Update - 1st March 2024
We never thought we would see it - an Alberta Member of Parliament suggesting withholding health funding from Alberta!
Of course, as a member of the federal Liberal cabinet, Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault is required to support Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, if he wants to keep his job.
But, the question of parental rights seems to have caused some to lose their minds.
Perhaps Minister Boissonnault was trying to top his leader’s theatrics?
You’ll remember that when New Brunswick passed a parental notification policy, Justin Trudeau threatened to interfere in the exclusive provincial jurisdiction of education.
Prime Minister Trudeau called the widely popular policy “far-right” and threatened Ottawa interference, saying, “We must stand against this.”
That’s why we launched our petition to Tell Trudeau to Leave Our Kids Alone!
Since then, Saskatchewan has passed a similar policy, and now Alberta is following suit with a number of policy changes to reassert parental rights.
Alberta will soon require parental consent for children 15 and under to alter their names or pronouns used by school teachers, administration, and other educational staff.
Furthermore, parents must be notified for their child aged 16 or 17 to alter their name or pronouns used by school teachers, administration, and other educational staff.
Minister Boissonnault called Alberta’s policy announcement a “NATO moment”.
It is generally agreed that he did not mean it was a moment for the Canadian federal government to chronically underinvest in something for years.
No, observers seem to agree that he meant it was the political equivalent to the military alliance’s promise that an attack on one member would be considered an attack on all - and responded to with overwhelming force.
That is the context in which he threatened to withhold healthcare funding from Alberta.
Minister Boissonnault knows how this works, since he was elected by Edmontonians.
But in case you missed the significance:
Ottawa taxes all Canadians for a service outside Ottawa’s jurisdiction - health - and then distributes it to provinces in the form of transfers.
Except now an Alberta Liberal Minister is threatening to withhold even more of Albertan's money from Albertans because of a disagreement over provincial policy.
Minister Boissonnault wasn’t alone.
Indeed, it’s been hard to keep up with the cacophony of Liberal Ministers, including the Prime Minister, tripping over each other to most loudly condemn Alberta’s new policy.
But education, health, and every related item covered by Premier Smith's announcement is firmly within provincial jurisdiction.
The Trudeau government has already been slapped down by the federally-appointed Supreme Court of Canada twice over invasions into Alberta’s jurisdiction.
Is there any provincial policy this gang thinks they shouldn’t control?
If you want Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his team to apologize for characterizing parents' rights as "far-right" and clarify that they have no intention to override the authority of both parents and provinces, please sign our petition to Tell Trudeau to Leave Our Kids Alone.
Tell Trudeau To Leave Our Kids Alone
We had to check the tape.
Over and over again we checked.
But he really said it.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau really said that basic parental rights are "far-right".
Yes, you read that right - the Prime Minister thinks that including parents in the support system for school children as young as 5 and as old as 16 is a "far-right" idea.
Now, first, before anyone gets the wrong idea, let us be perfectly clear...
No one - literally no one - is suggesting that parents should be able to abuse their children without intervention.
We know that teachers and other school officials are sometimes the first to know when parents are abusive, which is why they are mandated to report their abuse concerns to Children's Services.
Yet, in the overwhelming majority of cases, a parent is the best advocate their child will ever have - the first person you want to include in the most difficult conversations.
Every parent knows they are the real experts in their own kids - as much as countless professionals can help families by applying their expertise in other subjects.
This is not a far-right opinion.
Parents are closer to their kids than any agent of the government possibly could be, but Trudeau seems not to understand that, or at least he prefers to pretend he doesn't, to score political points on his opponents.
Perhaps he'll listen to the United Nations, who aren't particularly well known for being far right, but clearly say in their Universal Declaration of Human Rights that:
"Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children."
If he doesn't understand the more fundamental relationship between parents and children, perhaps we can't be surprised he doesn't understand the more complex relationship between provinces and the central government in Ottawa.
"We have to stand against this", he said, seeming to threaten Ottawa interference in this matter.
But, education is a purely provincial responsibility.
There is no federal education policy.
There is no federal education funding of any consequence.
The provinces have always had starkly different education policies; if we weren't allowed to, the provinces never would have agreed to national unity.
But Ottawa, especially with a Trudeau in charge, has over-reached into provincial jurisdiction before.
We cannot let him interfere with education.
We cannot let him interfere with the rights of families to their own children.
Tell Trudeau: Not this time!
Tell Trudeau: Parents' rights aren't far-right; they're human rights!
We're calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to apologize for characterizing parents' rights as "far-right" and clarify that he has no intention to override the authority of both parents and provinces.
If you agree, please sign our petition to Tell Trudeau To Leave Our Kids Alone!
Once you've signed, please forward this email to your friends and fellow parents across Alberta, so they can too.
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