Alberta Premier Jim Prentice listens during a news conference in Vancouver, B.C., on November 3, 2014.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
Alberta Premier Jim Prentice's government has effectively killed a private member's bill guaranteeing students the right to form gay support groups by proposing instead a bill which doesn't guarantee anything.
Bill 10 will allow students to form gay-straight alliances in schools but will give schools the final say on whether to allow them.
If the school says no, students can appeal to the school board, and finally to the Court of Queen's Bench.
Sandra Jansen, the Tory backbencher sponsoring the bill, says it will revoke the right of parents to pull their children out of class if sexual orientation is discussed.
She says the government is moving forward incrementally on L-G-B-T-Q issues so everybody can be on the same page.
Liberal Laurie Blakeman's private member's bill would have given students the automatic right to create gay-straight alliances and, like Bill 10, would also no longer allow parents to pull children out of class when sexual orientation was taught.
Blakeman says the government is catering to the demands of a small and vocal lobby group of home schoolers.
She also says she's appalled the government is talking about incremental progress on people's fundamental human rights.