I’ve had said before if you wonder where the direction of religious liberty is headed you don’t even need to look to Europe. Just look to our neighbors to the north. Canada passed their own gay marriage law back in 2005 being the fourth country to do so. Even before this homosexual “rights” have already trumped religious liberty and free speech in Canada, for instance Canada has banned passages of the Bible from being read on the radio as they are deemed “hateful” towards homosexuals.
Now the Province of Alberta has passed Education Act of 2012. Section 16 of the law reads:
All courses or programs of study offered and instructional materials used in a school must reflect the diverse nature and heritage of society in Alberta, promote understanding and respect for others and honour and respect the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Alberta Human Rights Act.
School is defined by the act as a:
structured learning environment through which an education program is offered to a student by
(i) a board,
(ii) a person responsible for the operation of a private
school,
(iii) a person providing an early childhood services
program,
(iv) a parent providing a home education program, or
(v) the Minister;
The Alberta Human Rights Act is incredibly controversial to those of us who actually care about free speech, especially those who believe it should extend beyond verbally expressing your personal opinion. In a nutshell with this new education law faith-based schools and homeschoolers will not be allowed to teach that homosexual acts are sinful as part of their academic program.
That’s an all around bad deal for faith-based private schools, but with homeschoolers there is the added problem of what constitutes education? Who determines what is family time and what is school time?
“Whatever the nature of schooling – homeschool, private school, Catholic school – we do not tolerate disrespect for differences,” Donna McColl, Lukaszuk’s assistant director of communications, told LifeSiteNews on Wednesday evening.
“You can affirm the family’s ideology in your family life, you just can’t do it as part of your educational study and instruction,” she added.
….According to McColl, Christian homeschooling families can continue to impart Biblical teachings on homosexuality in their homes, “as long as it’s not part of their academic program of studies and instructional materials.”
“What they want to do about their ideology elsewhere, that’s their family business. But a fundamental nature of our society is to respect diversity,” she added.
Pressed about what the precise distinction is between homeschoolers’ instruction and their family life, McColl said the question involved “real nuances” and she would have to get back with specifics.
But in a second interview Wednesday evening, McColl said the government “won’t speculate” about particular examples, and explained that she had not yet gotten a “straight answer” on what exactly constitutes “disrespect.” She did say that families “can’t be hatemongering, if you will.”
So apparently families who don’t homeschool are in the clear, but will have to counteract what is said in public school (which they probably do already) and now in private religious schools as well (they’ll probably just avoid the topic altogether). This is the chief end of those who push homosexual “rights.” They don’t want tolerance, they want to silence those who disagree.
McColl says they won’t tolerate the disrespect of differences, but how is this law “respectful” to people of faith? Silencing somebody demonstrates respect? Please don’t think that this attitude won’t travel south.
You can read the Alberta Education Act 2012 below:
Related articles
- Fascism: Canadian Supreme Court overturns right to religious liberty (winteryknight.wordpress.com)
- Alberta joins Quebec in imposing “diversity” education on homeschoolers (winteryknight.wordpress.com)
- Homeschooling: The preferred educational choice? (online.worldmag.com)
- Homosexual groups AWOL on child abuse (wnd.com)
- Homeschooling magazine gives away 20,000 copies (wnd.com)
