Premier Danielle Smith telegraphed several items on the assembly’s agenda earlier this fall through a series of videos, promising controversial changes to the Alberta Bill of Rights and regulations on transgender students in schools.
Smith has said the province will change Alberta’s Bill of Rights this fall to make it so that Albertans have the right to make their own choices regarding vaccinations and medical decisions, to not be deprived of property without due process, and to legally own and safely use firearms.
She has also promised to require parents to opt in to any sex or gender-related education at school, and to restrict the ability of trans youths to access hormone therapies, change their names or pronouns at school, and (in the case of transgender women) compete on women’s sports teams — measures St. Albert gender and sexual minority researcher (and now senator) Kristopher Wells has warned will put trans youth at greater risk of suicide.
University of Alberta constitutional law professor Eric Adams said two of these changes would have little impact on Albertans. Property rights are already protected under other laws, and firearms are regulated by both the federal and provincial governments (meaning the federal government could, for example, still ban certain types of firearms).
Adams said the proposed shift to opt-in sex ed would affect a huge swath of Alberta’s students, as it could mean students whose parents don’t opt in to lessons on, say, LGBTQ rights, could walk out the door whenever a teacher raises the subject.
“If that’s the case, I think there are going to be possible constitutional challenges,” he said, as this would treat some classes of people different from others in violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms’ clause on equality rights.
Adams said the proposed vaccine-related right would affect health care and the ability to require health care workers to be vaccinated.
The Legislative Assembly resumes sitting Oct. 28.
