Order ‘changes nothing’: Baptist schools’ lawyer
The lawyer for two Edmontonarea private Baptist schools that won’t allow gay-straight alliances said an order from the education minister is irrelevant.
“The minister’s order changes nothing, because the school is already in compliance with the legislation,” said John Carpay, lawyer and president of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms in Calgary.
Carpay represents the Independent Baptist Christian Education Society, which runs Meadows Baptist Academy in southeast Edmonton and Harvest Baptist Academy in Parkland County.
On Thursday, Education Minister David Eggen ordered the schools to comply with the School Act, which states students must be allowed to form a gay-straight alliance if they request one.
Last summer, the society’s chair- man and pastor Brian Coldwell said the schools wouldn’t allow gay-straight alliances, and that the law infringes on their religious beliefs.
The schools, which have a combined 85 students, mostly in the elementary grades, won’t be sending the minister any updated policies, Carpay said.
He sees no need for a court challenge, either.
With no self-identified LGBTQ students and no requests for a gaystraight alliance, the schools are following the law, Carpay said.
When asked what they would do if a child does ask for a gaystraight alliance, Carpay said he wouldn’t respond to hypothetical questions.
Independent Baptist’s policy on gay-straight alliances is “substantively no different” from many adopted by other Catholic, Islamic, Jewish and Christian schools in Alberta, said Carpay, who represents at least a dozen other Alberta schools on this issue.
Some Catholic school board policies don’t permit gay-straight alliances, but will allow clubs that address the issues of bullying, inclusiveness and human sexuality from a Catholic perspective, Carpay said.
It was Coldwell’s outspokenness, not the policy, that triggered the minister’s inquiry and order, he said.
Alberta Liberal interim leader David Swann issued a statement Friday saying Eggen acted too slowly on the Scott report.
“By allowing a situation of open defiance to continue for as long as it had, he empowered a wilful act of discrimination,” Swann’s statement said.
Many other policies are also dodging the spirit and letter of the law, Swann said.
Eggen said Alberta Education is still reviewing mandatory safe and caring school and gay-straight alliance accommodation policies that he received nearly a year ago from all private and public schools.