Kevin McBean

@ABDanielleSmith @EdmontonChamber Decimating a public education system isn’t how you help the markets…. Unless your goal is to help only the wealthy and your well-connected friends. Oh wait…

This week at the annual address to the @EdmontonChamber I spoke about how we are helping to create the conditions for the free market to succeed. Our culture of entrepreneurship, free enterprise, and low taxes has made our province the go-to destination for investment whether it be in the energy sector, data centres, and so much more. Together, with Alberta's business-friendly policies, we will continue creating jobs that hard-working Albertans can rely on.

@ABDanielleSmith The most recent proposal put forward by the ATA was very reasonable and would address all these problems. Why are you refusing to consider it?

We want the same things as Alberta teachers and parents: More classrooms. More teachers. More pay for teachers. And more educational assistants. This strike has gone on too long and we are extremely concerned about the impact it is having on students. The ATA needs to do what is right for its members, and for all Alberta students.

@McAllisterBruce Suggesting a child be beaten for expressing an opinion is not just an “inappropriate remark.” It reveals everything about your party’s belief in open dialogue and democracy and the voice of young people. Absolutely disgusting display.

Last night, while moderating the AB Next panel, I made an inappropriate remark to a participant. I regret saying it and I apologize. I’m committed to ensuring these conversations remain respectful and constructive.

@dduperreault @Miss_Courtney87 @MargaretAtwood But do parents get to decide what other children can’t read? Anyway, your profile says you’re in Toronto so maybe just keep your support for fascism contained to your own province.

@kmcbean @Miss_Courtney87 @MargaretAtwood Why are you back here. I told you last time I had read almost everything by Atwood and that I was a Cat’s Eye and Lady Oracle fan, but not handmaid’s tale . I also told you I do not care about book bans. Also, parents get to decide what children read. Not teachers.

Hi kids .. #HandmaidsTale (the book not the series!) has just been banned in #Edmonton…don’t read it, your hair will catch on fire! Get one now before they have public book burnings of it.

@dduperreault @Miss_Courtney87 @MargaretAtwood In any case, the joy of reading is that you can find a book that suits your own interests. And if it’s good for you, then no one else should ban it and tell you that you can’t read it. Isn’t that freedom?

@Miss_Courtney87 @kmcbean @MargaretAtwood EPSB employees added ordinary classics to the list. Based on the provincial MO. And yes, I was bored by Handmaid’s Tale. So bored.

@dduperreault @Miss_Courtney87 @MargaretAtwood You must be a boring person.

@cindylynn_ @MargaretAtwood They were never in elementary schools. Like you honestly think that someone working in a school said “we should buy these graphic novels! The 8 year olds will love them!”? The problem is that the MO requires the removal of many books from junior highs and high schools.

@kmcbean @MargaretAtwood Then I guess it won't be a big deal to remove it from Alberta's elementary schools.

@cindylynn_ @MargaretAtwood Are 5th graders reading this content, Cindy? Get real. Are you advocating for properly finding library staff for all schools to ensure a good, age-appropriate collection? Or just caught in a moral panic about 4 cherry-picked images?

@kmcbean @MargaretAtwood Are you defending this content for 5th graders, Kevin?

@dduperreault @MargaretAtwood “Gender is a problem”- sounds like the title of Butler’s next book. Can’t wait to read it if it’s not banned here. Peace.

@kmcbean @MargaretAtwood Not feminist theorists. Frankfurt School gender theorists. Feminism is fine. Gender is a problem. Especially for parents. Expect blowback (the source might surprise you!).

@dduperreault @MargaretAtwood Not really sure what feminist theorists have to do with banning books in high schools? Anyway, I wish you well because it must be difficult to live in a world where you believe that a library book read by a handful of students is somehow responsible for mass indoctrination.

@kmcbean @MargaretAtwood I am guessing you are a fan of Judith Butler. I am not. I do have a weakness for Elizabeth Grosz, however.

@dduperreault @MargaretAtwood I mean, surely if one is commenting on the pace of the act, that would meet the threshold for “detailed” as outlined in the order?

@dduperreault @MargaretAtwood But would you agree that when Offred describes the pace of The Commander’s “fucking” (her words), that it’s explicit?

@dduperreault @MargaretAtwood So they should be banned? So you do support book bans then? It’s just so hard to follow the logic sometimes. And they should be banned because they “contain depictions” (defined in the MO as “a written passage or illustration” of “explicit sexual content”?

@kmcbean @MargaretAtwood Gender Queer, Fun Home, Blankets, and Flamer are sexually explicit books found in 58 Alberta schools. These four books absolutely constitute a culture of indoctrination and they need to go.

@NateHornerAB That wasn’t what we asked for. Do better.

We are deeply concerned and disappointed that the Alberta Teacher Association leadership walked away from the bargaining table yesterday, after receiving exactly what they asked for. We call on the ATA to get back to the bargaining table and get a deal done. Parents and students deserve the peace of mind that come next week, kids will be back in their classrooms.

@cindylynn_ @MargaretAtwood Actually that wasn’t the instruction. Please read the entire MO so that you understand.

@MargaretAtwood The instruction was no sexually explicit content in elementary and middle school... It was the Edmonton School Board who pulled your book as a passive aggressive responsive to decency and a request to remove sexual content from k-6.

@dduperreault @MargaretAtwood To be clear, no one working in schools believes this novel should be banned. But according to the terms of the MO, that is what must happen. If you don’t support that, please call the minister of education and tell him to repeal it!

@dduperreault @MargaretAtwood Mary. Read the MO in its entirety. Then read the novel in its entirety. Surely you will see that the book has scenes which meet the criteria of “explicit sexual content” as laid out in the MO and therefore must be banned in high schools. Do you support the MO or not?

@5RandomName5 @FreeAlbertaRob Seek help.

@kmcbean @FreeAlbertaRob So you're admitting the school boards made the list themselves and are intentionally choosing inoffensive books to pretend that is the spirit of the order and get parents to unknowingly beg for the government to allow you to put graphic novels teaching kids how to give rim jobs?

Utter nonsense and lies. The GOA directive bans explicit pornographic material from little kids at school. This list is not from the province. It’s shocking and disturbing the lengths some adults will go - and the lies they will tell - to share pornography with young kids. Gross

@FreeAlbertaRob These books meet the criteria of the order as written. They should not be banned. Are you really calling Canadian icon Margaret Laurence’s novels pornography? That is shockingly out of touch with reality.

@FreeAlbertaRob But that’s not how your ministerial order is written and you know it. You knew, or ought to have known, that this would be the response from school boards. Maybe it’s tome to re-evaluate the language in the order?