I was fortunate this year to introduce Tim Caulfield and Carol Off at the Calgary City Teachers’ Convention. Their session cut straight to a pervasive problem: misinformation breeds mistruths, and mistruths erode trust. We all see and feel this every day. As teachers, I would argue, we tend to feel it more. When people no longer trust institutions, they stop trusting each other and that’s when policy gets driven by fear, and semantics become increasingly important.
Caulfield and Off reminded us that misinformation doesn’t just live online. It shapes our daily conversations, election platforms and even government referendums. In education, we see it manifest in false claims about what teachers teach, who belongs in our schools and what public education is meant to be. And right now, the misinformation and mistruths around education and immigration are colliding in ways that should alarm every Albertan.
One of the most dangerous misconceptions gaining traction is that children’s access to public education should depend on their immigration status. That idea is not just cruel; it is reckless. The Alberta Teachers’ Association has clear policy: regardless of immigration status, children should have access to free public education. Schools are not border checkpoints. They are places of learning, safety and belonging.
If that principle is abandoned, we could see thousands of children removed from classrooms. Thousands. That is not just a number; it is a generation of young people pushed out of opportunity. These are families and children who came here for a better life—who believed in Canada and in the promise that education opens doors. Denying children access to school because of paperwork does not solve anything. It simply guarantees more poverty, more marginalization and more division. Caulfield and Off argued that this is the aim of misinformation—to keep us divided.
Caulfield and Off challenged us to push back with evidence and courage. Education has always been on the front line of dispelling lies about what happens in classrooms, about who our students are, and about what kind of society we want to be.
Misinformation thrives in silence. We can’t be neutral when mistruth harms our profession and our students. We know that learning thrives in light. If referendums are going to shape our future, they must be built on truth, not fear. And the truth is simple: every child in Alberta deserves a teacher, a desk and a chance.
I welcome your comments. Contact me at jason.schilling@ata.ab.ca.
ATA President
