Duggar family speech at Alberta homeschooling convention cancelled

The scandal-cladDuggar family's keynote speech at the Alberta Home Education Associationconference in Red Deer, Alta.,has been cancelled.

• OTHER ALBERTA NEWS |Inglewood residents raid homeless camp to steal back allegedly stolen goods
• OTHER ALBERTA NEWS | Wildrosebudget response overshadowed by 'childish behaviour'

In a press release sent out onSunday, the AHEA confirmed that the controversialreality TV couple, Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar,have been dropped from the program.

"Although early feedback from our members this summer was supportive of having the Duggars come here, recent feedback from our own members points out that their appearance here would not be in the best interest of home educators," reads therelease.

The Duggar family has beenclouded in controversysince May, when TLC cancelled their reality TV show,19 Kids and Counting, after their eldest son admitted he had molested four of his sisters when he was a teenager.

• Josh Duggar's sister says he victimized her, but child molester allegations 'a lie'

The Duggars were bookedtwo years ago, before the news about Josh Duggar surfaced,according to AHEA president Paul van den Bosch.

"As we have learned, child abusecan happen in any home and is never'old news,'"wrote van den Bosch.

"Our members so pointed out that, as theDuggarswould have beengiving only two talks (of the more than 40 talks available), theirpresence would have been only a small part of the convention and theDuggars'philosophy is not representative ofAHEAas a whole."

On Friday, the AHEA announced it was having second thoughts about the speech.

Information about the Duggars and their speech was pulled down from the convention website on Sunday as well.

The convention takesplace April 8 and 9 in Red Deer.