The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - November 02, 2024


Smith urges Poilievre to protect additional rights of Canadians

Topics
Alberta Bill of Rights Amendments Alberta carbon tax challenge
Hosted by
Isaac Lamoureux
Mentioned
Danielle Smith Pierre Poilievre Connor McDavid Jones Show Dina Hinshaw De Haas Malcolm Christopher Scott Alberta Minister Rebecca Ingram Justin Trudeau Nahid Nenshi Mickey Amory Jason Kenney Richard Durr Eva Chipiak Bill C-63 David Eby Scott Moe Jeff Rath and 2 more
Will Smith listen to UCP members and stand up for parental rights？ Justin Trudeau’s “deranged vendetta” against Alberta

Episode Stats


Length

19 minutes

Words per minute

171.63

Word count

3,424

Sentence count

163

Harmful content

Misogyny

3

sentences flagged

Hate speech

2

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

The Alberta Bill of Rights Amendments passed their first reading on Monday, and Premier Danielle Smith announced 13 bills that will be introduced in the fall session, including the amendments to protect personal autonomy, property rights, and legal firearm ownership. The fall session will also tackle restrictions on gender reassignment surgeries for minors, including a ban on such surgeries for those aged 17 and younger, and prohibit puberty blockers for those 15 and younger.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.240 Hello, everyone, and welcome back to your favorite show that covers all the Alberta news you need to know, the Alberta Roundup.
00:00:17.520 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.
00:00:25.300 And if she receives less than 50% of the vote, a leadership election will be triggered.
00:00:30.960 Additionally, 35 policy resolutions will be voted on.
00:00:35.100 Articles on the results of both of these will be forthcoming at Truenorth at tnc.news, so keep an eye out.
00:00:41.240 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.
00:00:49.360 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.
00:01:02.620 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.
00:01:11.620 Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said, quote,
00:01:14.200 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.
00:01:24.280 She continued saying, quote, 0.86
00:01:25.980 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.
00:01:36.040 However, she explained that the Alberta Bill of Rights has not evolved with society and requires an update.
00:01:40.880 The law has been untouched since its introduction in 1972.
00:01:45.920 Smith said that the four key amendments included in the bill mean that Albertans will never be subject to a government vaccine mandate again,
00:01:53.200 and that property rights will ensure just compensation for landowners.
00:01:57.080 The legislation also includes the protection to acquire, keep, and use firearms in accordance with the law and additional freedom of expression protections.
00:02:05.460 She summarized the amendments in the following way.
00:02:07.760 These amendments to the Alberta Bill of Rights are not just legal changes.
00:02:11.720 They are a reaffirmation of the values that make Alberta one of the freest jurisdictions on earth.
00:02:17.640 The fall session will also tackle restrictions on gender reassignment surgeries for minors.
00:02:22.720 The proposed legislation will ban such surgeries for those aged 17 and younger and prohibit puberty blockers for those 15 and younger,
00:02:30.800 except with parental and professional approval for mature teens aged 16 to 17.
00:02:35.900 Additionally, Smith's administration aims to implement education reforms, including an opt-in policy for gender ideology and sexual identity lessons.
00:02:45.040 Reforms also ensure that biological sex restrictions are placed to ensure women and girls have access to fair sporting opportunities across the province.
00:02:53.860 Co-ed divisions will be created to ensure opportunities for transgender athletes.
00:02:57.780 Recently announced legislation targeting professional regulators' overreach will be part of the broader amendments to the Alberta Bill of Rights.
00:03:06.860 According to Smith, the changes aim to ensure that regulatory bodies stay within their mandates, preserving free speech for professionals.
00:03:14.240 Smith said,
00:03:15.260 What a doctor or lawyer believes or says about politics is not a reflection of their competency to practice medicine or law.
00:03:23.160 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.
00:03:37.820 Also, other ministers were involved in the process.
00:03:40.700 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.
00:03:54.700 Our next story will feature these exclusive comments made by Premier Smith at True North Nation in Calgary last Saturday.
00:04:01.340 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.
00:04:08.760 It really was a you-had-to-be-there moment, as so many of True North's events are.
00:04:13.780 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.
00:04:23.440 She said, quote,
00:04:25.020 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.
00:04:33.220 The premier said she believed Poilievre can make these amendments if he's elected prime minister without having a huge constitutional discussion.
00:04:40.900 She said, quote,
00:04:41.780 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.
00:04:51.100 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.
00:04:59.880 He said that the Canadian Bill of Rights can be amended without going through a constitutional amendment process.
00:05:05.700 However, he also said that future governments could just as easily undo the amendments by using the normal statute procedure,
00:05:12.380 which is, of course, the passage of a bill in the House of Commons, the Senate, and Royal Assent.
00:05:17.140 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.
00:05:28.960 He added, quote,
00:05:29.920 Expanding the Bill of Rights to include something like protection against vaccine mandates could have value in the sense that a future government would need to explicitly say in legislation that they're going ahead with the vaccine mandate,
00:05:42.160 notwithstanding the fact that such a mandate may not comply with the Bill of Rights.
00:05:47.060 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 or go through three readings,
00:05:57.340 meaning the Bill of Rights would be more useful in protecting rights during emergencies.
00:06:01.380 De Haas said, quote,
00:06:03.020 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,
00:06:12.620 rather than trying to rely on parts of the Charter like Section 7, Life, Liberty, and Security of the Person,
00:06:18.740 that don't explicitly specify that people have a right not to be coerced into taking vaccines.
00:06:24.540 Smith said that the Alberta Bill of Rights amendments intend to add consequences for bureaucrats and officials who violate the rights,
00:06:32.200 which she said would reduce the likelihood of them being violated.
00:06:36.240 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.
00:06:44.040 Such an amendment would mean that no laws could be passed that allow for vaccine mandates in areas of federal jurisdiction,
00:06:49.720 like air, rail, interprovincial ferry travel, nor would they be able to be passed in federally regulated workplaces like banks or the public service.
00:07:00.520 It's the family and friends event at Shoppers Drug Mart.
00:07:03.740 Get 20% off almost all regular priced merchandise.
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00:07:08.020 Tuesday, February 24th and Wednesday, February 25th.
00:07:11.520 Open your PC Optimum app to get your coupon.
00:07:13.660 So, sticking with the Alberta government and law, but moving to a different aspect,
00:07:20.860 the Alberta government has launched a legal challenge against the Liberals' carbon tax exemption for heating oil,
00:07:26.780 arguing that the federal government's carve-outs were illegal and unconstitutional.
00:07:31.000 Alberta filed an application with the federal court on Tuesday, seeking a judicial review of the exemption.
00:07:36.780 The province is asking the court to rule the exemption unconstitutional and unlawful,
00:07:40.780 arguing that it contradicts the Liberals' stated purpose for implementing the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act.
00:07:47.760 In Alberta's press release explaining the application,
00:07:51.540 Premier Smith said,
00:07:52.980 Last year, Ottawa decided Canadians of the East deserved a three-year break from paying the carbon tax on their home heating costs.
00:08:00.280 She added that,
00:08:00.920 Smith added the following at a press conference discussing the application and why Albertans shouldn't be punished for a necessity.
00:08:20.760 In just a few weeks, winter will be upon us.
00:08:24.560 And Alberta winters are no joke.
00:08:26.900 In this province, winter means long nights and freezing temperatures for weeks at a time.
00:08:31.460 I'm sure we all remember the polar vortex that swept through our province this past January,
00:08:36.920 when daily highs remained around minus 30 degrees and lows were around minus 40 degrees,
00:08:42.780 with the windchill dropping temperatures closer to minus 50.
00:08:47.220 Those temperatures are devastatingly and dangerously cold.
00:08:51.760 Home heating is not optional.
00:08:53.460 And in Alberta, that means we rely on natural gas not just to keep us warm, but to keep us safe.
00:08:59.100 Winter is coming again.
00:09:00.200 And that means that Alberta families will again feel the sting of the federal carbon tax
00:09:04.740 as they heat their homes with natural gas.
00:09:07.700 Here in Alberta, we don't tend to think that more taxes are the solution for anything,
00:09:12.580 let alone a tax on all the things our citizens need to live and thrive in this cold climate.
00:09:18.400 She said that putting financial burdens on Canadians facing a cost-of-living crisis is, quote,
00:09:23.400 cruel and punitive.
00:09:25.180 Smith noted that Alberta has been fighting against the carbon tax since 2019
00:09:29.180 and even took it to the Supreme Court of Canada in 2021.
00:09:34.100 She said, quote,
00:09:35.360 It was wrong when it was made into law, and it's wrong now.
00:09:38.860 The federal carbon tax has always been unfair,
00:09:41.740 but the selective way it's being applied now is also unconstitutional.
00:09:46.540 Alberta Minister of Justice Mickey Amory said that the province has been very successful
00:09:51.360 in similar court cases in the past.
00:09:53.100 He cited that the Emergencies Act was deemed unconstitutional.
00:09:56.460 The courts also struck down the plastics ban,
00:09:59.880 and Bill C-69 was also said to be unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Canada.
00:10:06.160 So the percentage of households using home heating oil in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba
00:10:11.300 is less than 1%.
00:10:13.300 Conversely, 40% of the households in Prince Edward Island use home heating oil,
00:10:18.820 followed by 32% in Nova Scotia and 18% in Newfoundland and Labrador.
00:10:23.320 Worse still, Amory said that home heating oil is a much less clean form of heating than natural gas,
00:10:29.700 meaning the feds are rewarding other provinces for using a less environmentally conscious heat source.
00:10:34.740 Since April 1st, 2024, when the carbon tax reached $80 per ton,
00:10:39.360 Albertans have paid 35 cents in federal taxes per liter of fuel, according to the Alberta government.
00:10:44.920 By 2030, some Canadians will pay more in taxes than they do for the gas itself.
00:10:49.480 Smith said that since the inception of carbon taxes,
00:10:52.440 Alberta school authorities have paid more than $49 million to the feds without receiving any rebate.
00:10:58.760 By 2030, she projects this number will rise to $60 million a year.
00:11:03.980 Alternatively, Smith said this money could of course be used to hire 495 teachers or 1,000 nurses.
00:11:09.840 The city of Calgary could have hired an additional 112 police officers or firefighters based on the money
00:11:16.500 the city sent to the Liberals in carbon tax in 2023 alone.
00:11:20.940 Amory said, quote,
00:11:22.000 This exemption is not only unfair to the vast majority of Canadians,
00:11:25.900 but is also unlawful as the federal government does not have the authority to make special exemptions
00:11:31.040 for certain parts of the country under the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act.
00:11:35.660 He added, quote,
00:11:37.620 The federal government isn't even following its own laws now.
00:11:40.940 Someone needs to hold them accountable, and Alberta is stepping up to do just that.
00:11:45.640 Amory said he expects the legal challenge to take approximately one year,
00:11:49.380 and Smith mentioned that she texted both British Columbia Premier David Eby
00:11:53.440 and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe to congratulate them on their recent re-elections.
00:11:58.300 She said that she invited Moe to join the court case,
00:12:01.080 and of course Alberta and Saskatchewan have joined forces before.
00:12:03.960 However, Smith noted that she hopes a federal election is called, quote,
00:12:07.740 sooner rather than later,
00:12:09.760 so that a more constructive conversation can be had with the next government.
00:12:14.380 Now moving on to our last story of the day,
00:12:16.700 going back to the class certification that we've previously discussed in past episodes of the Alberta Roundup.
00:12:23.320 So you may all remember that business owners in Alberta were trying to get certified as a class
00:12:28.120 to sue the provincial government for damages incurred during the pandemic lockdowns.
00:12:33.320 The controversy from this lawsuit was, of course, that the business owners would be suing themselves,
00:12:37.840 the taxpayer, because, of course, any government money is indeed taxpayers' money.
00:12:42.600 So the suit was initially filed by Rath & Company in February 2024.
00:12:47.380 And the lawsuit is spearheaded by two primary plaintiffs,
00:12:50.980 Rebecca Ingram, a gym owner, and Christopher Scott, owner of the Whistle Stop Cafe.
00:12:55.460 Both allege that their businesses suffered substantial losses due to public health orders
00:13:00.860 issued by Alberta's former Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dina Hinshaw, during the pandemic,
00:13:05.960 before her being removed from her role by Alberta Premier Daniel Smith in 2022.
00:13:11.260 You may also recall I mentioned that Justice Phoebe said he'd aim to have a decision ready by December the 1st.
00:13:17.080 But now, coming a month ahead of schedule, the class has indeed been certified.
00:13:22.300 So according to Eva Chipiak, who shared the decision, she said that the court certified the class
00:13:27.240 consisting of, quote,
00:13:28.280 all individuals who owned, in whole or in part, a business or businesses in Alberta
00:13:34.080 that was subject to full or partial closure or operational restrictions mandated by the CMOH orders
00:13:40.800 between March 17, 2020 and the date of certification.
00:13:44.320 For clarity, owned does not include ownership as a shareholder in a corporation
00:13:49.600 or as a member of a cooperative.
00:13:52.160 Lead counsel on the case, Jeff Rath, stated, quote,
00:13:55.360 This is a huge day for Alberta businesses that were illegally harmed by Jason Kenney and Dina Hinshaw.
00:14:01.360 The court found that the action can proceed against the government of Alberta on a number of grounds,
00:14:05.880 including misfeasance in the public office,
00:14:08.480 allowing the plaintiffs to seek punitive damages against the Alberta government for wrongdoing.
00:14:13.140 So again, I'll be writing a follow-up article on this class action and how it will proceed going forward
00:14:18.080 once I get a chance to sit down with the lawyers.
00:14:20.420 Stay tuned at tnc.news and keep your eye out for it.
00:14:24.260 Before concluding today's episode, I hope you all could take a moment to pray for Edmonton Oilers' captain,
00:14:29.680 Connor McDavid, to have a steadfast recovery.
00:14:32.520 For any Oilers fans, my prayers are with you, as our team has just gone from bad to worse with McDavid's injury.
00:14:37.940 But in times of adversity like these, maybe people will step up and finally start playing with some heart
00:14:44.920 and hopefully we'll be better for it in the long run.
00:14:48.300 So last week's show was, of course, an interview with pro-life Alberta executive director Richard Durr,
00:14:53.840 and evidently the AGM is occurring at the same time of this video's release.
00:14:58.560 So going into the comment roundup, we'll try and focus on some of the comments that may still be relevant,
00:15:03.760 irrespective of the results of the leadership review.
00:15:05.980 So the first comment comes from at Malcolm in Calgary, who said, quote,
00:15:10.040 I like what Smith has done so far.
00:15:12.480 If the members push too hard too fast, I think that will pave the way for the Nenshi NDP comeback.
00:15:18.520 That's the last thing Alberta needs. 1.00
00:15:21.000 Yeah, that's right, Malcolm.
00:15:22.120 And it's also one of my biggest fears that UCP members will punish Smith for not doing a few things
00:15:28.940 that they might have requested, like the income tax cut, for example,
00:15:33.400 but they'll overlook all of the good she's done for the province.
00:15:37.120 Not only this, but of course, I mean, show me a better premier in Canada.
00:15:40.880 You can't.
00:15:41.880 Show me a better candidate.
00:15:43.120 You can't.
00:15:44.040 There is nobody that will give the UCP a better chance in the next provincial election.
00:15:49.200 Let's take a moment to remember the havoc that Naheed Nenshi unleashed on Calgary,
00:15:53.280 and now let him run the province?
00:15:55.340 I mean, you can only imagine what we'd have to live through.
00:15:58.260 Let's not help his chances.
00:15:59.940 Of course, we'll know today, Saturday, what Smith's approval rating looks like based on the leadership review,
00:16:05.500 and I'm sure she's hoping for around 80% to 90% or even higher, but hopefully she got it.
00:16:10.380 One thing I'll add quickly is how grateful Smith said that she is for the leadership review.
00:16:14.620 She said she bets the liberal caucus, the federal liberal caucus,
00:16:19.920 wishes they had such a mechanism to remove a leader that nobody likes, a.k.a. Justin Trudeau.
00:16:26.040 The next comment comes from at PearlyQ3560, who said, quote,
00:16:31.180 social transitioning at school should also have parental consent, not just medical.
00:16:37.020 Yeah, I picked this comment out because I agree with you 100%.
00:16:39.640 In fact, so does Premier Smith, who said at an unrelated press conference on Wednesday that
00:16:44.620 the Cass Review, which again, as you'll remember, is one of the leading reviews in the world on transgenderism in youth.
00:16:52.620 Anyways, the Cass Review highlighted that social transition is almost a 100% pathway to medicalization.
00:17:00.360 So Smith said, quote,
00:17:02.080 When a child starts identifying as the opposite gender, wearing clothes of the opposite gender, 1.00
00:17:06.920 using the opposite gender bathroom and locker room, that locks in their conception of who they are. 0.94
00:17:12.840 And then that leads to puberty blockers, and puberty blockers is often told as a way to buy time for kids to figure things out.
00:17:19.380 And Smith added that, quote,
00:17:21.420 The fact of the matter is, if you don't go through puberty, you can't have children.
00:17:25.780 You have to become sexually mature to be able to have children.
00:17:28.720 And again, what they discovered is that it's almost a 100% pathway from going to puberty blockers to cross-sex hormones.
00:17:35.680 So I just don't feel comfortable having a 10-year-old make a decision that they don't want to have babies.
00:17:40.640 Like, I just think that it's not something that 10-year-olds are able to do.
00:17:46.360 So we're going to support kids in who they want to be as adults, but those are adult decisions to be made.
00:17:52.500 So with this logic, of course, social transitioning at schools should require parental notification and consent.
00:18:00.000 And this may help the few situations wherein children are being indoctrinated by teachers or other nefarious adults.
00:18:07.240 Of course, a parent should be completely involved in their child's life and have that say.
00:18:12.860 So the last comment comes from at LeonaPerdue8784, who asked, quote,
00:18:18.420 Albertans voted her in. How does a membership review get to vote her out? 0.68
00:18:23.100 So, yeah, I thought I'd clarify this because there seems to have been some confusion in some of the past comments.
00:18:28.180 So I just want to explain to you who don't understand the UCP's process.
00:18:32.500 So essentially, leadership reviews are automatically held at one out of every three AGMs in non-election years.
00:18:40.080 Members vote by secret ballot on the question, do you approve of the current leader?
00:18:45.080 And to be eligible to vote in this leadership review, voters must have been party members since at least October 11th, 2024,
00:18:51.800 register for the AGM and attend in person.
00:18:54.360 Now, interestingly, when Smith was speaking at True North Nation last Saturday, she said that around 5,500 people were registered to attend the AGM.
00:19:02.420 So by this point, at least 6,000 are expected to attend, myself included.
00:19:07.120 So if you guys see me there, feel free to stop by and say hi.
00:19:10.940 I'll just be working on a few articles.
00:19:14.120 So hopefully I won't be too, too pressed.
00:19:16.600 And of course, the leadership review results are expected to be announced by 5.30 p.m. on Saturday.
00:19:22.460 So I'll definitely publish a breaking news article on TNC.news when the results are known.
00:19:27.280 So keep your eye out for that.
00:19:29.040 And again, I will also be publishing an article on some of the more interesting policies that were voted on.
00:19:34.040 Of the 35 policy resolutions at the AGM, I counted 18 of interest.
00:19:40.160 I'm hopeful that UCP members will make the right decision for the future of the province.
00:19:44.200 Let me know in the comments what you think of the UCP's internal process for leadership reviews and if you think that this should be widespread among all political parties.
00:19:54.460 Thank you, God bless, and have a great week.