Ron Ghitter, a former Conservative MLA and former Canadian senator, is slamming the Alberta Tory caucus's "wrong-headed" plan to let parents exempt their kids from certain public school curriculum — including evolution classes.

I spoke with Ghitter about the plan this afternoon (May 1).

"We’re kind of stepping back into the Middle Ages a little with legislation like that," says Ghitter, who was a Calgary MLA from 1971 to 1979 under then premier Peter Lougheed. "I suppose it’s indicative of the attitudes in some parts of Alberta, but it really is a backward step."

Bill 44, tabled earlier this week in the legislature, would amend Alberta's human rights law to let parents pull their kids from classroom discussions on religion, sexuality and sexual orientation. "Once you open that Pandora's box, it goes on and on," says Ghitter. "Where do you stop on something like that?"

"Frankly, I'm shocked that the government would come in with legislation of that nature," continues Ghitter, who sits on the board of the Sheldon Chumir Foundation for Ethics in Leadership. "[It's] totally wrong-headed legislation."

Ghitter believes the human rights commission already has enough on its plate without having to worry about complaints that could arise from the new law. "If they want to do something like that, they should put it in the Education Act or the School Act," he says. "Aside from that, the human rights commission is not designed or structured to oversee schools in that context." 

After the Keegstra affair in the early 1980s, Ghitter oversaw a government audit of private school curriculum used in the province. He recalls how some of the schools he investigated were "schools of indoctrination." "Heaven forbid we should do that in our public school system," says Ghitter. "The public school system should aways be open to pluralistic thoughts and attitudes and critical thinking."

In Ghitter's mind, public school students "should be able to see all sides, think for themselves, come to their conclusions. Now that is an educational system that should be supported and should be accepted. What the government is doing in Bill 44 is taking away from that. They're accepting that indoctrination is an acceptable scope in an educational environment, and they're totally wrong."

Ouch. Over to you, Lindsay Blackett...