EDMONTON - The Alberta Human Rights Commission has refused to deal with two complaints filed by parents who are fighting for a non-religious schooling option in Morinville.
Donna Hunter and Marjorie Kirsop received letters from the commission Thursday telling them to take their complaints to “another forum” such as the province’s School Act.
However, Hunter and Kirsop say they will seek a review of the commission decision. The Greater St. Albert Catholic Regional Division has already denied their request to opt out of religious instruction and the Alberta government hasn’t responded to their appeal of the division’s decision, Hunter said Friday.
“When the School Act failed us, when our school board blatantly and formally said, no, then it’s no longer a School Act process. It’s discrimination and it’s the school board discriminating, and that’s a human rights violation. That’s why we sent our submissions to the Human Rights Commission.”
“It’s very frustrating,” Kirsop said. “Now we’re told the Alberta Human Rights Commission is refusing our complaint and we should go back to the school board. Then, am I supposed to appeal to the minister again? I just feel like we’re not getting anywhere. I always thought that the Human Rights Commission was the last resort.”
However, Education Minister Thomas Lukaszuk said this week he is about to announce a solution to the dispute over secular schooling in Morinville.
“Yes, I have made a decision. I’m just looking at some of the implications. I want to make sure that there are no unintended consequences from my decision.”
Greater St. Albert Catholic Regional Division, Sturgeon School Division and St. Albert Protestant Schools worked together on the “collaborative decision” that should be announced within the next two weeks, Lukaszuk said.
Hunter said she awaits the announcement “with trepidation.”
Hunter and Kirsop are among a group of parents who have been fighting since 2010 to have non-religious schooling made available in Morinville.
Greater St. Albert Catholic Schools runs all four schools in Morinville, a town of about 8,000 people 25 kilometres north of Edmonton.
The Catholic division is the area’s designated public school district. However, its schools offer faith-based programming. That’s because the majority of people in the area were Catholic when the school division was created.
In November 2010, Hunter made a request that her daughter be exempted from religious discussions at school. The school district formally denied the request and argued its mandate is to provide a Catholic education in which religion permeates the curriculum. Hunter and other parents filed an appeal asking then-education-minister Dave Hancock to overturn the district decision.
As a temporary solution, the Sturgeon School Division stepped in to open Morinville Public Elementary School in September in the Morinville Community Cultural Centre. Students this month moved into modular classrooms attached to Georges P. Vanier Elementary School, one of Morinville’s four Catholic schools.
Kirsop and Hunter filed their human rights complaints late last year alleging their non-Catholic children were discriminated against because they have not been allowed to opt out of religious instruction in a system where Catholic doctrine permeates the school day.
Hunter’s complaint to the commission details “strained and awkward” discussions with school staff at the school where her daughter attended kindergarten, parents who avoided her at school and “extremely uncomfortable” school council meetings. Her daughter was “negatively labelled and treated with derision” because of Hunter’s public fight for secular schooling, Hunter wrote.
The complaints use a controversial piece of legislation called Bill 44, which the Alberta government passed in 2009 to amend the Alberta Human Rights Act. The amendment, designed to recognize Albertans’ right to be protected from discrimination based on sexual orientation, includes a “parental rights” clause. School boards have to notify parents ahead of time when students plan to study religion, human sexuality or sexual orientation, giving parents the option of pulling their children from the class.
The Alberta Human Rights Commission’s refusal to deal with the Morinville complaints illustrates the “uselessness” of the law, said Kelly Ernst, a board member with the Rocky Mountain Civil Liberties Association, who has written articles about the Morinville dispute. The commission is inviting appeals, charter challenges and extra expense by refusing the complaints, Ernst said.
“As far as we understand, this is the first time the Alberta Human Rights Commission has had to deal with a complaint under this section,” Ernst said.
“When it gets bounced back to the education system, which is what this letter does, it doesn’t clarify that whole process. It sidesteps it ... The bill really should be rescinded and this is really good evidence why. This whole process isn’t working.”
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