UCP introduces planned update to Alberta Bill of Rights

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Fifty-two years after former Alberta premier Peter Lougheed introduced the Alberta Bill of Rights, a pre-constitutional statute meant to protect Albertans from the depredations of government, the United Conservatives are updating that document, expanding some of its protections to suit the modern era and allay the concerns of a restive conservative base.

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“It’s been more than half a century since it was introduced in an ever-evolving world, we must be vigilant to ensure the rights and freedoms of Albertans continue to be protected,” said Premier Danielle Smith. “These amendments to the Alberta Bill of Rights are not just legal changes. They are a reaffirmation of the values that make Alberta one of the freest jurisdictions on Earth.”

The bill, the first of the Alberta legislative session that began Monday, is part of a governing agenda that focuses heavily on social and cultural issues, including restrictions around pronoun use in school and medical treatment for transgender minors, issues that have, in recent years, animated the United Conservative Party’s membership. Next weekend, Smith will face a leadership review at the party’s annual general meeting in Red Deer.

The updated Bill of Rights expands in four areas. Should the bill become law, it will: protect freedom of expression, not exclusively freedom of speech, in order to cover non-verbal and non-written forms of expression; protect Albertans against unwanted medical care, though with some exceptions, and a de-facto restriction on vaccine mandates in the public sector; affirm firearms ownership as a right; and it make it more challenging for governments to appropriate property.

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The new Bill of Rights would also give the courts more extensive remedies, were provincial government policy found to have violated Albertans’ rights, including injunctions or the awarding of damages in some circumstances.

Though largely superseded by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which was adopted in 1982, the original Alberta Bill of Rights has been used by courts, on occasion, to invalidate provincial statutes, perhaps most prominently in the case of Elmer Wiebe, a central Alberta Mennonite who objected to “morally corrupt” teachers educating his son. Wiebe found himself in contravention of the provincial Education Act for not sending his kid to school, but won in court on the strength of the Alberta Bill of Rights’ protections for freedom of religion.

The bill is the fulfillment in principle of a resolution from the UCP’s 2023 annual general meeting and a response to a report produced by Preston Manning reviewing the provincial government’s COVID-19 response.

Asked by National Post what consultations the provincial government did to guide the development of the updated Bill of Rights, Chinenye Anokwuru, Amery’s press secretary, said in an email that “many amendments” were in response to Manning’s review and that Smith and her ministers have travelled the province heard about how people want rights strengthened.

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“Albertans have raised concerns about restrictions government has placed on their individual rights, especially in emergency situations,” Anokwuru wrote.

“Many of the proposed amendments in the bill that we’re introducing today relates to recommendations the panel made to improve protections for Albertans,” Justice Minister Mickey Amery said in a news conference, referring to the recommendations made in the Manning report. “The Alberta Bill of Rights would apply to all government actions, programs and policies, regardless of whether they specifically flow from a particular law.”

The protection of an Albertan “with capacity not to be compelled or coerced into receiving a vaccine” is likely to be popular among Smith’s supporters; she rode to leadership of the United Conservative Party in summer 2022 on a wave of conservative concern over COVID-era public-health measures, including vaccine mandates, and Smith had long telegraphed protections for the unvaccinated.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Alberta, like other provinces, introduced measures to compel people to receive their COVID shot. Vaccine passports restricted access to, for example, bars and restaurants; the Alberta government also offered cash incentives to the hesitant. Health-care employees, such as nurses and doctors, were required to receive vaccinations in order to work; hundreds of health-care workers refused and subsequently lodged labour grievances against health agencies.

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It’s not clear what changes to the Bill of Rights would mean for health-care workers. “It’s difficult to speculate on that scenario, or any scenario going into the future,” said Amery. However, he also said that the government is “telling people that the government must be balanced and must take a careful approach when imposing any type of rules, policies, regulations or act that may infringe on the Bill of Rights.”

Also on the health-care front, the Bill of Rights will protect Albertans from unwanted medical treatments, except in circumstances where not receiving such treatment would cause “substantial harms” to the individual or to others — a clause that would allow for the forced treatment of severe drug addicts in Alberta when the government introduces the Compassionate Intervention Act, which is expected next year.

“Somebody who is overdosing 186 times a year, going in and out of hospital emergency rooms, causing harm to themselves or others, and only focused on their next fix, I think most people will understand, I think the courts will agree, that that person lacks capacity,” said Smith.

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Unlike the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Alberta Bill of Rights will have no effect on federal laws and will apply only to provincial government policy, or those bodies associated with the provincial government such as municipalities and police forces. It will not apply to the conduct of the private sector or the actions of individuals.

This distinction could pose a symbolic challenge to the Alberta government, especially in the case of firearms. (About eight per cent of all Albertans have firearms licenses.)

“For too long, the federal government has unfairly targeted law-abiding firearms owners who’ve done nothing more than exercise their legal rights, and we’ve seen an escalation from Ottawa in recent years, so we’re pushing back,” said Smith. “We’re prepared to draw a line and say, ‘Yes, federal government, stay in your lane and focus on the criminal use of firearms, but don’t be regulating on property and civil rights.’”

The rules around bearing and owning firearms are largely a matter of the federal Criminal Code and the federal Firearms Act. In March 2023, the Alberta government did pass its own Firearms Act, in an attempt to ensure provincial administration of federal firearms rules and prevent local police forces from participating in federal gun-control measures, such as buybacks or seizures.

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Not included in the updated Bill of Rights, introduced in the legislature Monday afternoon, are many of the proposals that had been endorsed by the board of the United Conservative Party.

Among those proposed amendments were restrictions around marriage (a person could not be “heavily medicated” or intoxicated to wed), restrictions around abortion and the right of private citizens and law enforcement to use “lethal force” to prevent the commission of crimes.

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