Juno News - Smith urges Poilievre to protect additional rights of Canadians

00:00:00.200 Hello, everyone, and welcome back to your favorite show that covers all the Alberta news you need to know, the Alberta Roundup.

00:00:17.480 If you're watching this as it's being released, then I'm at the Alberta UCP's AGM, where, of course, Danielle Smith is undergoing a leadership review.

00:00:25.260 And if she receives less than 50% of the vote, a leadership election will be triggered.

00:00:30.920 Additionally, 35 policy resolutions will be voted on.

00:00:35.060 Articles on the results of both of these will be forthcoming at Truenorth at tnc.news, so keep an eye out.

00:00:41.200 As for leading off this episode, the Alberta legislative session resumed with a bang as the Alberta Bill of Rights Amendments passed their first reading on Monday.

00:00:49.320 Right before the Legislative Assembly reconvened, the UCP highlighted 13 bills that they plan on introducing this session, including the amendments to protect personal autonomy, property rights, and legal firearm ownership.

00:01:02.580 While Government House Leader Joseph Schau said that they want to get all 13 bills tabled as soon as possible, the Alberta Bill of Rights was the first to be tabled.

00:01:11.580 Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said, quote,

00:01:14.160 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.

00:01:24.240 She continued saying, quote, 0.86

00:01:25.940 It enshrines the principles that every Albertan holds dear, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the right to equality before the law, among other fundamental rights.

00:01:36.020 However, she explained that the Alberta Bill of Rights has not evolved with society and requires an update.

00:01:40.840 The law has been untouched since its introduction in 1972.

00:01:45.880 Smith said that the four key amendments included in the bill mean that Albertans will never be subject to a government vaccine mandate again,

00:01:53.160 and that property rights will ensure just compensation for landowners.

00:01:57.060 The legislation also includes the protection to acquire, keep, and use firearms in accordance with the law and additional freedom of expression protections.

00:02:05.420 She summarized the amendments in the following way.

00:02:07.720 These amendments to the Alberta Bill of Rights are not just legal changes.

00:02:11.680 They are a reaffirmation of the values that make Alberta one of the freest jurisdictions on earth.

00:02:17.600 The fall session will also tackle restrictions on gender reassignment surgeries for minors.

00:02:22.680 The proposed legislation will ban such surgeries for those aged 17 and younger and prohibit puberty blockers for those 15 and younger,

00:02:30.760 except with parental and professional approval for mature teens aged 16 to 17.

00:02:35.860 Additionally, Smith's administration aims to implement education reforms, including an opt-in policy for gender ideology and sexual identity lessons.

00:02:45.000 Reforms also ensure that biological sex restrictions are placed to ensure women and girls have access to fair sporting opportunities across the province.

00:02:53.820 Co-ed divisions will be created to ensure opportunities for transgender athletes.

00:02:57.740 Recently announced legislation targeting professional regulators' overreach will be part of the broader amendments to the Alberta Bill of Rights.

00:03:06.820 According to Smith, the changes aim to ensure that regulatory bodies stay within their mandates, preserving free speech for professionals.

00:03:14.200 Smith said,

00:03:15.220 What a doctor or lawyer believes or says about politics is not a reflection of their competency to practice medicine or law.

00:03:23.120 Then Schau added that the upcoming bills reflect extensive consultation with Albertans, which include the premier travelling the province, knocking on doors, making phone calls, doing town halls, attending events and talking to grassroots Albertans.

00:03:37.780 Also, other ministers were involved in the process.

00:03:40.660 However, Smith took her recent changes to the Alberta Bill of Rights a step further when she urged Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre to amend the Canadian Bill of Rights similarly to further protect the free speech and other rights of Canadians.

00:03:54.660 Our next story will feature these exclusive comments made by Premier Smith at True North Nation in Calgary last Saturday.

00:04:01.300 I know many of you were there, so you'd have heard the comments, but if not, then you wouldn't have, considering this was not broadcast or live-streamed anywhere.

00:04:08.740 It really was a you-had-to-be-there moment, as so many of True North's events are.

00:04:13.740 So Smith encouraged Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre to amend the Canadian Bill of Rights to strengthen protections that may be missing in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

00:04:23.400 She said, quote,

00:04:24.960 I think that we should stop looking at the Charter of Rights and Freedoms as the full, comprehensive expression of all rights and freedoms we are endowed with.

00:04:33.180 The premier said she believed Poilievre can make these amendments if he's elected prime minister without having a huge constitutional discussion.

00:04:40.860 She said, quote,

00:04:41.740 I think we're entering an era now where people are demanding that their governments respect them and not treat them the way they were treated during that terrible COVID era.

00:04:51.060 I spoke with Josh de Haas, General Counsel at the Canadian Constitution Foundation, to learn more about the possibility of such amendments at the federal level.

00:04:59.840 He said that the Canadian Bill of Rights can be amended without going through a constitutional amendment process.

00:05:05.660 However, he also said that future governments could just as easily undo the amendments by using the normal statute procedure,

00:05:12.340 which is, of course, the passage of a bill in the House of Commons, the Senate, and Royal Assent.

00:05:17.100 The Canadian Bill of Rights's main purpose is to restrict Parliament from enacting laws contrary to its provisions unless Parliament is willing to repeal the act or use the notwithstanding clause, said de Haas.

00:05:28.920 He added, quote,

00:05:29.820 He said that at the very least, the added vaccine protections in the bill would slow down the government because they would need unanimous consent to pass the bill,

00:05:55.080 or go through three readings, meaning the Bill of Rights would be more useful in protecting rights during emergencies.

00:06:01.920 De Haas said, quote,

00:06:02.960 The Bill of Rights could also be used to reinforce a culture of individual freedoms since Canadians would have a document to point to that clearly states that they hold this right,

00:06:12.580 rather than trying to rely on parts of the Charter like Section 7, Life, Liberty, and Security of the Person,

00:06:18.240 that don't explicitly specify that people have a right not to be coerced into taking vaccines.

00:06:25.020 Smith said that the Alberta Bill of Rights amendments intend to add consequences for bureaucrats and officials who violate the rights,

00:06:32.160 which she said would reduce the likelihood of them being violated.

00:06:36.200 De Haas said the federal government could similarly amend the Canadian Bill of Rights to clarify that nobody can be coerced into taking a vaccine.

00:06:43.240 Such an amendment would mean that no laws could be passed that allow for vaccine mandates in areas of federal jurisdiction,

00:06:49.900 like air, rail, interprovincial ferry travel,

00:06:53.720 nor would they be able to be passed in federally regulated workplaces like banks or the public service.

00:06:59.720 So sticking with the Alberta government and law, but moving to a different aspect,

00:07:03.420 the Alberta government has launched a legal challenge against the Liberals' carbon tax exemption for heating oil,

00:07:09.820 arguing that the federal government's carve-outs were illegal and unconstitutional.

00:07:14.040 Alberta filed an application with the federal court on Tuesday, seeking a judicial review of the exemption.

00:07:20.040 The province is asking the court to rule the exemption unconstitutional and unlawful,

00:07:24.700 arguing that it contradicts the Liberals' stated purpose for implementing the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act.

00:07:30.500 In Alberta's press release explaining the application, Premier Smith said,

00:07:36.120 Last year, Ottawa decided Canadians of the East deserved a three-year break from paying the carbon tax on their home heating costs.

00:07:43.380 She added that,

00:07:44.660 Albertans simply cannot stand by for another winter while the federal government picks and chooses who their carbon tax applies to.

00:07:52.300 Since they won't play fair, we're going to take the federal government back to court.

00:07:56.700 Smith added the following at a press conference discussing the application and why Albertans shouldn't be punished for a necessity.

00:08:04.320 In just a few weeks, winter will be upon us.

00:08:07.600 And Alberta winters are no joke.

00:08:09.940 In this province, winter means long nights and freezing temperatures for weeks at a time.

00:08:13.980 I'm sure we all remember the polar vortex that swept through our province this past January,

00:08:19.960 when daily highs remained around minus 30 degrees and lows were around minus 40 degrees,

00:08:26.000 with the wind chill dropping temperatures closer to minus 50.

00:08:29.820 Those temperatures are devastatingly and dangerously cold.

00:08:34.780 Home heating is not optional.

00:08:36.460 And in Alberta, that means we rely on natural gas not just to keep us warm, but to keep us safe.

00:08:41.600 Winter is coming again, and that means that Alberta families will again feel the sting of the federal carbon tax

00:08:47.780 as they heat their homes with natural gas.

00:08:50.640 Here in Alberta, we don't tend to think that more taxes are the solution for anything,

00:08:55.620 let alone a tax on all the things our citizens need to live and thrive in this cold climate.

00:09:01.440 She said that putting financial burdens on Canadians facing a cost-of-living crisis is, quote,

00:09:06.420 cruel and punitive.

00:09:07.880 Smith noted that Alberta has been fighting against the carbon tax since 2019

00:09:12.220 and even took it to the Supreme Court of Canada in 2021.

00:09:17.120 She said, quote,

00:09:18.120 It was wrong when it was made into law, and it's wrong now.

00:09:21.880 The federal carbon tax has always been unfair,

00:09:24.780 but the selective way it's being applied now is also unconstitutional.

00:09:29.560 Alberta Minister of Justice Mickey Amory said that the province has been very successful

00:09:34.420 in similar court cases in the past.

00:09:36.140 He cited that the Emergencies Act was deemed unconstitutional.

00:09:40.180 The courts also struck down the plastics ban,

00:09:42.900 and Bill C-69 was also said to be unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Canada.

00:09:48.880 So the percentage of households using home heating oil in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba is less than 1%.

00:09:56.040 Conversely, 40% of the households in Prince Edward Island use home heating oil,

00:10:02.040 followed by 32% in Nova Scotia and 18% in Newfoundland and Labrador.

00:10:06.360 Worse still, Amory said that home heating oil is a much less clean form of heating than natural gas,

00:10:12.740 meaning the feds are rewarding other provinces for using a less environmentally conscious heat source.

00:10:17.600 Since April 1st, 2024, when the carbon tax reached $80 per ton,

00:10:22.380 Albertans have paid 35 cents in federal taxes per liter of fuel, according to the Alberta government.

00:10:27.960 By 2030, some Canadians will pay more in taxes than they do for the gas itself.

00:10:32.760 Smith said that since the inception of carbon taxes,

00:10:35.480 Alberta school authorities have paid more than $49 million to the feds without receiving any rebate.

00:10:41.220 By 2030, she projects this number will rise to $60 million a year.

00:10:47.000 Alternatively, Smith said this money could, of course, be used to hire 495 teachers or 1,000 nurses.

00:10:53.920 The city of Calgary could have hired an additional 112 police officers or firefighters,

00:10:58.760 based on the money the city sent to the Liberals in carbon tax in 2023 alone.

00:11:03.960 Amory said, quote,

00:11:05.020 This exemption is not only unfair to the vast majority of Canadians,

00:11:08.680 but is also unlawful, as the federal government does not have the authority

00:11:12.660 to make special exemptions for certain parts of the country

00:11:15.640 under the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act.

00:11:19.200 He added, quote,

00:11:20.640 The federal government isn't even following its own laws now.

00:11:23.980 Someone needs to hold them accountable, and Alberta is stepping up to do just that.

00:11:28.660 Amory said he expects the legal challenge to take approximately one year,

00:11:32.080 and Smith mentioned that she texted both British Columbia Premier David Eby

00:11:36.460 and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe to congratulate them on their recent re-elections.

00:11:41.340 She said that she invited Moe to join the court case,

00:11:44.160 and of course, Alberta and Saskatchewan have joined forces before.

00:11:47.460 However, Smith noted that she hopes a federal election is called, quote,

00:11:50.760 sooner rather than later,

00:11:52.780 so that a more constructive conversation can be had with the next government.

00:11:57.420 Now moving on to our last story of the day,

00:11:59.580 going back to the class certification that we've previously discussed

00:12:03.520 in past episodes of the Alberta Roundup.

00:12:06.440 So you may all remember that business owners in Alberta

00:12:08.940 were trying to get certified as a class

00:12:11.140 to sue the provincial government for damages incurred during the pandemic lockdowns.

00:12:16.460 The controversy from this lawsuit was, of course,

00:12:18.480 that the business owners would be suing themselves, the taxpayer,

00:12:21.680 because, of course, any government money is indeed taxpayers' money.

00:12:25.420 So the suit was initially filed by Rath & Company in February 2024,

00:12:29.720 and the lawsuit is spearheaded by two primary plaintiffs,

00:12:33.980 Rebecca Ingram, a gym owner,

00:12:35.740 and Christopher Scott, owner of the Whistle Stop Cafe.

00:12:39.280 Both allege that their businesses suffered substantial losses

00:12:42.500 due to public health orders issued by Alberta's

00:12:45.040 former Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dina Hinshaw, during the pandemic,

00:12:48.640 before her being removed from her role by Alberta Premier Daniel Smith in 2022.

00:12:54.220 You may also recall I mentioned that Justice Phoebe said

00:12:57.040 he'd aim to have a decision ready by December the 1st.

00:13:00.660 But now, coming a month ahead of schedule,

00:13:02.760 the class has indeed been certified.

00:13:05.360 So according to Eva Chipiak, who shared the decision,

00:13:08.000 she said that the court certified the class consisting of, quote,

00:13:11.300 all individuals who owned, in whole or in part,

00:13:14.980 a business or businesses in Alberta

00:13:17.120 that was subject to full or partial closure

00:13:19.700 or operational restrictions mandated by the CMOH orders

00:13:23.860 between March 17, 2020, and the date of certification.

00:13:28.240 For clarity, owned does not include

00:13:30.340 ownership as a shareholder in a corporation

00:13:32.620 or as a member of a cooperative.

00:13:35.100 Lead counsel on the case, Jeff Rass, stated, quote,

00:13:38.060 this is a huge day for Alberta businesses

00:13:40.460 that were illegally harmed by Jason Kenney and Dina Hinshaw.

00:13:44.380 The court found that the action can proceed

00:13:46.300 against the government of Alberta on a number of grounds,

00:13:48.920 including misfeasance in the public office,

00:13:51.080 allowing the plaintiffs to seek punitive damages

00:13:53.820 against the Alberta government for wrongdoing.

00:13:56.160 So again, I'll be writing a follow-up article

00:13:58.200 on this class action and how it will proceed going forward

00:14:01.100 once I get a chance to sit down with the lawyers.

00:14:03.440 Stay tuned at tnc.news and keep your eye out for it.

00:14:07.300 Before concluding today's episode,

00:14:09.100 I hope you all could take a moment to pray

00:14:10.700 for Edmonton Oilers' captain, Connor McDavid,

00:14:13.480 to have a steadfast recovery.

00:14:15.560 For any Oilers fans, my prayers are with you

00:14:17.640 as our team has just gone from bad to worse

00:14:20.000 with McDavid's injury,

00:14:21.200 but in times of adversity like these,

00:14:24.620 maybe people will step up

00:14:26.020 and finally start playing with some heart

00:14:27.960 and hopefully we'll be better for it in the long run.

00:14:31.340 So last week's show was, of course,

00:14:33.240 an interview with Pro-Life Alberta

00:14:34.760 executive director Richard Durr,

00:14:36.860 and evidently the AGM is occurring

00:14:38.720 at the same time of this video's release.

00:14:41.740 So going into the comment roundup,

00:14:43.460 we'll try and focus on some of the comments

00:14:45.300 that may still be relevant,

00:14:46.780 irrespective of the results of the leadership review.

00:14:49.000 So the first comment comes from

00:14:50.780 at Malcolm in Calgary, who said,

00:14:53.060 I like what Smith has done so far.

00:14:55.440 If the members push too hard too fast,

00:14:58.000 I think that will pave the way

00:14:59.180 for the Nenshi NDP comeback.

00:15:01.560 That's the last thing Alberta needs. 1.00

00:15:04.040 Yeah, that's right, Malcolm.

00:15:05.160 And it's also one of my biggest fears

00:15:06.920 that UCP members will punish Smith

00:15:09.640 for not doing a few things

00:15:11.980 that they might have requested,

00:15:14.200 like the income tax cut, for example,

00:15:16.440 but they'll overlook all of the good

00:15:18.260 she's done for the province.

00:15:20.140 Not only this, but of course,

00:15:21.760 I mean, show me a better premier in Canada.

00:15:23.900 You can't.

00:15:24.820 Show me a better candidate.

00:15:26.140 You can't.

00:15:27.080 There is nobody that will give the UCP

00:15:28.960 a better chance in the next provincial election.

00:15:32.220 Let's take a moment to remember the havoc

00:15:34.220 that Naheed Nenshi unleashed on Calgary,

00:15:36.320 and now let him run the province?

00:15:38.380 I mean, you can only imagine

00:15:39.580 what we'd have to live through.

00:15:41.420 Let's not help his chances.

00:15:42.700 Of course, we'll know today, Saturday,

00:15:45.300 what Smith's approval rating looks like

00:15:46.960 based on the leadership review,

00:15:48.600 and I'm sure she's hoping for around 80% to 90%

00:15:50.980 or even higher, but hopefully she got it.

00:15:53.520 One thing I'll add quickly is how grateful Smith said

00:15:56.140 that she is for the leadership review.

00:15:57.660 She said she bets the liberal caucus,

00:16:01.000 the federal liberal caucus,

00:16:02.960 wishes they had such a mechanism

00:16:04.860 to remove a leader that nobody likes,

00:16:07.000 a.k.a. Justin Trudeau.

00:16:09.080 The next comment comes from at PearlyQ3560,

00:16:13.260 who said, quote,

00:16:14.200 social transitioning at school

00:16:16.020 should also have parental consent,

00:16:18.400 not just medical.

00:16:20.040 Yeah, I picked this comment out

00:16:21.300 because I agree with you 100%.

00:16:22.680 In fact, so does Premier Smith,

00:16:24.180 who said at an unrelated press conference on Wednesday

00:16:27.180 that the Cass Review,

00:16:29.100 which again, as you'll remember,

00:16:30.340 is one of the leading reviews in the world

00:16:33.860 on transgenderism in youth.

00:16:36.100 Anyways, the Cass Review highlighted

00:16:37.640 that social transition is almost

00:16:39.520 a 100% pathway to medicalization.

00:16:43.380 So Smith said, quote,

00:16:45.480 when a child starts identifying

00:16:46.940 as the opposite gender, 0.73

00:16:48.180 wearing clothes of the opposite gender, 1.00

00:16:49.960 using the opposite gender bathroom 0.98

00:16:51.680 and locker room,

00:16:53.260 that locks in their conception of who they are.

00:16:55.860 And then that leads to puberty blockers,

00:16:58.100 and puberty blockers is often told

00:16:59.900 as a way to buy time for kids

00:17:01.340 to figure things out.

00:17:02.920 Smith added that, quote,

00:17:04.420 the fact of the matter is

00:17:05.700 if you don't go through puberty,

00:17:07.120 you can't have children.

00:17:08.820 You have to become sexually mature

00:17:10.480 to be able to have children.

00:17:11.760 And again, what they discovered

00:17:13.520 is that it's almost a 100% pathway

00:17:15.400 from going to puberty blockers

00:17:17.180 to cross sex hormones.

00:17:18.700 So I just don't feel comfortable

00:17:20.040 having a 10-year-old make a decision

00:17:21.740 that they don't want to have babies.

00:17:24.060 Like, I just think that it's not something

00:17:26.520 that 10-year-olds are able to do.

00:17:29.240 So we're going to support kids

00:17:31.340 in who they want to be as adults,

00:17:33.140 but those are adult decisions to be made.

00:17:35.840 So with this logic, of course,

00:17:37.380 social transitioning at school

00:17:39.640 should require parental notification

00:17:41.380 and consent,

00:17:42.980 and this may help the few situations

00:17:44.980 wherein children are being indoctrinated

00:17:47.760 by teachers or other nefarious adults.

00:17:50.900 Of course, a parent should be completely involved

00:17:53.160 in their child's life

00:17:54.300 and have that say.

00:17:56.020 So the last comment comes from

00:17:57.360 at LeonaPerdue8784,

00:17:59.860 who asked, quote,

00:18:00.880 Albertans voted her in.

00:18:02.880 How does a membership review

00:18:04.020 get to vote her out?

00:18:06.140 So yeah, I thought I'd clarify this

00:18:07.600 because there seems to have been

00:18:08.640 some confusion in some of the past comments.

00:18:11.200 So I just want to explain to you

00:18:12.900 who don't understand the UCP's process.

00:18:16.440 So essentially, leadership reviews

00:18:17.680 are automatically held

00:18:19.140 at one out of every three AGMs

00:18:21.360 in non-election years.

00:18:23.160 Members vote by secret ballot

00:18:24.560 on the question,

00:18:25.620 do you approve of the current leader?

00:18:28.120 And to be eligible to vote

00:18:29.280 in this leadership review,

00:18:30.620 voters must have been party members

00:18:32.020 since at least October 11th, 2024,

00:18:34.840 register for the AGM

00:18:35.940 and attend in person.

00:18:37.580 Now, interestingly,

00:18:38.460 when Smith was speaking

00:18:39.360 at True North Nation last Saturday,

00:18:41.300 she said that around 5,500 people

00:18:43.880 were registered to attend the AGM.

00:18:45.460 So by this point,

00:18:46.180 at least 6,000 are expected to attend,

00:18:48.820 myself included.

00:18:50.040 So if you guys see me there,

00:18:51.760 feel free to stop by and say hi.

00:18:53.880 I'll just be working on a few articles.

00:18:56.580 So hopefully I won't be too, too pressed.

00:19:00.160 And of course,

00:19:00.620 the leadership review results

00:19:01.660 are expected to be announced

00:19:02.840 by 5.30 p.m. on Saturday.

00:19:05.400 So I'll definitely publish

00:19:06.840 a breaking news article on TNC.news

00:19:09.160 when the results are known.

00:19:10.300 So keep your eye out for that.

00:19:11.960 And again,

00:19:12.500 I will also be publishing an article

00:19:13.900 on some of the more interesting policies

00:19:15.980 that were voted on.

00:19:17.100 Of the 35 policy resolutions at the AGM,

00:19:21.300 I counted 18 of interest.

00:19:23.180 I'm hopeful that UCP members

00:19:24.520 will make the right decision

00:19:25.680 for the future of the province.

00:19:27.600 Let me know in the comments

00:19:28.960 what you think of the UCP's

00:19:30.440 internal process for leadership reviews

00:19:32.220 and if you think

00:19:33.640 that this should be widespread

00:19:34.840 among all political parties.

00:19:37.520 Thank you.

00:19:38.440 God bless and have a great week.

00:19:54.520 Thank you.

00:19:57.420 Thank you.

Juno News - November 02, 2024

Smith urges Poilievre to protect additional rights of Canadians

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