Alberta’s United Conservative government plans to introduce legislation this fall that Premier Danielle Smith says will reaffirm the rights of gun owners and property owners in the province, and the right to bodily autonomy.
Smith unveiled plans to amend the Alberta Bill of Rights in a video posted to social media Tuesday morning, meaning that reporters were unable to ask questions in response. Global News reached out to the province but was told Smith would not be speaking to reporters until Thursday.
“In a few weeks time, our UCP government will be introducing legislation to amend and strengthen the Alberta Bill of Rights, a document that has stood as a safeguard for our civil liberties and freedoms for decades,” she said, as her message was accompanied by melodramatic background music.
“Since its inception, the Alberta Bill of Rights has been a reflection of our shared values, recognizing the fundamental rights and freedoms that are essential to a free and democratic society.
“It ensures all provincial laws and policies must align with those listed rights and freedoms.”
When asked if Smith’s announcement seems more political or legal, a law professor at the University of Alberta told Global News that one cannot “pull apart the law and the politics here.”
“They walk hand in hand, so it’s both of those things,” Eric Adams said. “Obviously, there is an attempt to change some aspects of some fundamental parts of the Alberta legal system by expanding the bill of rights. But they — in some ways — are pretty modest.”
Adams said it is important to note that the official wording of the coming legislation is not known yet, and that will give a clearer indication of what impact the proposed changes may or may not have.
Smith indicated plans for three different amendments to the bill of rights. It was not immediately clear how or if the amendments would materially impact Albertans or their rights.
She first spoke of reinforcing “the right of every Albertan to make their own choices regarding the medical treatments they receive.”
“This includes ensuring that every individual in our province who has the mental capacity to do so, will have the right to decide whether or not to receive a vaccination or other medical procedure,” Smith said. “In recent years, we’ve seen the challenges and hardship that can arise when that right to bodily autonomy is not adequately protected.
“No Albertan should ever be subjected or pressured into accepting a medical treatment without their full consent.”
While Smith did not say what prompted this planned amendment, she has been a staunch advocate for people who opposed vaccine passports during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Another amendment Smith spoke of Tuesday was to ensure that “no Albertan can be deprived of their property without due process of law and just compensation.”
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“This is a reaffirmation of your right to own and enjoy property that you’ve worked so hard for.”
Finally, Smith spoke of the rights of gun owners in Alberta, a group of people she said has been “unfairly targeted” by the federal government over the years, an accusation she made without detailing how she came to that conclusion.
“In Alberta, we respect the right of individuals to legally acquire, keep and safely use firearms.”
University of Calgary political science professor Lisa Young said she believes Smith’s primary audience right now is the UCP membership, and that these announcements are geared toward that group.
“She is facing a leadership review in early November, there is lots of talk that she might be in trouble, that people in the party are dissatisfied with the speed with which she has taken some actions, that it’s not the government that they were expecting. And so, we see a lot of efforts to communicate to the party base on issues that are of particular concern to them,” Smith said.
Young noted that Smith ran for the UCP leadership on the promise that she would do something to change the law to make sure people who were unvaccinated were not discriminated against, but hasn’t taken any specific action on that front since being elected.
“I think it would be difficult for her to face the party membership that had elected her, in part based on this promise, if she hadn’t done something,” Young said. “This really is something that is of far greater interest to the party base than to the typical Albertan.
“I don’t think that the general public is really all that focused on relitigating COVID, but certainly, supporters of the UCP inside the party are still very much focused on this issue.”
Adams said the province’s bill of rights is “charter-like” because it guides judges in telling them they potentially should not enforce laws that contradict the document.
“But keep in mind, it has one very important distinction: the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is a constitutional document in the Constitution of Canada that controls all legislation in Canada — federal and provincial,” he said. “The Alberta Bill of Rights can only apply to laws within Alberta enacted by the Alberta legislature.
“So all federal laws, including all Criminal Code provisions, are not in any way touched upon by the Alberta Bill of Rights. The bill of rights can say nothing about valid federal laws, including valid federal laws in relation to firearms use or misuse. If the Criminal Code declares a particular weapon illegal, there’s nothing the Alberta Bill of Rights can do about that.
“Any valid federal law about guns will not be impacted in any way by the Alberta Bill of Rights.”
When asked about Smith’s mention of reaffirming bodily autonomy, Adams said he believes Smith was primarily referring to past policies used to incentivize vaccination against COVID-19.
“There were incentives, of course, during COVID to becoming vaccinated, but no one was vaccinated against their will,” he said. “It’s just that there were negative consequences. You might have your job implicated by taking or refusing to take a vaccine.
“So there will be some, I think, attention to how this protection for vaccination is worded, because it has always been the case in Canadian law that the government has not been able to compel medical treatments on individuals.”
Based on the wording in Tuesday’s video, Adams said Smith’s message suggests to him that the coming proposals to amend gun and property rights will likely have little impact on life in Alberta, aside from additional rights to compensation for property owners.
However, he said the message on medical freedoms has the potential to “have the most far-reaching impacts into Alberta life,” depending on how the legislation is worded.
“Because a number of health-care facilities require vaccination of various kinds in order to work in hospitals or to conduct surgeries,” Adams said. “So, for example, blood-borne illnesses — hepatitis and the like — have been largely eradicated within hospital settings because of vaccination programs for hospital workers.
“It’s a little bit unclear whether the premier’s announcing that all of those have to be scrapped. We will have to see the final wording when it’s available.”
NDP leader Naheed Nenshi called Smith’s proposed amendments to the bill of rights “nothing but desperate virtue signaling over issues that she thinks will help her leadership review.
“Canadians’ fundamental human rights are protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and this, or any provincial bill does not override this,” Nenshi said in a statement.
“The premier’s constant playing to her base isn’t just irritating, it has real consequences. For example, she’s focused on people who refuse to get a vaccine. She is not focused on parents who want the best care for their kids or for those struggling with mental health and addiction who continue to lack access to critical services.”
— with files from Global News’ Heather Yourex-West
