Eggen asks to see religious schools’ contracts
Alberta Education Minister David Eggen has asked some publicly funded religious schools to provide copies of employment contracts to review for potentially discriminatory language.
The minister’s latest move is in addition to Eggen’s December request for all Alberta Catholic school boards to show him copies of “Catholicity agreements” or religious covenants employees are asked to sign while working for a publicly funded Catholic school.
He’s reviewing the agreements in the wake of teachers saying they were required to declare they were in violation of their employment agreement if they were in a samesex relationship or living with a partner common law.
Some of the agreements are more vague, requiring teachers adhere to a “lifestyle and deportment in harmony with Catholic church practices and beliefs.”
School district employees have said the agreements leave them in fear their jobs are at risk, including a Calgary Catholic teacher whose plea for inclusion was published anonymously Tuesday by Postmedia.
“We are in ALL of your schools and offices, in every level of authority,” the teacher wrote to the district. “We are present, and right now, many — if not all of us — feel as if the current actions of our board resemble a witch hunt.”
Eggen told reporters in Edmonton on Wednesday the teacher’s letter was “heartfelt and disturbing.”
“It redoubled my intention to make sure that we cannot have discrimination based on sexuality,” he said.
Asking an employee to attest their faith is fine, but discrimination based on a person’s sexual orientation is not, Eggen said.
He expanded his review to include all public school boards, as some boards run religious schools or offer religious programs. There is no deadline to provide the contracts and no timeline for the re-
(A Catholic teacher’s plea for inclusion) redoubled my intention to make sure that we cannot have discrimination.
view, he said. School boards are co-operating, he said.
“We don’t want to be just focused on the Catholics. I mean, this came up from Catholic schools, but we want to make sure that we are looking at other areas as well,” Eggen said.
An Edmonton Public Schools spokeswoman said in December that district does not ask teachers working in religious programs to sign contracts promising to adhere to a religion.
Edmonton Public Schools oversees three Christian schools and the Logos Christian program.