EDMONTON — Alberta Premier Jim Prentice has put on hold a controversial bill that would have allowed gay students to form support groups, but only if schools approved them.
Prentice says the bill has added to rather than resolved divisions on the issue and more consultations are needed.
He says he felt the bill struck a balance between the rights of gay students, religious groups, schools and parents, but it obviously needs more work.
"I accept responsibility for where we are," Prentice told reporters Thursday.
"I'm not pleased about this. This is the right thing to do. I know that to my core. And that's why I am ... telling you that we are going to pause the legislative process and hear from Albertans and consult."
The government was facing mounting resistance to the bill and had already amended it once.
At first, it said gay students could appeal to school boards and, ultimately, the courts if they weren't allowed to form a gay-straight alliance.
But on Wednesday the government said it would create a group for students if their school didn't co-operate, but not necessary on school grounds.
Opposition politicians said forcing the alliances off school property would be stigmatizing and humiliating.
The amendment was introduced by the Progressive Conservatives to try to recapture the political initiative on an issue that is growing to symbolize how Alberta views and treats homosexuals.
Gay-straight alliances are after-school clubs to help gay students feel welcome and to prevent them from being abused and bullied. Statistics in other jurisdictions show the rate of suicide among gay youth drops significantly when a school has one of the groups.
The alliances operate in many public schools in Edmonton and Calgary, but there has been resistance to them from officials in faith-based and rural schools.
The Tories moved on their own legislation because they were facing a Liberal private member's bill that would have ordered all schools to set up gay-straight alliances if students wished them.
They said that bill was too divisive.
