EDMONTON, Alberta (LifeSiteNews) — A bill from the United Conservative Party (UCP) provincial government of Alberta will make it so that parents will have to specifically opt their children into sexual education lessons rather than opt out, as is the case now, meaning by default those classes will not be included in a child’s education.
In a statement to the media this past Tuesday, Alberta Minister of Education Demetrios Nicolaides confirmed the coming legislation.
“We intend to propose legislation this fall and will continue to consult with stakeholders throughout the implementation of these policies,” he told The Canadian Press.
When the bill will be introduced remains unclear, but Nicolaides said that his ministry is consulting with school boards and educators. Alberta’s legislature will not return until October.
For some time now, grassroots parental rights groups have been calling for sex education classes to be opt in rather than opt out to prevent their kids from being exposed to extreme LGBT agendas being promoted in some schools.
News of the bill was slammed by the teaching union through Jason Schilling, the head of the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) who said he does not “necessarily understand what was broken that needs to be fixed.”
“When we pressed government, there was no real understanding of what this will look like,” he added.
Of note is that the ATA has supported teaching of radical LGBT ideas in schools in the past.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith earlier this year promised that she would introduce a bill that would uphold parental rights within the school system and change sex education classes to an opt-in model as opposed to the opt-out model it is today.
As reported by LifeSiteNews, Smith told UCP members last year at its AGM that she unequivocally defends parental rights, saying society depends on “strong and nurturing families” and parents are the “primary caregivers and educators” of their children.
At the UCP AGM, party members passed a host of resolutions calling for parental rights to be protected, such as resolution 8 that calls for parental consent for children to “change” their pronouns at school.
UCP members also passed resolution 17, which calls for the party to support a comprehensive bill of “Parental Rights which ensures that all legislation will recognize and support parents’ rights to be informed of and in charge of all decisions to do with all services paid for by the province, including education and health care.”
Party members also passed resolution 20, which calls for the party to ban pornographic materials from being allowed to be used by teachers.
Earlier this year, Smith announced strong pro-family legislation that strengthens parental rights, protecting kids from life-altering, so-called “top and bottom” surgeries as well as other extreme forms of transgender ideology.
There have also been numerous protests against the LGBT agenda in schools, including the September 2023 “Million Person March” that drew thousands of Canadians from across the country.