David Eggen’s policies have resulted in schoolchildren being given graphic sex manuals, but he opposes Christian hiring practices

By Jonathon Van Maren

Alberta’s NDP government has had a rough couple of weeks. Their popularity continues to plummet right alongside the economic forecasts, and they’re currently fighting dozens of religious schools in court as they attempt to ramrod their radical social agenda into the communities and families of those who still hold to traditional values. As it turns out, the NDP’s attempts to ensure that parents are not permitted to know what their children are up to at school via Bill 24 was done so due to the fact that most parents would be very strongly opposed to what is actually going on: For example, children being taken out of school without their parents’ knowledge or permission to LGBT conferences where they are given condoms and flipbooks on how to have gay sex.

And so it was no surprise to me that right on schedule, NDP Education Minister David Eggen emerged to change the channel, solemnly addressing some scandalous rumors swirling about. As it turns out, the Edmonton Journal reported last week, there are actually Catholic schools where the teachers hired by Catholic school boards are expected to be Catholics who adhere to Catholic teaching. Eggen, who is fully on board with children being given graphic sex flipbooks and condoms, is of course outraged by this:

Education Minister David Eggen is “deeply concerned” any school board would have an employee sign a document stating they cannot be in a same-sex or common-law relationship. His remarks come after Postmedia obtained forms Red Deer Catholic regional teachers had to sign saying they were in breach of their job contracts if they were involved in a same-sex relationship.

Although the school district says it has now changed a “conditions of employment” form all new employees must sign, one district teacher said he and at least three colleagues have jobs that hinge on the forms they signed years ago.

“… If you are now, or at any time that you are in the employ of Red Deer Catholic Regional Division No. 39, involved in a same-sex relationship, or a common-law relationship outside of the traditional Catholic Church definition of marriage, you are in breach of your contract,” says the agreement.

Eggen said in an interview any such agreement would contravene labour rights and human rights.

“To have people signing papers saying it’s not OK to be gay, that’s definitely not on,” he said.

A Red Deer Catholic teacher, who Postmedia agreed not to name to protect his job, said he signed a similarly worded form when he began working for the district more than a decade ago. He has never been asked to sign an updated document, he said. The teacher, who does not identify as LGBTQ, said he gave an old mailing address to the district for at least nine months so they wouldn’t know he was living with his fiancée before marriage.

Employees regularly refer to having a vasectomy as “Catholic knee surgery,” to explain missed work days, he said. School administrators follow up with teachers who don’t go to church. The old “conditions of employment” document could still be found on the school district’s website Monday. It was only removed on Tuesday after inquiries by Postmedia. A spokeswoman provided a copy of the new terms on Monday afternoon. References to common-law and same-sex relationships had been removed.

The form now reads: “Specifically, you are expected, both in and out of school, to live a lifestyle and deportment in harmony with the Catholic Church practices and beliefs, which include, among other things, participation in the sacraments of the church and living in harmony with the principles of the gospel and teachings of the Catholic Church.”

This is a nonsense story. It is not news that Catholic schools might expect their employees to abide by Catholic standards. David Eggen is simply doing what progressive politicians in this country always do when they are attempting to distract from news they wish to ignore (in this case, schoolchildren being taken off schoolgrounds by adults who do not work for the school or the government to conferences where sex manuals are handed out.) This sort of storyline plays out all the time: Find an institution that calls itself Catholic or Christian, attempt to find out if they have any policies or practices that actually reflect that, demand an explanation, and then express public horror at the presence of people in our midst who actually believe that sex has a design and a purpose.

David Eggen and the Alberta NDP are facilitating the systematic corruption of schoolchildren while actually making it illegal for parents to know what is being done with their children while they are not at home. To distract from this, they must pretend that they are outraged by the Catholic doctrine concerning marriage, which is precisely the opposite of what one would call “news.”

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For anyone interested, my book on The Culture War, which analyzes the journey our culture has taken from the way it was to the way it is and examines the Sexual Revolution, hook-up culture, the rise of the porn plague, abortion, commodity culture, euthanasia, and the gay rights movement, is available for sale here.