Alberta not proceeding with Premier Smith's bill to protect COVID-19 unvaccinated
Alberta not proceeding with Premier Smith's bill to protect COVID-19 unvaccinated
EDMONTON -
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is reversing a promise to enshrine human rights protections for the COVID-19 unvaccinated in law this fall.
Instead, Smith said she is phoning up organizations with vaccine mandates to urge them to change their minds, tying it to government funding if need be.
Smith is also asking Albertans to call her government to report on those imposing vaccine mandates.
“I'm calling people,” Smith told reporters Monday.
“The Arctic Winter Games wanted $1.2 million from us to support their effort and they were discriminating against the athletes, telling them they had to be vaccinated.
“So we asked them if they would reconsider their vaccination policy in the light of new evidence and they did. And I was pleased to see that.”
Smith said she heard an Alberta film production has a similar policy for its hairdressers, so she has directed a cabinet minister to call the company to urge it to reconsider.
“I'm quite prepared to make those phone calls and have my (cabinet) ministers make those phone calls if there are other examples,” Smith said.
“If there is still discrimination, I'd like to know about it -- people should contact their MLAs.”
Opposition NDP justice critic Irfan Sabir denounced the phone calls as intimidation tactics in the service of an anti-science United Conservative government.
“If you believe in science, if you believe in public health measures, your funding will be cut, you will be discriminated against,” said Sabir.
“That is clear cut intimidation and harassment.”
The legislature is scheduled to resume Tuesday for the fall sitting, but Smith said the agenda will not include her promised bill to amend the provincial Human Rights Act to forbid restrictions based on someone's COVID-19 vaccination status.
Smith won the leadership of the United Conservatives mainly by leveraging anger within a faction of the party over COVID-19 vaccine mandates and health restrictions that they deemed unnecessary and a profound breach of personal freedoms.
On her first day as premier last month, Smith called the COVID-19 unvaccinated the most discriminated group she had seen in her lifetime.
On Monday, she said she has revisited the human rights issue and believes the problem has become somewhat moot with most employers not having vaccine rules.
And she said rather than be hasty, she wants a more detailed analysis in order to find more durable, broader, long-term solutions and protections later.
“Just making this one change to this one piece of legislation isn't going to be adequate,” she said.
“(I) didn't want to do this as a bit of slapdash measure. I want to make sure we're solving this problem for the future.
“I think my supporters will understand.”
As recently as five weeks ago, Smith said the human rights change needed to be passed immediately, characterizing it as a stand-alone symbolic line in the sand tantamount to an Alberta declaration of freedom.
In an Oct. 20 speech to the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce, Smith told the audience the bill was coming this fall whether they liked it or not.
“I want to give you fair warning: we are going to be making a serious pivot,” Smith told the chamber luncheon.
“We want to send a message to the community, and to the world community, and to the investment markets that this is a place that is open for business, that this is a place that believes in freedom, this is a place that believes in free enterprise and this is a place where we're not going to be making arbitrary decisions that are going to disproportionately impact small and medium businesses.”
Smith has promised the legislation would allow the province to reject federal laws deemed as encroaching on provincial jurisdiction but in a constitutionally respectful manner. Smith has not explained how this would be done.
Legal experts have said such an act as described would be unconstitutional.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 28, 2022.
President Joe Biden said on Saturday that he ordered U.S. officials to shoot down the suspected Chinese spy balloon earlier this week and that national security leaders decided the best time for the operation was when it got over water.
Canadians will continue to bundle up in the country's east this weekend as a recent bout of extreme cold persists in much of Quebec and the Atlantic provinces. CTVNews.ca looks at the signs and symptoms for frostbite and hypothermia to watch for if exposed to extreme cold.
A cold snap that triggered Environment Canada alerts involving eight provinces and territories extended into a second day on Saturday, shattering several past temperature records and leaving thousands of customers in Atlantic Canada without power.
The massive white orb drifting across U.S. airspace has triggered a diplomatic maelstrom and is blowing up on social media. A look at what's known about the balloon crossing the U.S. and what isn't.
Eyes were locked on the skies Saturday as a suspected Chinese spy balloon passed over the U.S. Eastern Seaboard -- where local authorities warned civilians against taking potshots with rifles -- before it was shot down when it drifted over the Atlantic Ocean.
More than 1,500 athletes got louder than ever this weekend, showcasing their best handsprings, aerials, and choreography at the 2023 Imagine Cheer and Dance Championships in Calgary.
Prince Albert police and the Saskatchewan Trafficking Response Team seized about $66,000 in cocaine after executing a search warrant on a home in Prince Albert.
Regina will soon have two additional ambulances on the road with a full complement of staff. Now other communities in Saskatchewan are calling for more support.
The first North Atlantic right whale to be entangled in connection to Canada’s lobster fishery in over five years has been successfully rescued by marine mammal rescue responders in the United States.
A spokesperson for the Law Society of Ontario (LSO) says Metrolinx began cutting down historic trees at Osgoode Hall in Toronto on Saturday before the Ontario Superior Court could hear an injunction to prevent their clearing.
Residents from Quebec to Newfoundland and Labrador are waking up this morning to more extreme cold weather. Emergency officials warned people to seek shelter and monitor for frostbite if they had to be outside overnight, as the temperature across much of Eastern Canada was expected to feel like -40 C to -50 C with the wind chill.
Another property reportedly belonging to a family member of Tony Accurso was the target of an arson attack in Laval early Saturday morning. The Laval fire department responded to a call at 3:22 a.m. about a fire at the building located at 1410 Jaffa Street in the Saint Rose district in the northern part of Laval.
A Quebec university study found that nearly three years of the pandemic have had an effect on the travel habits of Quebecers: even with the partial or complete lifting of restrictions, they increasingly prefer to travel at home. The most recent Cahier des tendances published by the Transat Chair in Tourism at the École des sciences de la gestion de l'UQAM revealed that inflation and health measures hurt many Quebecers.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman says more than a dozen groups have filed applications to buy the Ottawa Senators, with a preliminary cut of the potential bidders expected later this month when the initial bids are submitted.
An investigation that lasted almost two years has resulted in moose hunting violation convictions for six people and a lodge in Red Lake in northwestern Ontario.
Convicted murderer Daniel Jolivet, in prison for the past 30 years, has maintained his innocence since the day he was arrested. W5 reviews the evidence he painstakingly assembled while behind bars. W5's documentary 'Buried Evidence' airs Saturday at 7 p.m. on CTV.
The owner of Radical Gardens, a restaurant in Timmins said she's experienced nineteen robberies over the last eight years; with the most recent one taking place in the early morning hours Friday.
WINNIPEG -- An Indigenous organization is spearheading efforts to develop a system that could make it easier to flag when a person experiencing homelessness is missing.
Winnipeg police released a new image of a 31-year-old woman who has been missing since early last year on Friday in the hope it may generate new information on her whereabouts.
Vancouver police say the man recorded hurling profanity and homophobic slurs at a young couple outside a downtown SkyTrain station last weekend has turned himself in.
President Joe Biden said on Saturday that he ordered U.S. officials to shoot down the suspected Chinese spy balloon earlier this week and that national security leaders decided the best time for the operation was when it got over water.
President Joe Biden said on Saturday that he ordered U.S. officials to shoot down the suspected Chinese spy balloon earlier this week and that national security leaders decided the best time for the operation was when it got over water.
