WATCH ABOVE: High school students across the province are outraged that the annual Speak Out conference was cancelled by Alberta Education without much notice. Jessica Kent explains.
EDMONTON — High school students from across the province are frustrated and disappointed that an annual youth conference was cancelled on short notice by the provincial government.
The 7th annual Speak Out conference, which gives students an opportunity to discuss education-related topics with each other and Alberta Education, was to be held from April 17 to 19 in Edmonton. However, students registered for the conference found out Thursday it was cancelled “due to unforeseen circumstances.”
“We were really disappointed. We didn’t understand why,” said Jacob Dunn, a grade 10 student scheduled to attend this weekend’s conference.
Despite several phone calls and emails to Alberta Education, Dunn says the students were not given a reason for the cancellation.
“We never received any replies on this and we were very disappointed about that,” he said Sunday. “We felt that this conference would have helped support our voice and given youth a bigger say in the future of our province… A lot of youth in these rural communities never get the chance to do this. They have a small leadership program, they have very few opportunities to get involved, and this conference was supposed to help that.”
About 240 students and 60 chaperones were scheduled to attend the conference.
“Students were getting ready to come. Travel plans had been made. Parents might have put off vacations just for this and now it’s just been taken away from us,” Dunn said.
A spokesperson with Alberta Education said the conference was cancelled because of the upcoming provincial election.
“It would be defined as a public consultation and ministries shouldn’t be doing public consultations during an election period,” said Tamara Magnan. “It’s to not be seen as public service influencing the election process.
“Our jobs are to carry out the priorities of the government and right now there isn’t a government, per se, because they’re in an election.”
Despite the reasoning for the cancellation being told to the media, Dunn said Sunday he still hadn’t heard from the province directly, and for that he’s even more disappointed.
“We feel alienated, censored and ignored by our government. We feel as though they don’t take us seriously,” he said. “They’re the ones that are running our schools and helping come up with funding. How can we trust them now?”
Magnan said efforts were made to reschedule the conference, but that wasn’t possible due to student exam schedules and graduation.
With files from Jessica Kent, Global News.
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