At a Glance - February 13, 2024
Students Stage Walkout over Gender Identity Policies
On Wednesday, hundreds of Alberta students staged classroom walkouts to protest the province’s proposed legislation that would introduce restrictions on children of certain ages from changing their pronouns without parental consent, among other gender-related policies.
Other groups have also expressed concerns over the proposed policy. The Alberta Medical Association (AMA), CPS, and the Social Workers Association of Alberta have all come out against it. AMA and CPS further added that they have not been consulted.
According to Premier Smith, the policies are to ensure children are “fully informed” about the decisions they are making because they might regret them later in life. Smith also asked Albertans not to politicize the conversation about trans youth.
Former Justice Minister Begins Law Society Hearing
Former Alberta Justice Minister Jonathan Denis has been accused of acting in a conflict of interest by representing two families at the same time and then filing a lawsuit on behalf of one client against the other. Denis has also been accused of threatening the employment of a woman on behalf of a client with whom she’d had an affair.
In response to the first count raised against him, Denis admitted to being in conflict; however, he argued that the situation did not warrant sanctionable conduct.
The two-day law society hearing concerned with reviewing the charges brought against Denis concluded Wednesday with lawyers agreeing to file written submissions before returning in April for oral agreements.
Red Deer Catholic Talks
Teachers in Red Deer Catholic have been called to a February 15 bargaining meeting to discuss next steps after local bargaining has broken down between the school division and the Alberta Teachers’ Association.
ATA officials say that despite two consecutive days of mediation, the school board refused to move from its original bargaining position and tabled a number of offensive proposals that attempted to strip out long-standing provisions from the collective agreement.
In response to comments from the ATA, Vice Chair Dorraine Lonsdale said, “It is the intention of RDCRS to continue a principled and respectful approach while bargaining the local items tabled by both sides while arriving at a mutually acceptable agreement. The school division highly values its teachers and in addition, we are responsible to students, parents, and our communities. RDCRS has a duty to preserve our programs and services, to manage our complex education system and to be financially accountable for our decisions.”
ATA teachers will be presented with the school board’s last tabled proposal for bargaining at the February 15 meeting. Teachers will then be asked for direction on how to proceed with the bargaining proves, which could include asking the mediator to write out of the dispute. If the mediator exits the process, there will be a two-week cooling-off period before the ATA can apply to strike or the school division can hold a lock-out vote.
Alberta Report Shows Little Caribou Progress
Alberta government documents suggest the province has made little progress in protecting its 15 threatened caribou herds despite having signed an agreement with Ottawa assuring it would.
The report on the Section 11 agreement between the province and Environment Canada was released on January 19, three years after it was initially supposed to be released. The report found a long list of problems that include the slow cleanup of seismic lines, the ongoing growth of industrial footprint, and the lack of range planning to help the caribou survive in some of Canada’s busiest landscapes.
Despite the issues, recent estimates say caribou numbers seem steady at about 2,000. Of Alberta’s 15 herds, the report is confident that eight are at least holding their own. It remains unclear how the other herds are affected.
Neither the federal nor provincial departments provided comment on the report.