Parental consent about new pronouns at school among policy proposals at UCP AGM

United Conservative Party members have proposed a resolution requiring parental notification whenever a student under 16 wants to change their name or pronouns at school. 

The resolution, which echoes legislation just introduced in the Saskatchewan legislature, is one of 30 policies up for discussion at the governing party's annual general meeting next month. 

The policy is proposed by the UCP constituency in Edmonton-West Henday.

 "As was noted by Saskatchewan Education Minister (Dustin) Duncan, schools require a signed permission slip to take children on a field trip so it's unclear why schools should not require parental consent for identification changes," the rationale for the resolution states. 

"Schools should not be in the business of going behind parents' backs."

Kristopher Wells, an associate professor and the Canada Research Chair for the Public Understanding of Sexual and Gender Minority Youth at MacEwan University in Edmonton, said he is disappointed but not surprised the pronouns resolution is in the policy package.

Wells said these kinds of measures are mean-spirited, discriminatory and hurtful to vulnerable students who would benefit from having support at school. 

"The research tells us quite clearly that gender affirmation reduces suicide ideation," Wells said in an interview with CBC News. "These kinds of policies, when they're enacted, cause very significant harm and real-world damage to young people."

Premier Danielle Smith won the UCP leadership in 2022 with the backing of Take Back Alberta, an anti-vaccine, anti-lockdown activist group, whose leadership is opposed to transgender rights and believes parents need to fight back against a so-called "woke ideology" in the school system.  

On Friday, Smith suggested her government would have to talk to more than just UCP members before deciding to go ahead with a parental rights law. 

"We also confer with stakeholders and we also talk to Albertans," Smith said at an unrelated news conference Friday. "I want to see how the debate goes and then we'll make some decisions once we see whether or not it passes."

Take Back Alberta

At last year's annual general meeting, a flood of TBA supporters helped get directors tied to the group elected to the party's provincial board. The group swept all nine seats, to control half the UCP board.

This year's annual general meeting set for Nov. 3 and 4 in Calgary was moved to a larger venue due to a surge of registrations.

Other policies up for debate include proposals to end affirmative action for post-secondary admissions, close all Diversity, Inclusion and Equity offices at post-secondary institutions and prohibit the implementation of 15-minute cities, a planning concept that encourages locating services within walking distance of people's homes.

Other resolutions reflect grievances from the COVID-19 pandemic

For example, two proposals aim to shield physicians from censure or job loss if they speak out against the use of COVID-19 vaccines, or prescribe medications like Ivermectin to treat COVID-19, even though it is not approved for that use in Canada. 

Melanee Thomas, a political scientist at the University of Calgary, said some of proposals are influenced by conspiracies about the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the Republican politics in the United States. 

Thomas said data from 2018 showed there was a contingent of Alberta voters who were very socially conservative, pessimistic about the future and not politically active. Danielle Smith politically activated them, and their influence is now seen throughout the 2023 proposals, Thomas said.

"It looks like Take Back Alberta is very organized," she said. "But I'm not sure there are other elements within the party that might want to push back against some of these things that are as organized as Take Back Alberta is."