Total Confusion In Alberta...

...over bill 44, an update to the province's human rights legislation. A minister-on-minister dust up seems to have occurred between Education Minister Dave Hancock and Culture Minister Lindsay Blackett.

Background: teachers are still worried they might be taken to the Alberta Human Rights Commision for, among other things, discussing sexuality in class without having informed parents in advance, so that said parents might decide whether or not their children are allowed to participate in the discussion or even attend.

Education minister Hancock asked that implementation of this "parental opt-out" clause be delayed until next year and...what?

This story from five hours ago suggests that Blackett has agreed to the delay. This one, from a bit earlier in the day, suggests he still wants to press ahead. So I don't know what the heck is going on, but its sure no way to run a rail-road, let alone a province aspiring to national leadership.

I will make a prediction though: I predict that the opt-out clause eventually comes out of the legislation entirely, and we are left with a document that explicitly disallows discrimination on the basis of sexuality.

Update: Blackett tweets:

Section 9 will take effect on Sept 1, 2010 so formalized process can be created by School Boards.

Alberta's Bill 44 To Be Implemented This Fall

...over the non-silent objections of teachers, Lindsay Blackett looks to "the silent majority" for support:

"For those people around the country that think that's somehow wrong, we in Alberta believe in family values, because the family's at the core of what makes a great community. . . . We're taking a lead, here."

Bill 44 may allow parents to drag teachers before the AHRC (Alberta Human Rights Commission) if, for example, they talk about religion or sexuality in class without giving advance notice to the parents, who may then ask that their children be pulled from the class in question.

Blackett is obviously preparing for such an eventuality:

"We're looking at overall governance of the commission and we're also looking at training of staff within the commission. So a lot of those things have to happen and we'd like to get them all tidied up before we actually proclaim the bill into law."

Wow! Beefing up the AHRC! Ezra's gonna be pissed.

Alberta To Ontario: Freeze In The Dark!

There is seldom any point to taking issue with a columnist from the Sun Chain, especially one of their girl writers, who seem to be chosen for their ability to foam up cutely rather than reason at any length or use words of more than a single syllable. It's too much like trying to review a bubble-gum card or being a heckler at the Special Olympics. However, the Calgary Sun's Licia Corbella has decided to take a few gratuitous shots at my beloved Toronto in her Friday column, and I could not let that stand.

Licia writes:

Ontario Liberals are burning mad over the gasoline shortage in Toronto and across the province. Dan McTeague, Liberal MP for Pickering-Scarborough East, blamed the gasoline shortage on "Big Oil."

We had 44 refineries in Canada 20 years ago and we now have exactly 13, and two or three of them are either running offline or have very little capacity," McTeague complained to reporters.

Uh, but isn't that precisely what Liberals want? Aren't less refineries, less oil-sands development, higher gasoline prices and more Canadians riding public transit the Liberal plan?

Yes. That's exactly what the Liberals, and therefore, by definition, most Torontonians, say they want. It's also what the Green Party and NDP advocate.

Actually, what Torontonians want is:

1) What the mayor of Fort MacMurray wants, which is the development of the tar sands according to a plan that does not allow unchecked growth to trash the Alberta landscape or allow tons upon tons of of CO2 to be pumped into the atmosphere. Surely the mayor is not alone among Albertans in wanting these things?

2) More and better public transit. Licia gets that one correct. We Torontonians do tend to approve of public transit. But what does Licia have against public transit? Does she think it unmanly to not own a pickup truck?

3) As for higher gas prices, thanks but we already have those.

Ms. Corbella goes on to blame Health, Safety, and Environmental standards that are just too damn high for the fact that Canada has so few gas refineries on-line these days. I wonder, since she is happy to ascribe beliefs to literally millions of people on the basis of statements by a single Ontario MP, whether it is safe to say that Albertans, or maybe Conservatives, are in favor of lower health and safety standards. If so, they should make it a part of their next election platform.

Anyway, Corbella winds up with:

In any event, many Albertans who fear Ontarians will vote Dion into power and thus destroy their economic security again, as they did when the National Energy Program was imposed upon the oil industry in Alberta, are enjoying watching Torontonians line up for gas.

"To quote Ralph Klein, 'Let them freeze in the dark,' " wrote one reader.

As a Torontonian, let me say that I'm glad we're providing Alberta with entertainment. Of course out here in the East it is considered pretty tasteless to get a kick out of the misfortune of others, no matter what their politics might be, but I suppose that must be put down to cultural differences.

And, oh yes, one other important cultural difference between Toronto and, for example, Calgary, is that out here we make it so that our roads go both ways.

When Calgarians have figured out the concept of a two-way street, they can call us and we'll be happy to explain the more complicated stuff, like Opera.

Well, At Least Albertans Are Normal In THAT Respect

From The Lifesite:

EDMONTON, Alberta, February 27, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - More than one-third of young teenage boys aged 13-14 report viewing pornographic DVDs or videos “too many times to count”, a new study from the University of Alberta found, with boys living in rural areas the most likely to access porn.

[...]

Nearly half the boys from rural regions said they had viewed pornographic videos or DVDs at least once, compared to children from urban areas who reported a one-in-three rate of exposure to pornographic videos.

I guess cow-tipping gets a bit stale after awhile. Whereas city kids can always go to the opera. Sonya Thompson, lead researcher on the study, went on to comment:

“If you’re 13 and you can’t put a number on the times [you’ve viewed porn], that’s a little frightening.”

It's also a terrible indictment of the Alberta educational system, and an opportunity for Kevin Taft and the Alberta Liberal Party. I see a slogan: Vote Lib., And Your Kid Will Be At Least Know How Many Times They've Masturbated.