Alberta’s UCP government tabled amendments to the province’s Bill of Rights on Oct. 28, the first day of the legislature’s fall session, to add protections for medical choice, including the right to refuse vaccination, as well as strengthen gun ownership rights, property rights, and freedom of expression.
Although Premier Danielle Smith had announced the amendments last month,
details of the proposal were made available with the tabling of the bill this week. Regarding vaccine choice, it said Albertans will not be “coerced” into receiving medical treatment without consent unless they are “likely to cause substantial harm to themselves or to others.”
The language leaves the door open for involuntary addiction treatment, which the UCP proposed last year as the Compassionate Intervention Act and is
currently exploring approaches for implementing.
Justice Minister Mickey Amery said much of the interpretation about whether someone is “coerced” or has the “capacity” to decide, will be left to the courts. “We’ll allow the courts to make those determinations using the precedent that they’ve established and the case law that already exists,” he said at an Oct. 28
press conference.
If passed, the amended Alberta Bill of Rights will apply to provincially regulated workplaces; organizations that operate “under extensive government control,” such as municipalities and police services; and organizations where there is a “high degree of government control” over specific activities, such as hospitals offering public medical services, according to a
briefing document of the bill.
The act applies to laws and actions of the provincial government, rather than to federal laws or actions by the federal government or the private sector.
“The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects Canadians from both laws and actions of the federal and provincial governments. The Alberta Human Rights Act applies to actions of the private sector,”
reads a summary of the bill.
“With these proposed amendments, the Alberta Bill of Rights would apply to all [provincial] government actions, programs, and policies, regardless of whether they specifically flow from a particular law,” Amery said.
NDP Opposition Leader Naheed Nenshi
said the proposed legislation is a measure “nobody asked for” and “doesn’t actually give anybody any rights.” He added that other legislation the UCP is introducing will “strip away rights from parents, from vulnerable kids, and from everyone in the trans community,” likely referring to UCP legislation to prohibit gender transition for minors.
Updates
Other amendments to the act will reinforce Albertans’ right to legally acquire and use firearms as well as property rights, and expand the scope of freedom of expression beyond written and spoken language to include “other expressive activities.”
The Alberta Bill of Rights has not been significantly updated since it was first introduced in 1972 by then-premier Peter Lougheed.
If the proposed changes are approved, there will also be an update to the preamble of the Alberta Bill of Rights—a short explanation of the act and its purpose—to include that “fundamental freedoms retain their importance during times of emergency,” and adding language recognizing “the position of the family in a society of free people and free institutions,” according to the bill’s briefing document.
