The Alberta government introduced its promised amendment to the provincial Bill of Rights on the first day of the legislature’s fall sitting on Monday, a move Premier Danielle Smith said will “strengthen” human rights protections and “ensure our province remains one of the freest societies in the world.”
The new bill aims to bolster rights for property and gun owners as well as broaden legislation to protect freedom of expression beyond speech and writing.
It also protects people with capacity from being compelled or coerced into receiving medical treatments or vaccines but leaves it up to the courts to decide how the law is applied.
“No one should be pressured into accepting medical treatments without their full consent, including vaccines,” Smith told media on Monday at the Alberta legislature.
Justice Minister Mickey Amery said Monday the government will “allow the courts to make those determinations using the precedent that they’ve established and the case law that already exists.”
Smith said the Bill of Rights amendments have also been worded so as not to conflict with the government’s plan to introduce legislation giving police and family the authority to force drug users into treatment.
The premier said her motivation for making the Alberta Bill of Rights amendment the first item of the fall sitting is because she has been advocating for changes to it since 1997.
“I’m going on almost 30 years of wanting to make this change, and part of it is that you do have governments that sometimes take away the use of property without giving compensation,” Smith told media.
She also pointed to that $2-million post-pandemic review by former federal Reform Party leader Preston Manning, saying the whole point of his report was to identify areas of legislation where people’s rights need more protections.
Smith said this is her way of following some of those recommendations.
It’s the first time in five decades the Alberta government is amending the Bill of Rights.
Critics say the legislation could put Albertans at risk.
Under the law, private businesses can still require employees or customers to be vaccinated. However, health law expert Lorian Hardcastle says she fears it could hijack the government from running a vaccine passport-type system in a public health emergency and could mean health workers in public hospitals are able to refuse vaccines regardless of the risk to patients.
“(A concern would be) whether hospitals and other organizations working with vulnerable people will still continue to be able to require vaccinations of their workers, and not just a COVID-19 vaccination, but other vaccinations,” Hardcastle, an associate professor in the Faculty of Law and Cummings School of Medicine at the University of Calgary, told CTV News Edmonton on Monday.
“That would potentially put those vulnerable populations they work with at risk.”
NDP justice critic Irfan Sabir says it’s clear the legislation was not well thought out and says it will result in many court challenges.
“They have created jobs for lawyers without investing anything into court delays, without investing anything into the challenges facing our justice system,” Sabir told media Monday at the Alberta legislature.
Political scientist Duane Bratt says the bill is to win over far right United Conservative Party members ahead of the premier’s leadership review but questions if the changes go far enough.
“There are opponents to Smith. Are they going to solved by this? Are they going to point out some of the flaws in this?” Bratt, a political science professor at Calgary’s Mount Royal University, told CTV News Edmonton.
If passed, the bill would also reinforce property rights, so if the government takes an individual or entity’s property, it would need to be authorized by law and provide “just compensation.”
The proposed changes to the Bill of Rights come just days before Smith faces a party leadership review on the weekend.
With files from The Canadian Press