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The United Conservative government claims that their unnecessary and dangerous attempt to reform Alberta’s education system is to “modernize” it and find “balance,” but it risks boosting the risk of suicide among our most vulnerable students.

Introduced last week, Bill 8 will gut protections for gay-straight alliance clubs in Alberta schools. Though the initial protections in Bill 10, passed by the legislature in 2015, forced principals to approve students’ requests for GSAs, legislation passed in 2017 improved it.

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Principals — particularly in religious schools — were no longer allowed to make chronic last-minute meeting-room and time changes, or impose ambiguous names on clubs. By repealing these changes from 2017, Premier Jason Kenney and Education Minister Adriana LaGrange advocate a return to inferior legislation.

The most dangerous part of Bill 8, though, is that it allows schools to notify parents — without students’ consent — that their child has joined a GSA. Although many parents may support their child’s LGBTQ identity, this must be balanced with the privacy needed to protect students at risk of physical or mental abuse at the hands of more homophobic parents. Given that up to 40 per cent of Edmonton’s homeless youth is LGBTQ, Bill 8 is playing games with people’s lives.