For nearly a decade, Alberta had been the only provincial holdout in a country all too eager to endorse the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Families in Canada were dealt a death blow on Jan. 13, when Tory Premier Ralph Klein did a flip-flop on his refusal to sign off parental rights, sending a letter to Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, pledging his government’s “formal support” for Ottawa’s 1991 decision to ratify the convention.

Considerable pro-family backlash from across the province was outdone by that of the conservative remnant left in the premier’s own caucus, as well as grassroots Progressive Conservative party members, who overwhelmingly rejected a resolution to support the document at the party’s November 1998 annual meeting.

Many Albertans are asking why Mr. Klein suddenly changed his mind, and why he refused to reveal the contents of his letter to the prime minister until March 6, when it was released by Calgary MLA Shiraz Shariff, pro-UN crusader in the Tory caucus. Critics have suggested that the premier knew he had crossed the line with his letter and was back-pedalling.

They also say he is out of touch with the people who elected him. This is confirmed by his own majority government’s refusal to back him by supporting his letter. Mr. Klein has indicated that his unilateral decision to support the UN convention came as a direct result of a private meeting he had with South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu during the recent UN conference in Edmonton marking the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. Mr. Klein likened it to a religious conversion. Archbishop Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, raised Alberta’s refusal to sign the convention as one of four key human rights issues he discussed with Mr. Klein.

A number of other pressures were also brought to bear on the premier, including a resolution passed by Family and Community Support Services, an arm of Alberta Social Services, at their fall 1998 conference, encouraging the government to sign on to the convention.

“It just goes to show how proponents of this UN declaration either just happen to be in the right places at the right times, or they are part of a well-orchestrated agenda. Either way, this change in position by Mr. Klein shows how a person can be worn down, no matter how strong their convictions,” says Kim Goodwin, an Edmonton area pro-life speaker and mother of two young daughters.

Premier Klein’s letter has stregthened a Supreme Court of Canada case challenging section 43 of the Criminal Code, which allows parents to use reasonable physical force to correct their children. Part of the argument in defence of the law was going to be that Alberta had always held out against the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which anti-spanking activists are using to force the repeal of section 43.

Liberal MLA Gary Dickson, critic for human rights issues, questioned why the government did not announce its intentions. “It’s curious to me the thing has been done so silently,” said Mr. Dickson. Alberta wanted a notation of the province’s objections included on the signed convention highlighting concerns that the convention could be used to trample parental rights. (The convention sees children as individual rights bearers abstracted from their families, free from parental authority, and dependent primarily on the state.)