The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - Students taught “safe crack smoking”

00:00:00.000 hey everyone welcome back to the alberta roundup i'm your host rachel emmanuel i hope that you

00:00:14.900 guys are enjoying your christmas break today we are going to be diving deeper into an issue that

00:00:19.840 we discussed last week in medicine hat school handing out pamphlets on how to use illicit drugs

00:00:26.080 today we are joined by jeff park the executive director of the alberta parents union to discuss

00:00:31.540 what the impact was on students and families we're joined by jeff now hi jeff thanks for joining us

00:00:37.060 today so there was an incident at a medicine hat high school recently where students were given

00:00:42.120 pamphlets on how to use illicit drug substances can you explain what happened here well yeah i a lot of

00:00:51.200 schools bring in these outside groups especially for health type education it's been uh unfortunately

00:00:59.260 an all too common uh exception to the kind of oversight that parents get to have into uh into

00:01:06.980 the kind of information that's coming into school and unfortunately when you start to make exceptions

00:01:11.620 to the where parents get to have oversight such as outside groups coming in and talking about

00:01:17.340 health concerns then uh you can have incidents like this where safe link which um used to be called

00:01:26.600 aids calgary and and started as a safe sex education uh organization uh came into the medicine hat high

00:01:36.660 uh career fair and was and was giving uh giving out pamphlets on uh safe

00:01:46.700 crack smoking safe meth smoking safe cocaine uh consumption of course there is no such thing but

00:01:54.040 for a lot of these organizations they came in from the aids epidemic into teaching six-year-olds about

00:02:01.740 safe sex and there's no such thing as that either so it's a logical it's a logical progression uh that

00:02:08.220 unfortunately we've we've we've cut out this exception for health education um that is is starting to

00:02:16.420 swallow more and more absurdities uh as we allow these things into schools so you obviously work with

00:02:23.740 parents every day what was the response from your membership to this incident outrage and dis disbelief

00:02:32.440 frankly and uh especially as it's revealed uh that our taxpayer dollars paid for this medicine hat

00:02:40.940 taxpayer dollars uh municipal taxpayer dollars uh support safe link for this kind of education city of calgary

00:02:49.460 taxpayer dollars support safe link for this kind of education we just learned that the the province

00:02:55.720 just gave safe link uh eight hundred and thirty five thousand dollars uh to curb uh to try to help curb the

00:03:04.060 syphilis epidemic in alberta and of course as with any of these

00:03:08.860 organizations that come in with uh these crackpot ideas in this case all too literally uh the uh of

00:03:20.140 course the federal government and health canada is also so at every level our tax dollars are are

00:03:26.300 supporting kids being told insane things and unfortunately we're we're in a situation where

00:03:34.120 people are increasingly less surprised uh not less outraged but less surprised because there's been

00:03:41.020 a complete breakdown of the faith that parents have uh where public schools are supposed to be worthy of the

00:03:50.000 public trust we're supposed to be able to understand that we can maybe not agree with everything but that

00:03:55.360 in general we can they can be a trusted source of information for our children that trust has broken

00:04:00.700 down largely absolutely it is very angering when you think about it from the taxpayer's perspective

00:04:06.180 we're the ones who were paying for this to happen now after this incident safe link said you know we

00:04:12.180 weren't actively handing out the pamphlets they were just sort of at the booth at the wellness center

00:04:16.000 that was hosted at the high school and they were removed within an hour of facilitators at the school

00:04:21.820 asking us to remove them sort of to say you know the damage maybe wasn't really that bad what's your

00:04:26.660 response to that of course the uh the the primary damage um isn't in number of pamphlets handed out

00:04:39.160 or anything like that it is uh in the trust that we believed that we could have uh in these organizations

00:04:46.740 you know they i i read the statements from the principal and the superintendent uh and immediately

00:04:55.120 said they don't get it there there's no there's no reason this won't happen again they're uh they

00:05:01.940 haven't learned their lessons they're they're they're basically defending um the process that they

00:05:07.980 used uh at not the in their case not the outcome in safe links case they've they've learned nothing

00:05:15.120 grown not at all their their their apology was an apology that parents don't realize that their

00:05:21.640 teens are already using drugs basically uh again it was children as young as 14 years old that uh that

00:05:28.320 were at this fair but but that was their apology that parents don't already know that their teens are

00:05:33.080 using drugs so the the concerning thing is is not what it says about how many kids were exposed to

00:05:40.520 information that might lead to an increased risk of normalization of an increased risk of drug use

00:05:46.800 by claiming that there is such a thing as safe consumption of these uh very unsafe drugs but that

00:05:54.020 um but that the organizations responsible for this have learned nothing uh plan on reforming nothing

00:06:02.240 about their own behavior right so in your instance you're saying you know the damage is already done

00:06:08.660 i've seen sort of an increased or rather decrease in trust in schools across the province public

00:06:13.760 systems for parents who are really just tired of these kind of situations happening what do you tell

00:06:18.900 them when they're looking for their solutions when they say i don't feel that my kids are safe

00:06:22.160 at public school anymore what would your response be to a parent with that concern

00:06:26.220 it's the family and friends event at shoppers drug mart get 20 off almost all regular priced

00:06:32.600 merchandise two days only tuesday february 24th and wednesday february 25th open your

00:06:38.560 pc optimum app to get your coupon there are a couple couple of levels uh is my my immediate

00:06:49.440 response for the sake of the kids is that often you do want to look at um a different choice in

00:06:55.180 education if the uh if the school that if the school that your kids are going to has lost your trust

00:07:00.600 um then medicine hat has a charter school one of the few places outside of uh calgary and edmonton

00:07:07.340 that's true obviously there are independent schools everywhere that are very responsive to

00:07:12.840 parent concerns and they have to be because uh because they only exist because parents chose them

00:07:19.520 uh unlike unlike the public system where often failure is rewarded uh by by more money uh they they can

00:07:27.920 only exist because parents choose them um and uh home education is becoming more and more accessible

00:07:34.100 with more and more resource resources available uh every year it's it's becoming easier uh for parents

00:07:41.140 to do and we're working now on uh clarifying the rules around uh learning pods where parents can share

00:07:47.720 uh uh uh even hiring a teacher or share a lot of the labor of uh of being directly responsible for the

00:07:57.820 education of their kids so those choices in education are are very important but then also

00:08:03.360 uh school boards are extremely important and it's something that uh i think a lot of parents

00:08:09.660 grandparents taxpayers a lot of the normal salt of the earth people here in alberta have ignored

00:08:15.520 to our own detriment that level of government uh and and we've left it to ideologues who uh who see no

00:08:25.260 issue with with so many of the red flags that parents could have called out earlier uh before

00:08:33.820 before we have kids being taught about safe meth consumption uh we we could have told you some of

00:08:39.860 the red flags about organizations like safe link long before that uh but it's it's often ideologues with a

00:08:48.020 very particular ideological agenda that are left for these school board seats uh rather than the

00:08:55.240 uh regular parents grandparents taxpayers that that have uh a the interest in just seeing kids

00:09:06.320 educated and getting back to basics great well for parents who are listening that gives you a lot of

00:09:11.120 options to chew on in case you're wondering what to do about the state of our public school system here

00:09:15.940 in alberta and honestly just across canada if you are looking for more information you can go to

00:09:21.780 alberta parents union their website has lots of information available jeff thanks so much for

00:09:26.000 joining us today thanks rachel and i'm going to close off this episode by responding to some of

00:09:31.380 my insiders if you're on the true north insider list you received an email in early december asking

00:09:38.680 for your comments and questions that i would respond to on the show so we're going to take a look at

00:09:42.400 some of those now mark s from brooks said will alberta finally separate from canada in 2024

00:09:48.240 we are so sick of true dope mark i have some bad news for you i think it's going to be a while yet

00:09:53.620 before we see enough sentiment to hold a yes referendum on separation from alberta if ever

00:09:59.940 i know that there is a lot of support for separation within my membership and among the rural parts of

00:10:05.380 the province people that have lived here for a really long time and have seen how the west has

00:10:09.280 time and time again got an unfair deal from the federal government and from the rest of canada and

00:10:14.380 they're simply sick and tired of it and they think that alberta would be better off on its own

00:10:18.080 that being said i believe we might run into some issues with our interprovincial immigration

00:10:22.440 i've covered this extensively on the show alberta is receiving so many newcomers from the rest of

00:10:27.580 canada more people are moving to alberta than to any other province in canada right now and i wonder

00:10:33.320 if these people who are coming here really understand why alberta why the cost of living is lower why we

00:10:37.700 don't have a provincial sales tax and if they will continue to vote conservative or if they'll vote

00:10:41.620 liberal or ndp or even for the green party or something crazy like that because often people

00:10:47.100 move to a new area they know it's better but they don't really understand why i believe it's in texas

00:10:51.760 when you're going into texas they have a sign that says don't california my texas we need one of those

00:10:57.180 signs when you're headed through medicine how on your way into alberta a big sign that says don't

00:11:01.140 ontario my alberta maybe we should get the alberta government on that sooner rather than later

00:11:06.120 phil from toronto says why does calgary always have such lefty loony bin mayors i thought alberta

00:11:12.500 was the most conservative province in the country this is something i really wondered about as well

00:11:17.200 when i moved to alberta we have just some of the worst mayors in all of canada there are definitely

00:11:21.520 really bad municipal governments throughout the country but jody gondek here and and emory so he in

00:11:28.060 edmonton you know just no good we're seeing some really no good things from these city councils

00:11:32.580 the effort to cancel canada today and not have fireworks just some of the most ludicrous stuff

00:11:37.080 i think the issue is that conservatives are so focused in alberta on provincial politics and canada

00:11:42.740 wide to really focus on federal politics and often people just don't pay as much attention to their

00:11:46.980 municipal politics so we need to once again start really paying attention to our city governments

00:11:52.300 but also actively working in them and organizing effectively that might mean we're going to all

00:11:57.380 decide on one conservative candidate and run one conservative counselor in every ward

00:12:02.380 so that we have you know a bunch of conservative city counselors and maybe just endorse one 0.82

00:12:05.960 conservative minded mayoral candidate so that the votes aren't split and then of course the other

00:12:11.160 and perhaps more obvious issue is that a lot of conservatives don't like to live in the cities

00:12:15.540 they like to live in the rural areas they like to own land they like having their property they like

00:12:20.300 having their privacy these are all conservative values and things that i think are admirable and

00:12:24.200 respected but unfortunately the result of that is that sometimes our cities just go down the drain

00:12:29.300 pretty quickly caitlin m from calgary asked how is your baby doing my baby is doing wonderfully he is

00:12:36.260 a very good boy he's vocal when he needs something but otherwise he's not too fussy and we've been

00:12:41.780 pretty lucky with the sleep training thing uh wasn't too painful so he actually goes to bed at 7 30 most

00:12:46.440 nights which is amazing i have a couple hours to myself so yes i think i'll be having another one

00:12:50.800 this definitely didn't scare me away from having kids and i'm pretty obsessed with him

00:12:54.640 okay everyone that's all i have for you today thank you so much for those of you who wrote in

00:12:58.700 to our insiders and for tuning in i hope that you guys enjoyed my interview with jeff park certainly

00:13:03.540 there's a lot of valuable information on school choice there if this is something that you guys

00:13:07.880 are interested in learning more about please let me know and i will do more coverage on this in future

00:13:12.080 episodes that's all i have for you today thank you so much for tuning in i hope that you guys enjoy

00:13:16.220 your new year's eve and i'll see you next year

The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - December 30, 2023

Students taught “safe crack smoking”

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript