
CCRS was one of 28 privately-run schools singled out by Eggen two weeks ago for apparently not complying with the legislation, which requires schools to affirm the rights of students and staff under the Alberta Human Rights Act and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
It also requires schools to allow for the creation of Gay-Straight Alliances, and it restricts school administration from notifying parents of anything beyond the creation of that organization.
Eggen said he was giving the 28 schools until the end of June 2019 to comply with Bill 24 or their funding would be withdrawn next fall.
“I sincerely hope we will not need to take that step,” Eggen said, in an interview with Global News. “But I have been clear — following the law is not optional. Ensuring children feel safe and included at school is not optional.”
Initially, the Barrhead Leader reached out to Alberta Education to determine how CCRS is not complying with Bill 24, which was passed in December.
However, a spokesperson communicated via e-mail that the school administration had been informed what the deficiencies were in their policy.
The Leader then reached out to Covenant Canadian Reformed School and was directed to the CCRS board’s counsel at the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms.
The JCCF had requested an injunction earlier this year to put the province’s Gay-Straight Alliance law on hold, arguing that the Supreme Court of Canada had ruled that government may not interfere with parental rights to make decisions for their children unless the government proves that parents’ decisions are harmful.
A judge at the Court of Queen’s Bench denied the injunction, but an appeal will be heard on Monday, Dec. 3 in Calgary.
Cameron said the CCRS board had been told the Caring, Respectful and Safe Teaching and Learning Policy — which can be viewed on the CCRS website — contains language that suggests alternative viewpoints are not equally legitimate, which is disrespectful of diversity and inconsistent with the legislation.
Specifically, Cameron said they have been told that they cannot say the Bible is infallible or that God is the only true source of knowledge and wisdom.
He said they cannot say in the policy that parents have a Biblical role and responsibility as parents in regards to being notified about what’s going on in their children’s lives.
They have also been told they cannot seek parental feedback in advance of creating Gay-Straight Alliances.
“The Minister has ordered them to impose a policy of his creation. When they asked him to explain why they couldn’t say certain things, or how it was disrespectful of diversity, the response from Alberta Education was that this was the opinion of the Minister,” said Cameron.
“You’ll note that it says that you can’t say the Bible is infallible or that the Bible is inerrant, but that the Minister is styling his opinion as inerrant. And he’s threatening to shut them down if they don’t adopt his opinion as opposed to the Bible’s opinion.”
Cameron said CCRS and 60 other privately-run schools didn’t receive any feedback from the Minister about their policies on safe and caring schools until September, when Eggen stated publically that these schools were non-compliant.
“As far as feedback, they didn’t get any feedback about the policies until September 2018,” he said.
It is not known how much funding CCRS receives from the province, but privately-run schools in Alberta may receive up to 70 per cent of the per-student operating grants paid to public schools.
Cameron said he couldn’t say if the loss of provincial funding would result in the closure of CCRS, but it would have a significant impact on the school.
“(CCRS has) operated under a particular legal framework, and done so successfully,” he said.
“They have been repeatedly found to be safe and respectful, and they have scored high marks in … academics as well.”
Cameron argued that it would cost the province more money to defund private schools like CCRS and move the students into public schools than it would to allow them to continue operating.
“The independent schools save the government money. They don’t cost the government money.”
