RCMP intervene after school lesson on Alberta's oil industry prompts online anger by parents

[applegrove]

RCMP intervene after school lesson on Alberta’s oil industry prompts online anger by parents

JAMES KELLER

PUBLISHED DECEMBER 10, 2019

The online dustup in Blackfalds is the latest example of school exercises on the oil sands sparking backlash in Alberta.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/amp/canada/alberta/article-rcmp-intervene-after-school-lesson-on-albertas-oil-industry-prompts/?__twitter_impression=true

"SNIP.....

A Grade 4 lesson that included material critical of Alberta’s oil industry prompted a Facebook debate among parents that devolved into threats and prompted the school to call in the RCMP and cancel a holiday dance.

A teacher at Iron Ridge Intermediate Campus in Blackfalds, Alta., last week showed a classroom of Grade 4 students two videos about the oil sands – one from the Alberta government and the other from the environmental group Greenpeace, the local school district said. The students then received a written assignment that asked how Albertans should manage competing demands on the province’s land for uses such as oil development, wind and solar power, agriculture and recreation.

Jayson Lovell, superintendent of the Wolf Creek school district, said a student told his parents about the lesson, and they took to social media to complain.

Sensitivity levels are high in Alberta about the portrayal of its oil sector, which has been a target for environmental activists, and hit hard in recent years by falling oil prices. Mr. Lovell said the social media comments included the possibility of a confrontation at the dance, and that the tone of the language used in the discussion was alarming enough to summon police.

......SNIP"

[applegrove]

1. There will be a movement to privatize Alberta schools no doubt because

tanking something that is good and works is a right wing thing to do. Canadian public schools do pretty well at teaching critical thinking but that is not what big oil wants to face in voters in 25 years.

[abqtommy]

2. I'm glad to see that the RCMP is still a force to accomplish some good. I see many articles on

the CBC/Canada that inform the reader of the latest RCMP scandal and that can be discouraging.

[applegrove]

3. Like any big, old organization they have had their bad days. But i see evolution

Last edited Wed Dec 11, 2019, 05:30 AM - Edit history (2)

of policing all the time. Nobody deals more with the front line than they do. Nobody faces crisis situations as much. Not heard anything bad recently. They are the national police force for federal matters. And they police several provinces as local police outside of big cities. They are not as tight a ship as the FBI but then nobody is. Bad apples happen anywhere. So too are there dinosaurs. I worked a job where some rcmp were regulars. They were the greatest eggs. i have no complaints.

[abqtommy]

4. Thanks! Your words are encouraging.