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Alberta

Alberta’s Danielle Smith announces new parental rights policy to be released this week

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From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

‘When it comes to the balancing of the parental rights with kids growing into adulthood, I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with parents wanting to protect their child’s innocence as long as possible on issues of sexuality,’ Danielle Smith said over the weekend.

Alberta is set to unveil new legislation to protect parental rights within the school system this week.   

On January 27, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced that this week her United Conservative Party (UPC) will publish a new parental rights policy after promising the legislation last November.   

“We’ll be releasing policy about this next week and I’m really hopeful that we can depoliticize the discussion and be thinking about the kids who are listening to us adults, talking about these issues that are impacting them and making sure we get the right balance,” Smith told the audience of her Corus  radio call-in show. 

Smith’s comments came in response to a caller named Linda who referenced Smith’s promises during the UPC’s annual general meeting (AGM) and questioned when Smith would introduce “an Alberta parental rights bill.” 

“I want every parent listening today to hear me loud and clear. Parents are the primary caregivers and educators of their children,” Smith had promised at the AGM last November.   

“Regardless of how often the extreme left undermines the role of parents, I want you to know that parental rights and choice in your child’s education is and will continue to be a fundamental core principle of this party and this government, and we will never apologize for it,” she declared.  

In November, UPC members passed a slew of pro-family, medical freedom, and anti-woke policies at its AGM, including one calling for a bill to support “comprehensive parental rights” in education. While the policies are non-binding, merely serving as suggestions for the Alberta government, Smith told reporters at the time that her government does support the party’s grassroots process.  

During Saturday’s show, Smith revealed that consultations have taken place about such a policy, and that new legislation will be published shortly.

“When it comes to the balancing of the parental rights with kids growing into adulthood, I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with parents wanting to protect their child’s innocence as long as possible on issues of sexuality. I think that that’s a good instinct,” she told the caller.  

Smith’s promise comes after both Saskatchewan and New Brunswick introduced legislation to protect parental rights despite incurring the ire of many in the LGBT community. 

Last September, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe invoked his government’s notwithstanding clause to protect legislation mandating that parents be told if their child changes “genders” at school; a judge had ruled against enforcement of the law earlier that day.  

The notwithstanding clause, embedded in section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, allows provinces to temporarily override sections of theCharter of Rights and Freedoms to protect new laws from being scrapped by the courts. 

Saskatchewan had followed the example of New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs, who earlier in 2023 had been condemned by LGBT activists for reviewing the province’s “gender identity” policy that allowed schools to hide students’ “transgender” status from parents. 

“For [a desire to be identified with the opposite sex] purposefully to be hidden from the parents, that’s a problem,” Higgs told reporters at the time.

In early August, pro-LGBT politicians tried unsuccessfully to remove Higgs from office. Their failure led Progressive Conservative Party members to say that, despite the media backlash, Higgs has the support of the “silent majority.” 

According to an August 2023 survey, 86 percent of Saskatchewan-based participants are for parental rights and support the province’s new laws.

There have also been numerous protests against the LGBT agenda in schools, including the September 2023 “Million Person March” which drew thousands of Canadians from across the country.

Alberta

Alberta introduces bill banning sex reassignment surgery on minors

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From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

Alberta Conservative Premier Danielle Smith followed through on a promised bill banning so-called ‘top and bottom’ surgeries for minors.

Alberta Conservative Premier Danielle Smith made good on her promise to protect kids from extreme transgender ideology after introducing a bill banning so-called “top and bottom” surgeries for minors.

“It is so important that all youth can enter adulthood equipped to make adult decisions. In order to do that, we need to preserve their ability to make those decisions, and that’s what we’re doing,” Smith said in a press release.

“The changes we’re introducing are founded on compassion and science, both of which are vital for the development of youth throughout a time that can be difficult and confusing.”

Bill 26, the Health Statutes Amendment Act, 2024 “reflects the government’s commitment to build a health care system that responds to the changing needs of Albertans,” the government says.

The bill will amend the Health Act to “prohibit regulated health professionals from performing sex reassignment surgeries on minors.”

It will also ban the “use of puberty blockers and hormone therapies for the treatment of gender dysphoria or gender incongruence” to kids 15 and under “except for those who have already commenced treatment and would allow for minors aged 16 and 17 to choose to commence puberty blockers and hormone therapies for gender reassignment and affirmation purposes with parental, physician and psychologist approval.”

Alberta Minister of Health Adriana LaGrange, the bill’s sponsor, said the province’s legislative priorities include “implementing policy changes to continue our refocusing work, position our health care system to respond to pressures and public health emergencies, and to preserve choice for minors. These amendments reflect our dedication to ensuring our health care system meets the needs of every Albertan.”

Earlier this year, the United Conservative Party (UCP) provincial government under Smith announced  she would introduce the strong pro-family legislation that strengthens parental rights, protecting kids from life-altering, so-called “top and bottom” surgeries as well as other extreme forms of transgender ideology.

With Smith’s UCP holding a majority in the provincial legislature, the passage of Bill 26 is almost certain.

While Smith has done far more than predecessor Jason Kenney to satisfy social conservatives, she has been mostly soft on social issues such as abortion and has publicly expressed pro-LGBT views, telling Jordan Peterson that conservatives must embrace homosexual “couples” as “nuclear families.”

This weekend, thousands of UCP members will gather for the party’s annual general meeting, where Smith’s leadership will be voted on along with many other pro-freedom and family policy proposals from members. Smith is expected to pass her leadership review vote with a large majority.

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Alberta

Alberta court upholds conviction of Pastor Artur Pawlowski for preaching at Freedom Convoy protest

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From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

Lawyers argued that Pastor Artur Pawlowski’s sermon was intended to encourage protesters to find a peaceful solution to the blockade, but the statement was characterized as a call for mischief.

An Alberta Court of Appeal ruled that Calgary Pastor Artur Pawlowski is guilty of mischief for his sermon at the Freedom Convoy-related border protest blockade in February 2022 in Coutts, Alberta.

On October 29, Alberta Court of Appeal Justice Gordon Krinke sentenced the pro-freedom pastor to 60 days in jail for “counselling mischief” by encouraging protesters to continue blocking Highway 4 to protest COVID mandates.

“A reasonable person would understand the appellant’s speech to be an active inducement of the illegal activity that was ongoing and that the appellant intended for his speech to be so understood,” the decision reads.

Pawlowski addressed a group of truckers and protesters blocking entrance into the U.S. state of Montana on February 3, the fifth day of the Freedom Convoy-styled protest. He encouraged the protesters to “hold the line” after they had reportedly made a deal with Royal Canadian Mounted Police to leave the border crossing and travel to Edmonton.

“The eyes of the world are fixed right here on you guys. You are the heroes,” Pawlowski said. “Don’t you dare go breaking the line.”

After Pawlowski’s sermon, the protesters remained at the border crossing for two additional weeks. While his lawyers argued that his speech was made to encourage protesters to find a peaceful solution to the blockade, the statement is being characterized as a call for mischief.

Days later, on February 8, Pawlowski was arrested – for the fifth time – by an undercover SWAT team just before he was slated to speak again to the Coutts protesters.

He was subsequently jailed for nearly three months for what he said was for speaking out against COVID mandates, the subject of all the Freedom Convoy-related protests.

In Krinke’s decision, he argued that Pawlowski’s sermon incited the continuation of the protest, saying, “The Charter does not provide justification to anybody who incites a third party to commit such crimes.”

“While the appellant is correct that peaceful, lawful and nonviolent communication is entitled to protection, blockading a highway is an inherently aggressive and potentially violent form of conduct, designed to intimidate and impede the movement of third parties,” he wrote.

Pawlowski was released after the verdict. He has already spent 78 days in jail before the trial.

Pawlowski is the first Albertan to be charged for violating the province’s Critical Infrastructure Defence Act (CIDA), which was put in place in 2020 under then-Premier Jason Kenney.

The CIDA, however, was not put in place due to COVID mandates but rather after anti-pipeline protesters blockaded key infrastructure points such as railway lines in Alberta a few years ago.

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