Rebel News Podcast - SHEILA GUNN REID ｜ Jeffrey Park on the looming teachers’ strike

00:00:00.160 Teachers in Alberta might be headed for a strike. I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed and you're watching The Gunn Show.

00:00:23.080 Despite the generous package, the ATA turned it down and now students and families are being held hostage to labor disputes they had no say in.

00:00:30.000 As Geoffrey Park from the Alberta Parents' Union puts it,

00:00:33.360 History and research show the impact of teachers' strikes and they're devastating.

00:00:38.300 Test scores drop, absenteeism rises, students pursue less education over their lifetimes, future earnings shrink, families take an immediate financial hit when forced to scramble for child care or miss work.

00:00:50.820 And we know COVID-19 closures proved just how damaging it is when schools shut their doors.

00:00:55.960 A strike could even be worse because there's no fallback, there's no online learning, it's just disruption.

00:01:02.140 Geoffrey makes the case for strike-proofing Alberta students through an education continuity allowance.

00:01:08.300 If a child's school closes, the money should follow the student so the parent can choose.

00:01:13.660 A different school that remains open, tutoring, home education resources, online courses or even vocational training opportunities.

00:01:20.960 And with school board elections so close on the horizon, parents also have a critical opportunity to push for accountability and ensure their local boards prioritize students over union politics.

00:01:33.220 Geoffrey Park lays out what's at stake and how Alberta families can fight back against being collateral damage in this latest union battle.

00:01:40.720 On this episode of The Gun Show, I'm sitting down with Geoffrey Park to talk about the storm brewing in Alberta classrooms, a looming teacher strike, the upcoming school board elections, and how parents can finally claim their rightful voice in the education system.

00:01:54.360 Here's our interview.

00:02:02.760 Joining me now is Geoff Park from the Alberta Parents Union.

00:02:05.960 Geoff, I'm familiar with your work, but I think some Rebel News viewers may not be.

00:02:11.340 Tell us a little bit about the Alberta Parents Union and how it came together.

00:02:17.300 Absolutely.

00:02:17.700 So we're a group of grassroots Alberta parents from all over the province.

00:02:24.920 It came together during the COVID restrictions over frustrations with not being heard at the school level, the school board level,

00:02:34.920 or even sometimes the provincial level, and a lot of frustration from parents.

00:02:41.300 It seemed like the Alberta Teachers Association was strongly advocating for teachers,

00:02:50.440 or at least the ones that were active with the Alberta Teachers Association,

00:02:54.960 making their voice heard loud and clear on education policy issues.

00:02:59.140 And parents were very frustrated about, where's the parallel organization to make parents' voices heard?

00:03:08.260 Unfortunately, it wasn't coming from the Alberta Schools Councils Association,

00:03:12.960 which is sort of the way voices were supposed to filter up from the local school councils to the government.

00:03:22.020 And they were simply echoing the ATA talking points, regardless of what parents actually thought.

00:03:29.220 So that was, we were born out of those sorts of frustrations, but we did a launch tour, 28 stops all over the province,

00:03:40.000 and heard plenty of other issues from parents that they wanted us to advocate on.

00:03:45.400 And, and, and we've been doing that ever since 2022.

00:03:53.040 You know, I think the work that you guys do is so important because the ATA,

00:03:59.260 the Alberta Teachers Association, is this powerful behemoth that can take on the whole of government.

00:04:07.460 And the school boards, normally they're supposed to be reflective of the people who elect them

00:04:12.660 and the communities in which they come from,

00:04:15.620 but they are so often just parroting the ATA talking points.

00:04:20.800 And at no place in the system do parents and children and parents,

00:04:25.700 as the first best educators of their children,

00:04:27.900 really have a voice that advocates directly for them.

00:04:31.880 So I'm really happy with the work that you guys are doing.

00:04:34.880 Um, now I'm a parent with a child in the Alberta school system.

00:04:39.160 I had three, one still in, uh, high school.

00:04:42.960 And just about every day, I get an update from the school about a looming labor disruption.

00:04:51.060 And never in these emails do they ever explain what the labor disruption is all about.

00:04:58.060 You know, if you watch the news, it's all about class sizes and what's in the best interest of the kids.

00:05:03.440 But if that were the case, they probably would have had a strike vote over the summer

00:05:08.300 when the kids wouldn't have been affected.

00:05:11.240 Uh, but that just is never the case, is it?

00:05:13.780 So why don't you tell us what the threatened labor disruption is all about?

00:05:18.660 Absolutely.

00:05:19.300 So you're, you're, you're right that, um, that has been the rhetoric.

00:05:23.860 We can, we can step back to, to June.

00:05:26.480 There was actually a mediated settlement on the table, uh, from a mediator that both the Alberta teachers association and the government agreed on.

00:05:35.280 Um, and, and her suggestion was, uh, a 12 and a half percent, uh, pay rise.

00:05:42.840 Uh, so, uh, 3% a year over four years, uh, one of those retroactive.

00:05:50.900 And when you, when you do the compounding interest there, that comes out to about 12 and a half percent.

00:05:55.940 Um, so a 12 and a half percent pay rise, uh, and her solution that she recommended for class sizes 0.82

00:06:03.720 was that they basically, uh, put together working groups, basically a committee, uh, at the school board level.

00:06:09.780 Since after all, it is the, it is the school board level where those frontline decisions about class sizes, uh,

00:06:16.880 how many teachers, how many education assistants, and those sorts of things are made.

00:06:21.620 Uh, and so, so that, uh, that was her recommendation.

00:06:28.060 The government accepted that recommendation.

00:06:30.600 The Alberta teachers association executive narrowly accepted that recommendation seven

00:06:36.420 to six, but when they took it back to their members, they rejected it.

00:06:41.080 And, and the, and again, the rhetoric coming from the members, the rhetoric coming from the

00:06:45.260 ATA executive was that they would never consider striking over wages.

00:06:50.860 They would only ever consider striking over classroom conditions.

00:06:54.920 And, uh, and, uh, and so the executive went to their membership and asked, okay, what, what

00:07:02.180 can we offer as a counteroffer, uh, to, uh, try to settle this labor dispute.

00:07:09.080 And, uh, and their, their members gave them a salary increase that, um, that they thought

00:07:18.400 was appropriate.

00:07:19.080 We've never been told how much that was, but then on the classroom condition side, what

00:07:25.940 they asked for was 1,000 teachers a year over three years.

00:07:30.120 So 3,000 teachers, that commitment alone would cost the government $750 million, uh, plus,

00:07:37.740 plus the cost of the pay rises.

00:07:40.620 Plus they were also throwing in some, uh, classroom complexity grants and that kind of thing.

00:07:45.660 And, uh, and, uh, and so multi-billion dollar, uh, uh, uh, commitment overall.

00:07:53.220 And, and so the government actually called their bluff, you could say, and accepted their

00:08:03.020 demand on classroom conditions.

00:08:05.500 They said that they give the, uh, 3,000 teachers over three years.

00:08:11.240 And, but, but since we all agree, this isn't over, uh, more of a pay rise than 12 and a

00:08:20.720 half percent, that's where we have to stop.

00:08:23.240 This is really all the room we have in the budget.

00:08:25.040 And the government has continued to insist that, uh, that any further negotiation, we're

00:08:32.000 really working from, this is the budget.

00:08:34.740 We can't, we can't spend more than this.

00:08:36.880 And so they suggested the only way to afford more of a pay rise would be to have fewer

00:08:43.920 teachers.

00:08:45.060 And the government alleges that at the bargaining table, the Alberta Teachers Association actually

00:08:50.040 said, yes, we should do that.

00:08:52.940 Fewer teachers, more of a pay rise.

00:08:55.460 Now, when Jason Schilling, the president of the ATA was asked about that, every time he's

00:09:00.940 been asked about it, he has said that was not a formal offer placed on the table, which tells

00:09:05.780 me they did say that, but they just didn't present it as a formal offer, right?

00:09:11.440 Is that he was very careful in how he denied that.

00:09:14.360 So, uh, so we've really had a reversal in my opinion, not only of the rhetoric, which would

00:09:21.820 be bad enough because, because you're, you're, you're already, you've told the public you're

00:09:25.960 after one thing and you're clearly after another.

00:09:28.320 But, but to me, I think that's an abandonment of the mandate they had from their own membership,

00:09:34.440 um, that classroom conditions were what they were saying, why they were saying, they were

00:09:40.340 saying, you know, a working group, essentially a committee is not enough to deal with, you

00:09:45.900 know, we already know what the problems are.

00:09:47.800 We just need to hire new teachers.

00:09:49.020 Right.

00:09:49.720 And, and so for, for them to have that demand granted by the government and still walk away

00:09:56.520 from the table, I think is an abandonment of their members, not to mention, uh, Alberta

00:10:01.320 parents and students.

00:10:05.280 It's just atrocious when you think of it, that they would use kids as their excuse to do these

00:10:12.920 things.

00:10:13.720 And then when, uh, you know, when they're told there's only so much, so you can take

00:10:19.600 from one and give to the other, they say, yes, take from the kids and give it to us.

00:10:25.000 And if you don't, we're going to strike and hurt the kids.

00:10:28.300 Well, and they, they insist that a strike wouldn't hurt the kids.

00:10:31.940 Jason Schilling said that, um, that teachers are professionals.

00:10:35.720 They know how to, uh, deliver the information, make sure kids don't fall behind in the event

00:10:41.200 of a labor disruption, but again, all of us know that isn't true because we lived through

00:10:46.280 the COVID restrictions and kids did fall behind and especially the most vulnerable kids fell

00:10:52.360 behind.

00:10:53.460 Uh, the COVID shutdowns erased 20 years of progress, closing the gap between the highest achieving

00:11:00.500 achieving and the lowest achieving students, 20 years of progress down the drain in two

00:11:04.980 years.

00:11:05.980 Um, and, uh, so the bottom fell out, especially for the kids who need the most support.

00:11:12.540 So we already know, uh, that learning disruptions are that it, you know, I agree.

00:11:21.120 Teachers are professionals.

00:11:22.280 They're not miracle workers.

00:11:24.020 You can't, you can't teach in the conditions of a, a learning disruption.

00:11:28.920 Uh, you can't just catch the kids up, uh, as if there's some magic formula to do that.

00:11:35.520 If, if there was, then, then they shouldn't have complained, uh, when the new curriculum

00:11:42.580 rolled out and they said, uh, well, there's too much to cover in this new curriculum.

00:11:47.340 Wait a second.

00:11:48.040 I thought you were professionals.

00:11:49.060 I thought, I thought we could just magically speak this up somehow, right?

00:11:52.080 Catch them up.

00:11:52.440 Like it's, it's contradictory at multiple levels in their, in their, uh, messaging, but, uh,

00:11:59.520 but absolutely.

00:12:01.000 We know for a fact that kids will be harmed if there's a labor disruption.

00:12:06.020 Um, so it's a, it's a real, um, it's a real abandonment of Albertans, uh, for them to

00:12:15.140 switch their position this way.

00:12:16.940 Now, uh, I want to ask you about an opportunity for parents to sort of right the ship in some

00:12:26.940 little way.

00:12:28.360 Um, and that is in the upcoming school board elections.

00:12:32.920 I don't think people realize how easy it is to flip a school board if everybody gets real

00:12:38.440 organized.

00:12:39.720 Um, but you know, I think as, as conservatives, and I think the Alberta Parents Union is largely

00:12:46.220 non-partisan, but as a conservative, we're always looking at the macro issue.

00:12:50.820 We're looking at Mark Carney spiraling us into out of control debt.

00:12:56.180 We look at the provincial government.

00:12:57.920 We're always wondering, you know, how are they going to take on Mark Carney?

00:13:01.860 Um, and we forget about the things that are closer to home.

00:13:04.640 And when you think that, you know, politics is downstream of culture, if we want to change

00:13:10.740 politics, we need to change the culture, but we also have to protect the culture.

00:13:14.540 And if we don't have the right culture at the school board, um, that honors and respects

00:13:19.360 parents and children first, we're never going to fix all the other stuff.

00:13:23.740 And, but the good news is that's the thing I think we're, if we just get a little bit

00:13:27.920 organized, we can really make a difference because not a lot of people vote in those

00:13:31.940 school board elections.

00:13:32.720 So tell us about what the Alberta Parents Union is up to in the school board elections.

00:13:38.660 Absolutely.

00:13:39.360 You're right that, that politics is downstream of culture, of course, but, uh, schools are

00:13:46.580 a culture making institution that unfortunately are run too much by politics.

00:13:51.940 And, and, and so we, you know, uh, you know, the old saying, you may not care about politics,

00:13:57.420 but politics cares about you and politics cares about your kids. 0.51

00:14:00.480 And it's, and, and, and school board is, is where the rubber meets the road in the same

00:14:05.340 way that, uh, you know, if you're, if your garbage isn't getting picked up, no matter

00:14:10.720 how much you might care more about who your MP is than your city counselor is, your city 0.98

00:14:15.100 counselor is the one that matters to you when your garbage isn't getting picked up.

00:14:18.900 And, and, uh, and when your, your kids are being threatened by a strike because school 0.80

00:14:24.660 boards haven't done their job in terms of, uh, making sure that, uh, class sizes and classroom

00:14:29.560 complexity are being addressed, or they haven't done their job in removing, uh, uh, graphic

00:14:36.060 sexual material from libraries, or they haven't done their job in, uh, banning cell phones from

00:14:41.880 classrooms so that learning can occur or all these various things where the school boards

00:14:46.800 have simply failed to do their job.

00:14:49.420 And, uh, unfortunately in too many cases, the province has been forced to step in.

00:14:53.960 Um, uh, when, when the rubber meets the roads on those issues, it, it doesn't matter if you

00:15:01.320 care more who your MP is, or you care more about Mark Carney, uh, the thing that, that will

00:15:05.900 affect your day to day, day to day with your own kid are the people at the school board level.

00:15:10.380 Um, and you're right, uh, that, uh, the, the turnout for school board is very poor.

00:15:19.820 And I think one of the reasons for that is, uh, if you're, um, if you're with the Alberta

00:15:27.860 Teachers Association or CUPE or, or, uh, uh, uh, one of the union labor union organizations,

00:15:34.760 um, they'll tell you who to vote for essentially.

00:15:40.280 And, and, and, you know, there, there's, there's easy information accessible, uh, if, if you're

00:15:48.340 voting, uh, if, if your values are aligned with the labor unions and you, and, and that's

00:15:55.360 what you want to see from the education system, it's easy to find out who to, who to vote for.

00:16:00.080 So we don't want to tell people who to vote for, but we do want people to be able to more easily

00:16:06.160 find out, uh, where their, where their values are aligned, uh, which, which trustees, their

00:16:13.960 values are aligned with.

00:16:15.020 So what we're doing is, um, we have way back in December, we, uh, we started surveying our

00:16:24.160 own parents, grandparents, and taxpayers, uh, that are involved with the Alberta Parents

00:16:28.880 Union, asking them what questions they would like to ask a school board trustee candidate

00:16:34.420 to find out, uh, if their values were aligned.

00:16:38.960 And, uh, and we compiled the, uh, results of that survey.

00:16:45.620 Um, and then unfortunately, um, we had a chance to take a dry run at it because there was a

00:16:51.260 death on the Calgary Catholic school board and they already had one vacancy.

00:16:54.900 Um, so they were forced to have a by-election in January.

00:17:00.460 Um, and so we, we got to do a little bit of a, a dry run in January of this survey system.

00:17:07.980 And, uh, and we were pleased to see that, that all but one of the candidates, including actually

00:17:14.220 both of the ATA aligned candidates, uh, returned our survey.

00:17:18.300 Uh, and so people had a lot of information, uh, to go off of.

00:17:24.160 Um, and we were, we were also pleased to see that from the feedback we got, uh, from our

00:17:30.320 own folks, uh, that, that they were easily able to, our, our parents, grandparents, and

00:17:38.560 taxpayers did a great job of selecting the questions so that people can easily tell which candidates

00:17:44.980 align with their values, uh, from looking at the survey.

00:17:48.620 And then we were also pleased to see that if you searched for Calgary Catholic school board

00:17:54.040 by-election, we were the third result, uh, on Google.

00:17:58.000 If you search for the candidates' names, sometimes we were even the first or second result.

00:18:02.480 Um, uh, uh, and so, so for, for, you know, there are basically three ways people decide

00:18:10.260 if they're going to vote in the school board elections.

00:18:12.280 And, um, again, way too many people don't, uh, there are basically three ways they decide,

00:18:17.440 uh, they, uh, they either are just going off the names they heard, and that's probably how

00:18:24.840 most people decide.

00:18:26.260 They're just going off the names they heard.

00:18:27.640 Uh, they ask someone in some voluntary community they're in, usually a church or, or something

00:18:35.080 like that.

00:18:35.660 They ask someone who knows, someone who's political, who knows, I'm sure you've been that

00:18:39.820 person in your church.

00:18:40.740 Uh, I've been that person in every church I've ever been to.

00:18:45.000 Uh, and, um, and so, uh, so they just, they ask someone they know, um, uh, to, to help them

00:18:55.140 sort out which candidates, uh, uh.

00:18:57.640 They, they should support.

00:18:58.820 Um, or they just Google all the names, usually on the day of, uh, on the day they're on the

00:19:04.860 way to the polls.

00:19:05.900 And so for that last group, so hopefully, hopefully for that second group, um, they're

00:19:11.380 receiving our emails.

00:19:12.360 You can go to albertaparentsunion.ca, sign up for our emails, make sure that you're getting

00:19:16.940 them.

00:19:17.200 And then, and then you'll get the results of the survey in your inbox.

00:19:20.900 Um, the whole front page is where you sign up.

00:19:24.880 We have, we have had, uh, opponents of ours on the labor union side of things, unable to

00:19:31.060 figure that out, but it's right there, whole front page.

00:19:33.380 You can sign up.

00:19:34.200 I'm sure you can figure it out.

00:19:35.540 Um, I see it right there.

00:19:37.820 Join, donate, volunteer.

00:19:39.080 And, uh, uh, and so you can sign up for our emails, make sure to get it.

00:19:45.400 So hopefully a large group of those, of that second are, are hearing from, from people who

00:19:50.960 were able to get that information from us, uh, to know which candidates are, are worthy

00:19:56.380 of support.

00:19:56.880 But then that whole third group who's Googling it on the way to the polls, basically, um,

00:20:01.420 we're hoping, and we, we have strong reason to believe that our survey will be very high

00:20:07.640 in the Google results for the candidates' names, for the name of the, uh, the awards, for the

00:20:12.920 name of the election, whatever.

00:20:14.460 Um, and, uh, and so we really hope that we can sort of close that information gap and,

00:20:20.840 and help more people to get involved.

00:20:22.280 You know, I think you will, um, you know, you see other organizations do this, like

00:20:29.340 Campaign Life Coalition.

00:20:30.520 They send out their surveys of the MP candidates, and it helps, you know, where they land on

00:20:36.600 the issue.

00:20:37.040 As you say, you're not telling people how to vote.

00:20:39.200 You're just giving them the information to inform their vote, which I think is a valuable

00:20:44.640 thing to do, especially on these issues.

00:20:47.960 You know, we can't wonder where all these cultural and educational problems are coming

00:20:53.080 from if we aren't actively getting involved in the systems that so often create them.

00:20:59.580 Um, I want to ask you about some of the other issues that the Alberta Parents Union touches

00:21:07.040 on.

00:21:07.620 One of them was the, uh, I'm going to use the language of the left here, the book ban, which

00:21:12.800 absolutely was not a book ban.

00:21:14.360 It was a graphic materials prohibition in an elementary school library, um, which seems

00:21:19.960 like a crazy thing to actually have to do, but, uh, I'm glad they did.

00:21:25.880 Um, you folks were pretty outspoken on that.

00:21:29.260 I was surprised to see the amount of misinformation on it coming from the media who were also in the

00:21:40.980 same media briefings privy to the same embargo documents that I had.

00:21:46.460 And yet they are the misinformation peddlers on this.

00:21:50.540 I'm going to ask you to speculate why, why are they getting this stuff so wrong?

00:21:56.020 Well, at least part of it is because their, their classic move to, uh, get both sides of

00:22:05.340 the story is, is to get the, the government side and the Alberta Teachers Association side

00:22:12.840 or get the government side and the, uh, uh, the, uh, Library Association of Alberta, I think

00:22:18.980 is the correct order of those words, uh, get their side. 0.59

00:22:22.240 Um, and, uh, and, and, and thankfully we've more and more, uh, had, uh, even traditional

00:22:33.320 media starting, starting to realize that, that they, they also need to reach out for the

00:22:39.680 parent side.

00:22:40.240 That's one of the, that's one of the reasons for the name Alberta Parent Union.

00:22:43.540 It makes it, makes it, makes it a little easier for journalists to realize, okay, I've talked

00:22:48.000 to the teachers and who should I talk to next?

00:22:49.740 Uh, and so, and, and, and so, uh, so thankfully we, uh, we have been able to get our voices in

00:22:58.760 there, uh, even, even at, at places like the CPC and, uh, and so forth.

00:23:04.440 Uh, and, uh, and, and so that's helpful, but I think, I think a large element of it is,

00:23:11.320 uh, uh, I think a lot of, uh, legacy media journalists are, are coming from the perspective

00:23:21.700 that, so the government is making a claim and then the experts on whether that claim is

00:23:29.320 true or not, or on, on how to evaluate that claim are the Alberta Teachers Association or

00:23:34.960 the Library Association of Alberta.

00:23:36.540 So, they're going to, frankly, the misinformation peddlers, uh, as the, as the experts to respond

00:23:45.960 to the government.

00:23:46.980 And, and I think that's where they're going to the people who brought these horrible materials

00:23:54.520 into the libraries in the first place to say, uh, so they're there, uh, is this a bad

00:24:01.680 thing?

00:24:01.900 And of course they say no, because they're the ones who did it.

00:24:05.220 Because it's, it's, it's, it's the most bizarre thing.

00:24:10.220 And, and I'm just so glad, although at the same time, I've never seen anything quite like

00:24:15.680 it where our premier has to stand at a podium and show the graphic materials that they uncovered

00:24:24.000 in school libraries, just because nobody will get the story straight.

00:24:29.580 It, and it happened at least on two separate occasions where they couldn't even broadcast

00:24:34.640 the materials on the news to show people.

00:24:37.960 She had to give a trigger warning before she showed the materials in a press conference.

00:24:42.040 And thank goodness these press conferences are live streamed because, uh, I think a lot

00:24:46.940 of delicate minds might not have even believed it if they hadn't been able to see it.

00:24:50.780 I, I, I saw a political cartoon, uh, trying to make fun of Danielle Smith, showing her holding

00:24:57.380 up, uh, holding up a copy of Archie and Jughead, uh, and, and depicting her as being outraged

00:25:05.300 by the contents of Archie and Jughead.

00:25:06.840 And I pointed out, they can't show what she was actually outraged at because if they put

00:25:12.660 that in their newspaper, um, people, uh, if they didn't, if they didn't have some legal

00:25:20.380 action against them for it, people would unsubscribe in mass numbers, right?

00:25:24.440 Um, is that is so, uh, what, one of the elements here is that the actual content that children

00:25:33.240 were being exposed to, uh, uh, uh, in elementary libraries, uh, is too graphic to be shown on

00:25:43.700 the news, too graphic, uh, to be, uh, to, to be really engaged with publicly, uh, you know,

00:25:54.600 you can't, you can't post the pictures on social media and keep your social media account.

00:25:59.320 Right.

00:26:00.140 Is, um, and so, so I.

00:26:03.240 I think that's, I think that's a, a large, um, element of the problem.

00:26:07.960 And, and, and you, you hit it right on the head saying that, that these are the people

00:26:13.720 who, uh, you know, they're the traditional media is going to the people who brought these

00:26:18.540 books in, in the first place.

00:26:20.540 And, uh, I, I have to go back again to the discussions around curriculum.

00:26:26.120 These are the same people who said that, uh, six year olds learning about Charlemagne, uh,

00:26:32.520 the emperor of the Franks or the Silk Road or, uh, uh, or certain elements of Alberta history

00:26:43.100 that we were, that, that, that was age inappropriate was the exact word they use age inappropriate

00:26:49.780 to learn about Charlemagne age inappropriate to learn about the Silk Road, not age inappropriate

00:26:54.860 to get genderqueer or flamed. 0.66

00:26:59.000 Right.

00:26:59.580 Right.

00:27:00.140 Right.

00:27:01.580 Homoerotica cartoons were, were age appropriate for six year olds, but learning about, uh, the

00:27:09.840 settling of Alberta was a little bit too, uh, over the heads of six year olds.

00:27:15.100 Um, a couple of more things before I let you go.

00:27:19.300 And I know I only promised that I would take up 20 minutes of your time, but we're beyond

00:27:23.020 that.

00:27:23.620 Uh, uh, what are some of the other policies that, or issues, I guess I should say that the

00:27:29.620 Alberta parents union is engaged in?

00:27:33.240 Sure.

00:27:33.900 We, uh, so, um, two organizations have, um, have, uh, sued the government.

00:27:45.080 Over the, uh, uh, name and pronoun legislation that, uh, that the province brought in last

00:27:53.940 year.

00:27:54.380 Uh, well, it, I guess it, it just took effect on September 1st, um, uh, came into force on

00:28:01.300 September 1st and, uh, and promptly there was a lawsuit.

00:28:04.820 Um, so, uh, we plan on being heavily involved in that and bringing, uh, parents perspectives,

00:28:12.680 uh, uh, that, uh, so parents have a real interest in, uh, this court case as well.

00:28:20.840 Our interest is that we shouldn't have information withheld from us.

00:28:24.900 We shouldn't be lied to about, uh, what's happening with our kids at school on anything.

00:28:31.680 Um, but gender and sexuality is no exception.

00:28:34.680 And, and so, uh, so stay tuned.

00:28:38.860 We'll have, uh, we'll have more to say about that as, uh, uh, as things develop, uh, with

00:28:46.580 that lawsuit.

00:28:47.140 That's definitely one of the things that we're working on.

00:28:50.360 Um, we've got some, uh, grade seven through nine, uh, curriculum, uh, that's being advanced

00:28:58.680 right now.

00:28:59.120 We will, we will probably have more to say about that after the school board elections

00:29:04.120 to be frank, just cause there's a lot to talk about right now.

00:29:07.580 Um, and, uh, so we, we, we've sent out one email about that, but we'll, we'll probably

00:29:12.880 have more to say and be looking for more input on that.

00:29:15.820 Um, and, uh, well, and then in the, in the event of a strike, um, I know a lot of parents

00:29:25.500 are going to be scrambling for alternative arrangements.

00:29:27.800 There are some teachers who are going to be scrambling for alternative arrangements.

00:29:32.960 Uh, so we're, we're already, uh, helping parents and teachers, uh, and talking them through

00:29:39.800 what their options are, uh, to, uh, legally, um, uh, have alternate arrangements in, in the

00:29:49.180 event of a work stoppage, uh, and, and a learning disruption with kids.

00:29:55.000 Um, and, and the, uh, and, and I should say real quickly that, that, uh, for everyone

00:30:03.560 to know that the, the ATA has promised a strike if, if they can't negotiate a settlement by October

00:30:12.560 6th, but September 29th is the September count date.

00:30:18.240 And that is when the funding flows to all the education options on the basis of how many

00:30:25.860 kids are in a seat in that education option on September 29th.

00:30:31.400 So if you, if, if, if a strike on October 6th would make you want to do something different,

00:30:37.700 um, you should do it before September 29th.

00:30:42.300 So that, so that, you know, that the funding will be there.

00:30:45.660 Um, now that's in the status quo.

00:30:48.580 So we're also advocating for something we're calling an education continuity account for

00:30:54.100 the money to follow the child for the duration of the strike.

00:30:57.520 So that, so that parents are able to switch to home education and have some of those costs

00:31:05.260 reimbursed, or if they can find a seat in a charter school, most charter schools don't

00:31:10.600 have open seats.

00:31:11.900 Um, they're, they're already well oversubscribed, but if they can find a seat in an independent

00:31:17.760 school, some of those are oversubscribed, but not all of them.

00:31:20.840 Um, those are not, those are not ATA, uh, shops.

00:31:25.800 Uh, well, there's one independent school that is unionized.

00:31:29.420 The rest of them are non-union.

00:31:31.360 Uh, the charter schools are all non-union.

00:31:34.020 Uh, home education, obviously you don't have to join the union to teach your own kids,

00:31:38.480 parents.

00:31:38.740 Uh, and, uh, and, and in Alberta, uh, $910, uh, of your home education expenses are reimbursable,

00:31:49.320 uh, from, from the government.

00:31:52.160 Uh, if, if you choose to go that route and if you, uh, sign up under another school authority,

00:31:58.760 uh, what, what the government calls a supervising authority, uh, they're just, they just meet with

00:32:03.860 you twice a year to make sure that, uh, everything's on track.

00:32:07.640 Um, and then, sorry, not the government, the supervising authority.

00:32:12.440 So if you sign up to home, home educate through a private school, for instance, someone from

00:32:17.340 that private school will come meet with you twice a year.

00:32:19.320 No, not, not a, not a huge, um, and then, uh, uh, and, or, or if parents can find, um, some,

00:32:31.960 some online tutors, well, some in-person tutoring or some online tutoring, or, or like now there's,

00:32:38.560 uh, uh, now there's AI bots that can teach your kid math, that, that can, uh, figure out where

00:32:45.040 your kid is, where they're, where they're missing things, and, and you can keep those math skills

00:32:50.320 up to date, um, but they, they cost money.

00:32:53.520 Um, or if you find an internship opportunity that your, your kid can have, um, so that they've,

00:33:01.520 they've got something to do to grow their mind and enrich themselves, uh, during a teacher strike.

00:33:06.800 We think the money should follow the child to any of those choices, anything that the parents find,

00:33:11.760 to, uh, to make sure that their child's education continues in the event of a work stoppage.

00:33:18.640 And so we're advocating very strongly that the, uh, the provincial government, uh, not just save all

00:33:26.800 the money, which I can understand why that would be tempting, but, um, you do that, it's going to hurt

00:33:31.280 a lot of kids, especially if there's a lengthy work stoppage.

00:33:34.240 So we're, we're encouraging them to have the money, follow the child, uh, to non-union

00:33:40.800 education options of all kinds, including the, including just reimbursing the parents themselves

00:33:45.600 for their own costs of educating their kids, uh, during, uh, during any work stoppage.

00:33:54.400 You know, it's, uh, it's, uh, it's, uh, I think an unintended consequence of the teacher's

00:34:02.320 union that every time they do something like this, it drives people into the other options.

00:34:08.400 And I guess that's the, like the silver lining in all of this, including the COVID lockdowns

00:34:15.120 of the schools was that parents realized that they have a lot of choices out there.

00:34:20.640 Um, and those choices are getting more and more all the time.

00:34:24.000 Every time these teachers unions try to use our kids, uh, to their benefit.

00:34:28.880 And, uh, I'm, I guess I'm just, I'm glad to see it.

00:34:32.800 And I'm glad that the Alberta parents union, uh, offers advice to help parents find those resources.

00:34:39.360 Now, how do people get involved in the Alberta parents union?

00:34:43.040 Because you are up against a behemoth of the ATA.

00:34:48.160 Um, and you, you really are, I don't want to say your mom and pop shop, but I mean, they,

00:34:54.080 they're massively well-funded with union dues and you're just parent led.

00:34:58.960 Right.

00:34:59.360 That's right.

00:35:00.240 And we, we, we don't take, uh, any money involuntarily.

00:35:05.520 That's our, that's our, is anyone, anyone who gets money has to, uh, you guys have the same value

00:35:11.920 is, is, uh, anyone, anyone who gives us money has to be doing it of their own free will.

00:35:17.920 So we won't take tax money.

00:35:19.360 Um, and, uh, uh, and, uh, and we, we don't, we can't, we can't force anyone to join our union,

00:35:27.520 like the, the teacher union can.

00:35:29.840 So, so we're, we're, uh, we're fully funded by voluntary donations from, uh, parents and some grandparents.

00:35:40.240 Um, and, uh, and we, we have a, uh, a membership option, which is just designed to, you know,

00:35:47.760 cause most folks, uh, most folks sort of tune in to education policy at back to school time.

00:35:56.720 And, uh, when there's something bad happening, like a teacher strike or, or, uh, inappropriate

00:36:03.120 books in the library or whatever.

00:36:04.400 Um, but they don't have the bandwidth to pay attention to education policy all the time.

00:36:09.600 That's what we're here for.

00:36:11.040 Right.

00:36:11.440 Is we'll, is, uh, we, we can pay attention all the time and let you know when there's

00:36:17.040 something worth paying attention to.

00:36:18.480 Um, and, uh, and, and so we have a membership model so that we can know how much we can expect,

00:36:28.640 uh, each month and we can plan ahead, uh, without, without being quite so subject to the, uh, uh,

00:36:36.080 the cycle of attention, uh, that gets paid to education policy.

00:36:40.960 So, uh, uh, so, uh, so folks can join, but, uh, but even just, uh, signing up for our mailing list

00:36:49.440 goes a long way just to make sure that you're informed and that you can, and we'll never,

00:36:53.520 we'll never charge for, for the information.

00:36:56.640 Um, uh, uh, uh, but, but, uh, just to make sure that, uh, make sure that you're informed

00:37:04.960 and that, uh, and, and that, you know, we're not going to tell you to call your MLA every month,

00:37:11.120 but we will tell you that if you call your MLA this month, it might actually make a difference.

00:37:15.680 And so we, we, uh, try to provide, provide that as a service to busy parents,

00:37:21.680 uh, to, uh, to help them, uh, not have to, uh, you know, do politics every time they're sitting

00:37:29.680 at soccer practice or hockey practice, um, and, uh, and, and that they're, they're able to,

00:37:36.720 you know, fully engage in, in the life of their family and, and, and have us there to let them know,

00:37:42.480 uh, when something big is going on.

00:37:46.640 Well, Jeff, I appreciate the work that you're doing on behalf of Alberta parents and kids.

00:37:51.680 So much, um, the Canadian taxpayers federation says that they engage an army of people who

00:38:00.560 are involved in the issue. And, uh, uh, you, as I said before, you're really up against

00:38:06.160 a well-funded machine that has the media on their side. And even I learned something today

00:38:11.280 about the negotiations ongoing with the ATA that I hadn't really seen reported

00:38:17.040 in the mainstream media. So, um, you know, uh, I, I just think it's such a valuable resource and,

00:38:22.800 uh, I think you should really be proud of the work that you're doing.

00:38:25.520 And I want to thank you for coming on the show.

00:38:28.080 Thank you so much for having me. And thank you for the kind words.

00:38:30.400 Well, the last portion of the show is always yours. I sort of turn the show over to you and let you

00:38:43.280 tell me what you think about the work that I do at Rebel News, but not just me, all of us.

00:38:47.760 It's why I give you my email address right now. It's Sheila at rebelnews.com. Please put gun show 0.76

00:38:54.480 letters in the subject line so I know exactly why you're emailing me. Now, last week's letter comes

00:39:00.400 by way of a regular viewer. Some, oh, I should tell you, sometimes I take your comments from

00:39:06.080 YouTube or Rumble as well. So leave a comment there. Also, if you don't want to send me an email

00:39:12.080 directly, so if you're watching a free clip of the show, put it there. Um, and your engagement with that

00:39:17.520 content means that it will be served up to more people's eyeballs. And it's a great free way to support

00:39:23.760 our work here at Rebel News. But getting back to this week's gun show letter, it comes to me from

00:39:30.560 the email inbox and it's from a regular viewer, strong supporter of Rebel News for years and years.

00:39:37.200 It's Bruce Atchison from beautiful Radway, Alberta and his little cat Delta. And he writes to me about my

00:39:45.280 interview with Nadine Wellwood. She's the author of Alberta Rising. She is someone who is really

00:39:54.000 looked into Alberta independence, Alberta separation and what that would mean for Albertans. She's done

00:40:03.440 some work on what an Alberta pension would look like and answering those objections that might come

00:40:12.640 from, from, I guess, Albertans who are scared, apprehensive, have uncertainties about Alberta's ability

00:40:25.600 to leave Confederation should Albertans choose to do so. And Bruce writes, what a great show tonight. I

00:40:36.080 bought a copy of Alberta Rising. It's on Amazon. Just search Nadine Wellwood and I'll donate it to the

00:40:44.000 local library. What a great thing to do. My know nothing senior friends are afraid we'll lose our pension.

00:40:50.400 This book will show them the economics which will give us an even better pension. We don't even need

00:40:56.800 to leave Canada to get it. Bruce with sidekick Delta the cat. Yeah, that was a point that Nadine made is,

00:41:04.160 you know, we don't even need to leave Canada to get a better deal managing our pensions. We could have

00:41:13.120 an Alberta pension plan and it would have a greater return than the current CPP. We just need the

00:41:21.040 political will to do it and the proper education of the people to overcome those fears, apprehensions and

00:41:27.360 objections. I think Nadine does a great job of that in her book. Again, the book is called Alberta Rising. You

00:41:32.320 can get it on Amazon and you would be supporting a great Alberta author. And I think Nadine is one.

00:41:40.400 Well, everybody, that's the show for tonight. Thank you so much for tuning in. I'll see everybody back

00:41:44.000 here in the same time in the same place next week. And as always, don't let the government

00:41:47.680 tell you that you've had too much to think.

00:42:02.320 I'll see you in the same place.

00:42:14.000 I'll see you in the same place.

00:42:18.000 I'll see you in the same place.

00:42:24.400 You

Rebel News Podcast - September 17, 2025

SHEILA GUNN REID ｜ Jeffrey Park on the looming teachers’ strike

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