Parental educational opt-outs and children's rights.

• Author: McKay-Panos, Linda
• Position: Human Rights Law

Provincial and federal human rights law in Canada usually address discrimination on the basis of a number of grounds (e.g., race, religion, gender, disability, and marital status) in various public settings such as employment, tenancy, and services customarily available to the public. Alberta recently amended its human rights legislation--not to address discrimination but to provide parents with the right to be notified by schools if classroom instruction will involve religion, human sexuality, or sexual orientation. Parents can then opt out of this type of educational instruction for their children and have them excused from the classroom. This amendment does not specifically deal with discrimination, and further, the right to exempt children from this type of education is already provided by Alberta's School Act and other educational policies. In addition, parents can now complain to the Human Rights Commission if they believe their rights are violated under this new provision.

While this type of provision cannot be found in other Canadian human rights legislation, proponents believe that parents should have the right to opt their children out of discussions on sensitive educational topics. Opposition to the legislation is usually based on the difficulties it will impose on teachers when implementing the exemption, the chill it will impose on classroom discussion, and the subjection of teachers to human rights complaints. There has not been much discussion, however, on how this provision might infringe the rights of children.

The issue of parental opt-out has recently arisen in two other jurisdictions. In British Columbia, Murray Corren and Peter Corren made two complaints to the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal that the curriculum discriminated against non-heterosexual students and their parents because of their sexual orientation, family status, or marital status. They alleged that if students are removed from the class when a sensitive topic relating to issues of sexual orientation and same-sex families is discussed, then that student may not learn about gay and/or lesbian issues. The Correns argued that this would also have an adverse effect on both heterosexual and non-heterosexual families. The Ministry of Education met with the Correns and entered into an agreement with them, ending the human rights action.

The Correns Agreement provided for an optional Social Justice course. Students have the opportunity to review the curriculum and...