The Alberta government has paused all wind and solar energy developments, citing the need to review project locations and the effect they would have on the province’s electrical grid.
According to a report by the Globe and Mail, several companies in the application stage claim to have been surprised by the government’s decision to stop the proposals in their tracks, but according to provincial officials, they were warned in advance.
“We have to pause all spending on our projects and halt everything, because we don’t even know if we’re going to qualify under new legislation that may or may not come up,” said founder and chief executive of Proteus Mike Lambros.
The provincial government officially announced on Thursday that all existing applications for solar and wind projects promising to produce over one megawatt of electricity would be halted citing the need to review end-of-life practices for turbines and solar farms.
Nearly 15 projects could be affected by the decision.
The decision for the Alberta Utilities Commission to halt all new approvals is expected to last until Feb. 29 as Alberta undergoes a policy review.
According to Alberta Affordability and Utilities Minister Nathan Neudorf, Alberta’s renewable energy regulations were written a quarter of a century ago and need updating for the current realities.
Alberta is among the foremost provinces in Canada to invest in solar and wind technology. It has seen billions of dollars pour into renewables over the past few years.
“But the world has changed, so we need to address this quickly and answer some of these challenges,” explained Neudorf.
Some of the expected regulatory changes to be reviewed are security bonds so that solar and wind farms can be properly disposed of when they reach the end of their life cycle, as well as outlining which areas were suitable for renewable energy projects.
Some farmers and rural communities have expressed concern that solar and wind farms are taking up valuable agricultural land.
According to the Alberta government, they consulted 200 parties before pausing the applications.
Critics of solar and wind energy say that the business case behind such developments is weak and that by nature such projects are unreliable when it comes to increasing electricity demands.
In April, the Alberta energy grid saw the share of wind and solar power production fall to less than 1% of their total energy capacity.
“At this point, the business case behind using solar and wind power is often very weak because these two sources of power are often unreliable – the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow,” president of SecondStreet.org Colin Craig told True North.
The 150th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) came and went on May 23rd. Although Niagara Falls was lit up by night in spectacular crimson, celebrations were generally subdued and the official statement of Marco Mendicino, federal Minister of Public Safety, said Canada’s national police force was “reflecting on its past with humility” and “acknowledging that the RCMP has played a role in some of Canada’s most difficult and dark moments.” Not your average gusher of praise, to be sure. In a country whose government, academia, news media, social activists and Indigenous organizations are pushing a narrative that their nation’s treatment of Indigenous people has amounted to “genocide,” it seems the top law enforcement organization is being forced to share the blame.
In fact, the historical record is clear that for much of Canada’s history, the RCMP was among the best friend Canada’s Indigenous people had. In at least one instance, its predecessor organization saved one of Canada’s largest groups of Indigenous tribes from extinction: the Blackfoot.
Before Canada even became a country, and before the future Prairie provinces were settled by whites, the unquenchable thirst for alcohol that had grown among the Blackfoot of southern Alberta had become so strong that some were found frozen to death in the snow following a binge of heavy drinking. The problem worsened after an outbreak of smallpox in 1870, with some selling all that they had to obtain alcohol, and outbreaks of violence and murder becoming more common. It became so bad that the proud warrior nation began to separate into small groups, afraid to cross paths.
That’s the way Irish-born Father Constantine Scollen described the Blackfoot in a letter to Alexander Morris, Lieutenant-Governor of the recently created North-West Territories, in September 1876. “It was painful to me to see the state of poverty to which they had been reduced,” Father Scollen wrote. “Now they were clothed in rags, without horses and without guns.”
In a letter to Alexander Morris, Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West Territories (top right), Father Constantine Scollen (top left) lamented that the devastation of alcohol and smallpox had reduced the formerly “proud, haughty, numerous” Blackfoot people to half their former number. (Source of bottom photo: University of Alberta Libraries, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
This was in stark contrast to the state of the Blackfoot when Scollen first started living among them in 1861. “Formerly they had been the most opulent Indians in the country,” he wrote. “They were then a proud, haughty, numerous people (perhaps 10,000 on the British side of the line) having a regular politico-religious organization.” In the blunt language of the day, Scollen also noted the Blackfoot people’s “thirst for blood” and other “passions.”
Modern-day confirmation of how well off some of the Blackfoot had been comes in a booklet published in 2008 by the Blood Tribe (one of the three main members of the Blackfoot Confederacy) describing Chief Peeniquim (Seen From Afar) as being rich enough to have 10 wives, 100 horses and a huge lodge made with 30 buffalo skins. Two horses were needed to move his lodge from place to place.
In his letter to Morris – who negotiated four of the seven treaties the new Dominion of Canada entered into between 1871 and 1877 with the Ojibway, Cree, Blackfoot and other tribes living between Thunder Bay and the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains – Scollen attributed the Blackfoot’s fallen state to the devastating impact of smallpox and to alcohol. “The fiery water flowed more freely, if I may use the metaphor, as the streams running from the Rocky Mountains, and hundreds of the poor Indians fell victim to the white man’s craving for money, some poisoned, some frozen to death whilst in a state of intoxication, and many shot down by American bullets,” he wrote.
The “fiery water” was not part of a diabolical plot by the fledgling Canadian government to commit genocide upon the Indigenous peoples of the Prairies. It came from the American side of the 49th parallel, specifically from the rapidly developing chain of towns along the Missouri River running through northern Montana and North Dakota – places like Fort Benton and Great Falls.
A prominent voice among Muslims opposing gender ideology in schools says she’s receiving abusive messages from progressives online – but won’t be silenced.
“You cannot imagine the amount of threats, insults I am getting just because I am saying I want my children to be educated without gender ideology,” said Bahira Abdulsalam, an educator and Toronto mother.
“They are trying to silence me, and they are trying to scare me.”
Abdulsalam currently sits on the Toronto District School Board’s Parent Involvement Advisory Committee. She also ran for mayor in the 2023 mayoral by-election.
Abdulsalam provided True North with several examples of hateful messages she has received in response to her opposition to gender ideology and drag shows for kids. Many include xenophobic comments, telling her to go back to the country she emigrated from.
“Go back to your own country you hateful bigot. YOU ARE NOT WANTED IN CANADA LEAVE NOW.”
“Take your fundamentalist religious extremism and MOVE BACK TO THE THEOCRACY YOU CAME FROM.”
“Move you bigot to some authoritarian backwater, let you raise your kids to be bigots like you want to. What are house prices in Tehran these days. Gladly swap you for someone actually wants freedoms.”
“And, the more you go off, the more I think you need to be kicked out of our country and back to your own. Try your freedom of speech over there and see how long it lasts.”
Abdulsalam has also received messages targeting her Islamic faith and her decision to wear the Hijab.
“How about keeping your medieval religious wear from our schools. It must scare modern kids to see this & learn that in some religions, men require the women to dress this way because they cannot be trusted to not rape them.”
“Keep the hijab out of schools.”
“Keep organized religion away from public schools! Religious extremists are the most groomed of anyone in society.”
“KEEP THE MUSLIM COMMUNITY OUT OF OUR SCHOOLS, esp the ones who likes to marry UNDERAGE GIRLS and get them pregnant. Or the Muslim men who likes to f*** little boys just for fun. Religion of peace yet beheads people for the littlest reason. F*** you bahira and F*** YOUR ALLAH.”
Other users have taken it a step further by telling Abdulsalam, who is also an engineer, that they’ve filed a complaint with the Professional Engineers Ontario licensing body.
You're hatred & bigotry has been reported to the the Professional Engineers of Ontario. Enjoy your disciplinary hearing.
— Cod of Borg: Newfoundland Cod at its Finest 🐟🐟🐠 (@CodBorg) August 1, 2023
However, Abdulsalam says she won’t be bullied or silenced by the woke left.
“Let’s say that Professional Engineers Ontario decided to take away my license, is this going to make me stop defending my child or other people’s children? No.”
“I am not worried about them cancelling me,” she added.
Abdulsalam also said that receiving hateful messages “makes me feel more determined to continue” advocating against gender ideology.
She believes the activists pushing for gender ideology in schools are part of “a very fringe minority,” and that they feel threatened when people like her challenge their narrative.
“I am a single mother. I have lots of things to care about. All (I am doing) is I’m speaking the truth,” said Abdulsalam. “When people say the truth, it becomes so powerful. This is my weapon that is threatening them.”
The online abuse received by Abdulsalam is not the only example of Canadian Muslims being targeted by progressives for opposing gender ideology.
During the 2022-2023 school year, two Canadian teachers were caught on tape berating Muslim students for skipping LGBTQ pride activities, including in Windsor, Ontario – as exclusively reported on by True North.
EXCLUSIVE: An elementary teacher in Windsor, Ontario berated Muslim students for skipping LGBTQ pride day, telling them their abstention was “disgusting” and “an incredible show of hatred” that makes her not want to be their educator. Recording obtained by @TrueNorthCentre. pic.twitter.com/T7jhFfLHvN
Canadian Muslims are planning a “Million Person March” in September to protest gender ideology and Pride activities in schools. Organizer Kamel El-Cheikh is hoping to bring people of all faiths together.
Abdulsalam says she looks forward to seeing Canadians from coast to coast protest against gender ideology at the march on Sept. 20.
There’s only a handful of innovative floating liquified natural gas (LNG) facilities in the world and a British Columbia First Nation is en route to build their own $10 billion project near Prince Rupert.
According to the Canadian Energy Centre, the Nisga’a Nation has reached the engineering stage of its proposed Ksi Lisims LNG plant in northern BC.
The floating projects promise quicker turnarounds and cheaper investments for countries like Canada, which is known to be plagued with cumbersome regulations.
Additionally, some of the benefits touted by proponents of the new technology is lower emission output due to the reduced need for onshore development and fewer required work camps.
“The project will be the heartbeat of our Nation’s economy,” said Nisga’a president Eva Clayton.
“It’s our best chance to build prosperity and a positive future for our people.”
The First Nation will be contracting Black & Veatch and Samsung Heavy Industries to design the engineering behind the innovative plant.
Upon completion, the plant will be able to conduct activities from liquefaction to offloading.
According to energy analyst Dulles Wang, there are currently only five floating LNG facilities currently operating around the world.
“The technology is becoming more mature as we see more floating LNG projects,” said Wang.
There’s hope that the project will be able to produce 12 million tonnes of LNG per year or up to 2.0 billion cubic feet each day.
Despite the high hopes, the project could face regulatory hurdles due to net zero policies implemented by the BC NDP government.
“The B.C. government has an emissions reduction target by 2030. How to implement the new Energy Action Framework for new LNG projects to reach net zero by 2030 could create regulatory uncertainty for the project,” explained Wang.
If it passes regulatory hurdles, the project could be completed and in operation as soon as 2027.
The following is a chapter excerpt from the Aristotle Foundation’s new book, The 1867 Project: Why Canada Should be Cherished—Not Cancelled. Purchase your copy here.
Modern Western civilization grew out of the Enlightenment of the 17th and 18th centuries. The ascendancy of reason in human affairs produced the scientific method and later the Industrial Revolution. Add in the rule of law, individual liberty, private property, and capitalism, and you have the basic recipe that has raised much of humanity out of poverty and oppression over two centuries.
Four academic doctrines—Critical Theory, Postmodernism, Social Justice, and Critical Race Theory—are moving the world, or at least the West, from this triumph to decline. These doctrines reject Enlightenment values such as open inquiry, individual autonomy, free speech, scientific skepticism, and even reason itself. They claim to champion equality, peace, and social cooperation, but instead promote identity politics, elitism, and centralized control. They are the four doctrines of the apocalypse.
Unlike traditional academic inquiry, these “neo-Marxist” doctrines are less theories than programs. They are activist and political. “The philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways,” Marx famously wrote, “The point, however, is to change it.” Critical Theory is not to be confused with critical thinking, for to think critically is to reason, explain, critique, and challenge. Instead, the purpose of these doctrines is to condemn. They largely consist of ideological assertions not based on data or deduction. They lead with their conclusions.
Critical Theory and its related fields do not constitute a singular school of thought but a scholarly umbrella that consists of multiple related approaches and variations that defy easy encapsulation. Its history is messy and convoluted. Its scholarship can be verbose, incoherent, and sometimes impenetrable, while much of its original intellectual project has been overtaken by its modern activist incarnation. Critical Theory is attractive to cultural revolutionaries in part because it is difficult to pin down, like trying to staple jelly to a wall.
Yet these doctrines have become the intellectual foundation for the ascendant ideology of our time, woke progressivism, which is severe, uncompromising, and vengeful. Their commandments have become Canada’s secular religion, whose apostles sneer at the foundations of their own society. Cultural contrition has become ubiquitous: Canada is systemically racist. White people are privileged. The nuclear family is misogynist. Capitalism is oppressive. Private property rights cause environmental destruction. Prosperity produces climate change.
The premises of these four doctrines define the ethos now dominant in major public institutions: government, legacy media, universities, big corporations, public schools, public health authorities, law enforcement, professional regulators and, increasingly, courts. Yet many people are unfamiliar with Critical Theory, would not be able to identify these doctrines by name, and do not realize that they are following their prescriptions. Cultural revolution is complete when the new way of thinking simply becomes the way people think. The most serious threat to the West is not China or Russia but cultural self-hate. No coup is more effective than one committed by a people against itself.
The long march through the institutions
It all starts with Marx. Between the two world wars, scholars at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt began to investigate why Marxism was failing to catch on in the West. They broadened Marx’s tight focus on economic oppression of the working class and developed the doctrine known as Critical Theory, which is premised on the ideas that power and oppression define relationships throughout society, that knowledge is socially contingent, and that unjust Western institutions should be collapsed and reconstituted.
In the decades following its birth at the Frankfurt School, Critical Theory and its variations made an inexorable march through universities, influencing such disparate disciplines as sociology, literary criticism, and linguistics, infiltrating professional schools like teachers’ colleges and law schools, and dominating “grievance studies” programs such as women’s studies, gender studies, and media studies. Today its reach extends to virtually every field in the arts and social sciences, and its final conquest is now underway inside science, technology, engineering, and medical faculties.
Generations of university graduates, taught to believe in the premises of Critical Theory rather than how to think critically about it, now populate the workplace. In the universities themselves, job offers and research grants are now reserved for those who comport with Critical Theory’s prescriptions, narrowing the range of acceptable thought and stifling open inquiry. The new order has been established as the ascendant status quo.
As political tools, Critical Theory and its variations are brilliant. Any challenge to their legitimacy can be interpreted as a demonstration of their thesis: the assertion of reason, logic, and evidence is a manifestation of privilege and power. Thus, any challenger risks the stigma of a bigoted oppressor. James Lindsay, an independent American critic of Critical Theory and Social Justice, calls Critical Theory a “kafkatrap.” “Notice race? Because you’re racist. Don’t? Because you’re privileged, thus racist.” If you deny that you are a witch, then you are a witch. And if you do not deny it, then you are a witch for sure. Pointing out that Critical Theory makes no sense misses the point: making sense is Western and privileged.
“Repressive Tolerance” and woke progressivism
Double standards on speech and conduct are baked into our current political order. Burning churches and blocking railways are blows in support of Social Justice, but peacefully protesting vaccine mandates constitutes a public order emergency. Defying pandemic lockdown rules is a threat to public safety when parishioners gather for church services in parking lots, but not when thousands gather for Black Lives Matter marches. The federal government vilifies law abiding gun owners while it eliminates minimum sentences for gun crimes. The hypocrisy of our authorities is no accident. Their choices are deliberate and calculated.
This uneven treatment, according to James Lindsay, is rooted in a single 1965 essay by Critical Theory philosopher Herbert Marcuse called ”Repressive Tolerance,” whose theme Lindsay encapsulates in one sentence: “movements from the left must be extended tolerance, even when they are violent, while movements from the right must not be tolerated, including suppressing them by violence.”
This is the world we now inhabit. If you are not on board with the prevailing program, your speech and behaviour must be crushed. Intolerance should extend to actions as well as to expression.
Once upon a time, when they were cultural mavericks, liberals championed free speech. Establishment conservatives were the censors, urging limits on obscenity, blasphemy, and communist propaganda. In a free society, went the liberal argument, all must be able to express ideas and opinions no matter who has the reins of power. Freedom of expression protected the dissenter, the rebel, and the heretic from the orthodoxy of the prevailing view. Now the shoe is on the other foot. With the help of Critical Theory and its related doctrines, liberalism has morphed into the dominant ideology of woke progressivism and free speech is no longer needed to protect the left, whose sensibilities now prevail. It turns out that progressives were less interested in the principle of free speech than in promoting their own values.
Bruce Pardy is a professor of law at Queen’s University and executive director of Rights Probe. This chapter excerpt is from the Aristotle Foundation’s new book, The 1867 Project: Why Canada Should be Cherished—Not Cancelled, edited by Mark Milke. Purchase your copy here.
Nova Scotia’s provincial government is resorting to desperate measures to alleviate the housing crisis.
The government will be spending $1.3 million dollars on a partnership with an online home-sharing platform called Happipad, hoping Nova Scotians rent out their extra rooms to individuals looking for short-term rentals.
“This partnership truly encompasses the hospitable nature of all Nova Scotians,” said Housing Minister John Lohr.
There are 130,000 vacant bedrooms across the province, according to Lohr, and he believes they could be filled by students, healthcare workers and people in the trades who are looking for short-term rentals.
The partnership between the online platform and the provincial government began last spring as a way to help those displaced by wildfires to find a temporary place to stay. It will now be available throughout Nova Scotia.
Happipad is run by a Canadian non-profit organization which aims to set up renters in search of affordable month-to-month accommodations with residents looking to rent out extra rooms in their homes.
The platform conducts background checks of both the host and renter to ensure a safe exchange. Happipad also collects and distributes rent money and provides conflict resolution when necessary.
The government said that the rent prices on Happipad are generally lower than that of rent outside of the platform.
“Whether it’s older adults seeking a housing companion to share their home with or newcomers and students in search of safe and affordable accommodations, Happipad embraces people of all ages,” said Cailan Libby, CEO of Happipad in a recent statement.
A British Columbia lumber mill is calling out government inaction on challenges facing the forestry sector after having to cut 60 jobs.
On Tuesday, Sinclair Forest Products president Greg Stewart announced that an increasingly unaffordable market for log supply led the company to make the difficult decision to cut one of two shifts at the Vanderhood, B.C. mill.
Really devastating news for forestry workers trying provide for their families. Nechako Lumber in Vanderhoof is forced to cut production because BC NDP isn't issuing permits. Dozens of workers will be losing their job right before Christmas. If NDP cared about working people, 1/2
“We are deeply sorry for the impact this decision will have on our employees, their families, and the community of Vanderhoof,” said Stewart.
“This shift-reduction is not an anomaly. The problems facing the forest industry in BC are significant, complex, and diverse. They require a cooperative collective response from all governments, First Nation titleholders, stakeholders, and forestry companies.”
The forestry industry in BC has been struggling with high log costs for years and in 2019 hundreds of logging trucks descended on Vancouver to protest a lack of government action on the issue.
“We are not asking for money, we didn’t come here for donations or anything. What we want is for our communities to keep their jobs,” said convoy organizer Frank Etchart at the time.
The announcement by Sinclair comes on the heels of similar layoffs in Chetwynds, Houston, Merritt and Prince George within the span of a few months.
According to Nechako Lakes MLA and Conservative Party of British Columbia leader John Rustad, the province needs to step up in securing forestry permits to solve the problem.
“This is wrong. No British Columbian should be losing their job because of the government dropping the ball,” said Rustad in a statement.
“Sadly, our BC NDP government seems to have forgotten the meaning of the term ‘workers movement’.”
More good paying jobs lost & jeopardized in BC.
British Columbia is built on the sweat of hardworking BCers who shower at the end of the day, rather than at the beginning.
Rustad accused the NDP government of overlooking rural and northern communities.
“Independent workers and union members — particularly workers in our natural resource industries — are being sold out by a government that is too focused on Downtown Victoria and Vancouver to care about issuing permits to keep British Columbia’s mills open in places like Vanderhoof, Houston, Chetwynd, Prince George, and many others all across BC,” said Rustad.
It seems like every weather event these days is being blamed on climate change.
Everything from tornados and thunderstorms to dogs being locked in hot cars, the climate alarmists want us to believe the sole culprit is climate change. But is this really the case?
On this episode of The Rupa Subramanya Show, Rupa is joined by Ross McKitrick. McKitrick is a Professor of Economics and CBE Fellow in Sustainable Commerce at the University of Guelph where he specializes in environment, energy and climate policy.
Rupa and McKitrick discuss recent weather events, how climate alarmism is at an all-time high, the implementation of carbon taxes and much more.
Canada’s student visa system is under investigation by the Canada Border Service Agency (CBSA) following a string of abuses with the program, according to The Globe and Mail.
The investigation is ongoing as the CBSA conducts a probe into 300 students. The probe has so far revealed that at least 10 people have attained student visas using fake acceptance letters from colleges and universities, some of whom are also involved in gangs and crime related activity.
Earlier this year, Ottawa conducted a probe into 2,000 incredulous student visas and discovered that approximately 1,485 applicants had issued fake letters of admission into colleges and universities. The bulk of the fraudulent applicants involved came from India, China and Vietnam.
It is now up to a task force, including the federal Immigration Department, to identify which students legitimately traveled to Canada to study and which ones are linked to fraud. Until the investigation is complete, Ottawa will halt the removals previously ordered to students who may have potentially been duped by the fake letters of admission.
“The CBSA will continue to focus inland investigative resources on high-risk cases, with criminality and national security being the highest priorities,” said Guillaume Bérubé, a spokesman for the CBSA.
“The CBSA is responsible for investigating alleged violations of the Customs Act and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), focusing on complex cases such as organized crime, and primarily targeting the organizers, facilitators and perpetrators of crimes that pose a threat to the integrity of Canada’s border legislation,” said Mr. Bérubé.
The scam initially came to the attention of CBSA in 2018 when a probe into the abuse of the student visa system revealed that such visas were being used by others as a means to get to Canada, only to join gangs.
Last month, Aaron McCrorie, vice-president of intelligence and enforcement for the CBSA, spoke with the House of Commons immigration committee where he expressed to MPs that the 2018 probe raised concerns that there was, “a pattern of individuals coming into Canada, potentially using the student visa process to join criminal gangs.”
Berubé said that there are CBSA criminal-investigation sections throughout every region in Canada and recently an arrest was made in the Pacific Region. Brijesh Mishra, an Indian education agent who was allegedly involved in fake college admission letters, was arrested while crossing the U.S.-Canada border and charged under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
His arrest led to protests from international students who are facing deportation for their alleged involvement with fake admission letters. The students claim that they applied under the assumption that the admission letters were genuine and only became aware that they were fake after applying to remain in Canada.
Canadians live in a vast, diverse country with a wide set of values and opinions.
So, it shouldn’t be surprising that many are upset with what’s being taught in public schools and other school activities.
Consider that a recent poll commissioned by SecondStreet.org found that 51% of Canadians think the public school system has gone in the wrong direction over the last 20 years. This is a significant increase – in late 2020, that number stood at just 32%.
Why are people so unhappy with the system?
Well, the poll didn’t delve into what’s driving these concerns, but if one follows what’s been going on in Canada’s public schools, it’s not hard to see why.
There are countless examples of sensitive, controversial, and politically-charged topics being taught to children across Canada as undisputed facts.
Take for instance, the Calgary school that taught kids that saying “All Lives Matter” is inappropriate, or that climate activist Greta Thunberg and Michelle Obama are “great speakers.” No matter your opinion on those individuals or that statement, it’s clear that politically biased content was taught to children. Imagine how left-leaning parents would react if their child was taught that Jordan Peterson or Ben Shapiro were “great speakers.”
Also consider gender issues and sexual matters in public schools.
By now, you’ve probably seen the photos of the teacher wearing enormous fake breasts at a school in Oakville, Ontario. In Lumsden, Saskatchewan, grade 9 students were handed cardsexplaining graphic sexual acts. In Castlegar, British Columbia, a teacher had a drag queen read to her elementary school class through Zoom. These are just a few examples of controversial activities in public schools as of late.
Many schools are also training their teachers to have an explicit bias against white people. Take, for instance, the Toronto District School Board. Last year, it held a workshop for teachers titled ‘Teaching math while White: An abolitionist approach to dismantling racism in the math classroom.’ Should critical race theory really play a part in teaching kids algebra?
With all of this focus on pushing controversial topics, it seems that a focus on math, reading, writing, history, and other important topics has fallen by the wayside. Test scores are dropping.
Any or all of these reasons may be contributing to the growing dissatisfaction with the public school system. So, how can it be fixed?
For one, governments could give parents more choice.
Alberta’s charter school model is an example worth copying. In that province, a number of publicly funded, non-profit schools cater to different educational priorities. There are schools that focus more on science and math, some that have a focus on fine arts, and even some based around Indigenous teachings.
Best of all for parents, these schools do not charge tuition. Is it any surprise they have long waiting lists for enrollment?
Expanding the number of these schools in Alberta, and introducing the idea to other provinces, can only be a good thing. Doing so would give parents more choice. For example, a parent with a child who’s passionate about the trades would certainly appreciate a school where they could dedicate more time to learning about carpentry, welding or plumbing instead of critical race theory and gender ideology.
Governments could also consider charter schools for faith-based groups. This could help address situations where school content or activities are in direct conflict with religious worldviews. For example, there have been at least two cases in Canada this year where public school teachers berated Muslim students for not participating in pride events. If religious families aren’t welcome in public schools, charter schools could be a potential solution.
Even non-religious parents who disagree with controversial gender and racial agendas could benefit from a charter school that vows not to infuse these ideas into its curriculum.
It’s clear that Canada’s public schools are heading in the wrong direction. While improving the public system itself is a goal worth pursuing, giving parents more choice is equally important. After all, parents should have the final say when it comes to raising their own children.
Dom Lucyk is the Communications Director with SecondStreet.org, a public policy think tank.
