Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak up and remove all doubt.

At the time, nobody wanted to even consider the matter, not any politicians, not editors at bigger papers than the Stettler Independent and certainly not elected school board officials.

The Red Deer Advocate, with their newsroom chock full of elderly souls trying their best to earn a pay cheque and go home, didn't even try to poach this story from me. It was a big one and after a year and a half of stealing my stories from the Independent, rewriting them for the Advocate and screwing up just about every fact along the way, the Advocate's editors decided it wasn't much of an issue.

In fact, Joe McLaughlin the Advocate's managing editor, wrote a piece for his paper warning people not to make it an election issue because, well, there are bigger things on our plate, and we can't quite grasp what this is or why it should concern hundreds of thousands of Albertans. Oh, Joe, you're right. Nobody who reads your paper would know what you're talking about anyway, but who gives a shit about human rights anymore?

The issue they were avoiding, and to a large extent the issue local and provincial politicians are avoiding, is the blatant discrimination that took place in Clearview School Division during the trustee elections when an Erskine woman was told -- flat out -- that she couldn't vote for public school trustee because she was Catholic. Sure she had three kids in public school, but she was of a certain religion and living in “their division” and well, that just won't float these days. Go vote where you belong, with your kind....

If you think I'm being glib here, consider this: It is absolutely true in Alberta that a Catholic cannot vote in a public school trustee election if they live in a Catholic school division. They can also not hold public school office. It all stems from the Alberta Act of 1905 in the federal constitution that gives Catholics the right to form separate school districts where they are the minority. It states that if a district is established in an area, all members of the minority faith are obligated to support and vote in that system regardless of where their children attend school.

It's true and a hell of a lot of people here have no idea. Getting the story out was a challenge. I called both school boards who were weary of commenting. Politicians were completely ignorant and even provincial human rights groups couldn't say for sure if the law violated any laws. It was only after I contacted the Canadian Civil Liberties Association in Toronto and waited two weeks for them to research the issue that we got to the crux of it:

“On the basis of one's religion, one can't vote for one's school board, where other people can,” Noa Mendelsohn Aviv of the civil liberties association told me. "I think it's fairly obvious that both her equality rights and her freedom of religion [were violated]."

But who actually knows that? That quote and a whole story never made it to print because people like McLaughlin don't bother to look into matters for any number of reasons. Other papers (national) wouldn't buy the story for their own reasons (never explained) and politicians including some school trustees and superintendents don't even understand the issue.

But people do, and forgive the long preamble. Often in elections serious issues get overlooked because an editor or some other lazy sot decides it's not important. When both sides of this issue (Catholic and Public School Boards) backed out of arranged interviews on a radio show I was hosting, we did it anyway and opened the phone lines up. We never received as many calls. People were concerned about all sides of the issue: where the tax dollars go, what Catholic divisions actually mean, what busing agreements would solve and what would eventually happen to small, rural schools when two sides compete for the same students.

The constituents, as they're called, understood all too well the issue, or at least what it would mean for them. The politicians didn't and they backed out of it like they did last week when I called the Drumheller-Stettler candidates to ask their opinion on it. If this election comes down to leadership as has been suggested, then D-S is sorely lacking. None of the candidates knew much about this separate school stuff. And fine, if people think human rights and discrimination don't matter. The truth of the issue is that the province can amend the Alberta Act if they so choose. But they haven't been approached because the school boards associations have displayed their own cowardice in not addressing the issue.

But it remains today that not many people in Alberta know that's still a law, because some think it's too political or too hot or too whatever to stand up for or against. Or to even write about it. It comes down to what's important to everyday people and the sense that politicians, those soldiers of 'change', those caring, sensitive compassionate men who lend their ear for one month every four years might actually start doing something about an issue they've heard about from the people it affects. Even if it means being a real leader.

The debate Thursday showed the parties do have a grasp on some of the major issues, but what about those ones that don't make for good 30-second clips? The ones that are more difficult to solve than party leaders blaming one another? Those issues that require thought, understanding and a dose of common sense?

Elections are full of buzz issues, in some cases started by different parties themselves as a means of distraction. Take the seemingly now dead issue of car insurance this election. This annoying frenzy has been brought up in just about every provincial election since 2000 and nothing ever gets solved. The media, for whatever reason, love hopping on these things and trying to make them something they're not. The people have to speak up and let their representatives know what's important to them. Don't rely on out of touch editors to set the agenda. One week to go......

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fishinrod   |IP:142.179.149.xxx |2008-03-04 11:35:19 Hey Chris, nice blog. Good to see you keeping busy. Guinness on tap - if only it was available in Stettler.... Can the 'public' vote for Catholic school trustees? I think not. So why should Catholics vote for public trustees. They should disband the board system anyways - and have independant schools operate under the province - each school can have its own board. Quote 0   0

Christopher Walsh   |2008-03-08 01:18:56 fishinrod, First, that magnificent pint of the Lord's Brew was created in Dublin and that's where I found it.... The simple solution to the Catholic School Division issue is to end the whole idea of separate schools in this province. Other provinces in the union have done same and nobody is any the less educated for it. But, here, it's a God-given right and come hell or high-water, we're keeping it. Not sure who benefits from it exactly, but it's a right and we're exorcising [sic] it. At the very least, we should be. There is a simple solution that maintains and respects both sides here: follow the Ontario system where people of all denominations can choose which school system to support. A big fraud on the Alberta taxpayer is that piece of paper that comes in the mail when you buy a home asking you where you want your tax dollars directed: public or Catholic schools. It doesn't matter what you check here, your money ends up in the same pot in Edmonton and then follows the student wherever they seek education and salvation. I'm not sure why they even ask that anymore, but I have my suspicions.... Anyway, yes fishinrod, I'm keeping busy and I'm even eating these days. And on some fine nights I enjoy a Guiness.... Quote 0   0

Jeff   |IP:24.187.98.xxx |2008-04-22 20:07:15 Some people will always be too afraid to speak up for what's right..they are the cowards of the world. ------------------- guild hosting Quote 0   0

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