Edmonton activists want LGBT community consulted on Bill 10 revisions
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Prominent members of Edmonton's gay community are hopeful the Alberta Tories will carry out a thorough consultation before revisiting Bill 10.
The heavily criticized piece of legislation, introduced last week, quashed a Liberal private member's bill that would have mandated school boards to allow "gay-straight alliance" support groups in schools where students wanted them. Premier Jim Prentice hit pause on the bill Thursday after public outcry and promised to revisit it in 2015.
"I really would have liked to see whoever was writing the legislation sit down in a high school, or even a junior high, and talk to some gay kids about what those groups mean to them," said Jackie Foord, a community activist and recipient of the Edmonton Pride Festival Society's 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award.
"I know this government has a large majority, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with consulting with the community and the other parties in getting this right."
Foord said the bill - which would let school boards say no to gay-straight alliances, leaving Education Minister Gordon Dirks to facilitate the groups in cases where boards would not accommodate students - is a "fundamental violation" of students' rights to freedom of assembly.
Foord came out after high school but remembers how challenging it was even as an adult. She still gets emotional talking about it.
"You don't know what's happening. You don't understand it, you can try to deny it. There is a whole wealth of emotion that goes with that," she said. "I was very fortunate as an adult that I had someone to talk to about that, and help me through that. That's all these kids want."
Former city councillor Michael Phair is also urging the Tories to consult with students, as well as with the Edmonton Public School Board and members of Alberta's LGBTQ community - especially women and transgendered people.
Phair said some of the things said by pro-Bill 10 MLAs during last week's legislature debates went "beyond the pale."
"It was beyond comprehension. It was ludicrous as it went on," he said.
"It almost drove one to laugh after a while. This was so poorly thought out all you could do was laugh and say, 'How could this happen?' "
Phair hopes the Bill 10 debate does not reflect poorly on the province at large, saying surveys consistently show Alberta's redneck days are "long gone."
"I worry that they are trying to pull in a small group of people whose opinions are very much a minority these days in Alberta, and that's unfortunate," he said.
"I'm baffled as to who they consulted with, and I can't imagine that they consulted with any significant legal body that wouldn't say this is probably discriminatory and probably against the Alberta Human Rights Act. I can't imagine that any legal opinion would be anything except that."
kevin.maimann@sunmedia.ca
@SunKevinM
