Education

Did you know that Alberta taxpayers are indirectly funding an unconstitutional organization dedicated to infringing on Alberta's sovereignty in the area of education?

You see, Alberta teachers are, of course, paid with taxpayer dollars.

But, the government also forces teachers (except those in charter and independent schools) to take some of that money and use it to pay dues to the Alberta Teachers’ Association.

Then, having successfully converted Alberta taxpayer dollars into a union war-chest, the Alberta Teachers’ Association sends $1,007,500 of it to the Canadian Teachers' Federation.

The same thing happens right across the country.

And what does the Canadian Teachers' Federation do with all that taxpayer money given to them indirectly by the provinces?

Well, they turn around and use it to lobby the federal government to take power away from the provinces by adopting unconstitutional education policies at the federal level.

Education is, and always has been, a purely provincial jurisdiction.

The Constitution Act of 1867 could not be more clear on this point:

“In and for each Province the Legislature may exclusively make Laws in relation to Education”.

The Canadian Teachers' Federation, therefore, exists at the expense of the taxpayers of various provinces with no other mission than to apply pressure for a legal impossibility: federal education policy.

Their own mission statement reads:

“We uphold teaching as a profession and advocate for adequate resourcing, labour rights, and social justice across Canada and around the world.”

There are a few problems with that mission though.

First, despite their global ambition, there are not even national professional standards for teachers (again, because that would be illegal).

Next, education funding and collective bargaining with educators are also both purely provincial responsibility.

We’re sure whatever they mean by social justice is also a purely provincial responsibility too - at least in its application to education and education workers.

We warned you last year when the Canadian Teachers’ Federation sent a letter to Justin Trudeau asking for “federal leadership in education”, which, again, not to put too fine a point on it, is unconstitutional.

There they asked specifically for the feds to commandeer “health and safety of students and teachers in schools”.

They also demanded the feds take over “Truth and Reconciliation in education”, which you can safely assume threatens federal control of the entire curriculum.

All this leads to two obvious questions.

First, why would the Alberta Teachers’ Association support a facially unconstitutional organization asking for fewer things to be decided at the provincial level.

This one is actually quite easy to understand.

The ATA don’t care about whether their preferred policy is constitutional or not - they just think they’re more likely to get what they want from the federal government than from the Alberta government.

They’d rather see the Trudeau government force provinces to adopt unconstitutional federal mandates than have to actually persuade the voters of Alberta that they’re good ideas, worthy of support.

The second question is more puzzling.

Why does the Alberta government allow provincial taxpayers’ money to be used to lobby the federal government to infringe on Alberta’s jurisdiction?

Forcing Alberta taxpayers to fund an organization premised exclusively on asking Trudeau to tell us how to run our own education system is just wrong.

We think it’s well past time for the Alberta government to put a stop to this.

They should use their power - whether in legislation or their ongoing negotiations with the Alberta Teachers’ Association - to stop forcing Albertans to fund this blatant advocacy against our interests.

If you agree, please sign the petition today, calling on the Alberta government to Keep Trudeau Out of Alberta Education: