- Roy Brassard
Roy Brassard (born October 1930 in
Fort William, Ontario )Geddes, Ashley, "Outcry gets minister for seniors", "Calgary Herald" (Herald Edmonton bureau),September 5 ,1991 . pg. A.1.FRO] is a Canadian politician who served as a Progressive ConservativeAlberta MLA, and more recently a public school board member.Provincial government
Brassard was elected as a member of the
Legislative Assembly of Alberta forOlds-Didsbury in 1986, 1989, and 1993.In 1991, the then premier of Alberta,Don Getty created a new ministry to deal with seniors affairs, selecting Brassard to be the minister. He had already dealt with senior issues while he was Associate Minister of Family and Social Services.In 1996 Brassard announced he was retiring from provincial politics to spend more time with his family. [Arnold, Tom, "Another top Tory leaving; Brassard seeks more family time, Oberg may be next; INS AND OUTS;", "Edmonton Journal",September 25 ,1996 . pg. A.7]Local public school board
After Brassard retired from provincial politics, he became an elected trustee on, and chair of
Chinook's Edge School Division No. 73 , a public school district, in Ward 8 (Didsbury).Brost, Les, "Let trustee stay on public board", "Calgary Herald",April 3 ,2006 . p. A10. (editorial)]In 2005 Brassard found that because he was Catholic he may not be able to remain on the board. According to the Alberta School Act, if an area has a Catholic
separate school district, a Catholic person in the area can not belong to the public board. After Brassard had been elected to the board, local Catholics voted to make the area part of a Catholic Separate board (effective in 2005). [http://www.cbc.ca/calgary/story/ca.trustee20060903.html "School board chair could lose job over religion"] , "CBC News",March 9 ,2006 .] That meant legally, Brassard was no longer allowed to remain on the public board. The board supported Brassard in calling this discrimination, and filing a Human Rights Complaint with the provincial Human Rights Commission. [ [http://www.chinooksedge.ab.ca/media/humanrights.pdf Press release by Chinook's Edge regarding Human Rights Complaint] ,March 8 ,2005 .] They have also requested the province change the School Act.Brassard would be eligible to run for the Catholic school district. However, he said his children went to the public system, so that is where he felt he should serve. [Gonzalez, Ramon, [http://www.wcr.ab.ca/news/2006/0320/chinook032006.shtml "Trustee's religion threatens his job: Alberta School Act bars Roy Brassard from his Chinook Edge chair job"] , "Western Catholic Reporter", Week ofMarch 20 ,2000 , last updatedMarch 29 ,2006 .]Personal life
Brassard studied marketing at Winnipeg's
Red River College and business administration at theUniversity of Manitoba . In 1950 he married Sheila Haire, and raised his family in Didsbury.References
External links
* [http://www.assembly.ab.ca/legislaturecentennial/pdf/membersBooklet.pdf Legislative Assembly of Alberta Members Listing]
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