Alberta’s governing United Conservatives stayed up into the early pre-dawn hours of Wednesday morning to pass a bill that marks the fourth time in under two months they have used the Charter’s notwithstanding clause.
Members of Premier Danielle Smith’s caucus used their majority to pass on third and final reading a bill affecting transgender citizens.
The UCP members pounded their desks and shouted “Hear, hear!” after the 2:20 a.m. vote while members of the Opposition NDP — who voted against the bill — shook their heads.
Smith was not in the chamber for the final vote.
The bill moved quickly through the evening as the United Conservatives used their majority to limit discussion to one hour in each of the final two debate stages.
The bill confirms the government’s intention to use the notwithstanding clause to shield from legal challenge each of three current laws affecting transgender people.
The set of three laws will police names and pronouns in school, ban transgender girls from participating in amateur female sports, and restrict gender-affirming health care for youth under 16.
The latter prohibits doctors from prescribing puberty blockers and hormone therapy for those under 16.
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Speaking to the bill earlier in the evening, NDP critic Kathleen Ganley called it “offensive to the rule of law and to our entire democracy” to use the overarching power of the notwithstanding clause on transgender youth who are “already at a higher risk of suicide.”
“It was put in the Constitution to be used judiciously, to be used rarely, to be used only in exceptional circumstances,” Ganley told the house.
“I don’t think anyone ever envisioned the possibility it might be used four times in a month by a government.”
Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz told the house the bill is critical to give parents and students help navigating complex, potentially life-altering medical decisions.
“This is not about denying kids care,” Schulz said. “We have a duty to ensure that care heals, that it stabilizes and protects, that it does not endanger.
“We also need to recognize the roles that parents play in keeping their children safe and supported, no matter what their choices are or who they decide to be.”
The Canadian Medical Association has challenged the law in court, saying it violates a doctor’s right to freedom of conscience.
The Alberta Medical Association has repeatedly said puberty blockers do not render a person infertile or sterile and protect transgender children from more permanent changes that come with puberty.
Some families of transgender kids involved in a separate lawsuit that challenged the health-care restrictions have said their kids will be devastated once the law comes into effect, and some have said they will need to leave the province for the safety of their child.
On Tuesday afternoon, Smith reiterated in question period that her government needs to act to protect youth from potentially life-altering medical treatment decisions.
“We believe that children need to get of an age where they can understand if they’re going to make decisions that affect their ability to have children of their own one day, they need to be making those decisions as a mature minor,” she said.
Opposition NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi has said Albertans should be alarmed by Smith’s use of the clause, which he has said is an admission her transgender laws are unconstitutional and another example of rights and freedoms being stripped away.
The notwithstanding clause is a provision that allows governments to override certain sections of the Charter for up to five years.
It is the fourth time Smith’s UCP has invoked it this fall sitting. In late October, they used the clause to legally backstop a bill that overrode teachers’ rights and ordered them back to work to end a three-week-long provincewide strike.
The bill also imposed on 51,000 teachers a collective bargaining agreement they previously rejected.
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