Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs (SACPA)

On June 1, 2015, Alberta’s Bill 10 became law. The content of this bill has twofold implications for policy within school districts. The first impact is that Gay Straight Alliances (GSA’s) must be allowed in any school where students request to have them. The second is that “gender identity” and “gender expression” are now included in Alberta’s Bill of Rights. In December, 2015, those rights were also added to Alberta’s Human Rights Act through Bill 7. In the fall of 2015, Alberta’s Minister of Education released Guidelines for Best Practices: Creating Learning Environments that Respect Diverse Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Gender Expression for all publicly funded schools and gave each Alberta school board until March 31, 2016 to come up with their own policy to accommodate the provincial guidelines. However, the question has been asked: Why not draft the same LGBTQ policy for all school boards? The speaker will elaborate on that question and explain more details of Bill 7 and 10. Speaker: Mar