Alberta’s Smith pushes back after using Charter override on transgender laws

EDMONTON – Alberta Premier Danielle Smith pushed back Wednesday on accusations that her government is trampling on Charter rights through repeated use of the notwithstanding clause, saying it’s all about protecting children.

In a heated back-and-forth, Opposition NDP house leader Christina Gray said the United Conservative government using the clause four times in the last three weeks is an affront to protected human rights.

“Does the premier understand that the repeated use of the notwithstanding clause literally means she opposes the freedoms of all Albertans,” Gray said.

“We believe in science,” Smith replied to guffaws from the house. “This is about protecting children and making sure that medical experiments are not conducted on them, because we do not have good data.”

The remarks came one day after the province introduced a bill that, if passed, invokes the notwithstanding clause, overriding certain Charter rights for up to five years, to protect a trio of laws affecting transgender youth and adults from court challenge.

One law prohibits doctors from providing treatment, such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy, to those under 16 for purposes of gender reassignment.

LGBTQ+ advocacy groups and the Canadian Medical Association have challenged the law in court, calling it unconstitutional, a threat to the health of gender-diverse youth and an intolerable interference in the doctor-patient relationship.

Gray, citing the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, said Smith’s government has already targeted teachers and questioned who might be next.

“They know this is an abuse of power,” she said. “Why has the UCP decided to steal away parents’ freedoms to decide what is best for their own children?”

Smith hit back and argued the buck stops with elected officials, pointing to a recent ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada that one-year mandatory minimum jail sentences regarding child pornography are unconstitutional.

“We are not going to defer to unelected judges who do not have democratic accountability on their side,” she said.

Later in question period, Justice Minister Mickey Amery said hormone replacement therapies for minors have been restricted or ended in several European countries because of “detrimental impacts” on children.

“We are not outliers here,” he said. “We are at the forefront in Canada in protecting our children, and we are using the consensus of the global medical community to support our position.”

The head of the Alberta Teachers’ Association said the province’s repeated use of the clause is an attempt to skirt accountability and “endangers the rights and freedoms of all Albertans.”

In late October, the province used the clause to force 51,000 striking teachers back to work.

“In a healthy democracy, policies that affect fundamental Charter rights must remain open to challenge,” Jason Schilling said at a news conference.

“What this government is doing … undermines the balance of power that is meant to protect every one of us.”

The union has filed a legal challenge against the government’s back-to-work order for teachers, arguing the use of the clause was improper and, therefore, invalid. A hearing is set to take place Thursday in Edmonton.

The clause was also invoked in the province’s gender law, which requires parental consent for children under 16 to change their name or pronouns at school, and provincial approval on teaching resources around gender identity, sexual orientation or human sexuality.

That law remains in force pending a court challenge. Schilling said it puts teachers in a bind and threatens to jeopardize their students’ trust.

He said members worry they’ll be reprimanded for not reporting when children talk to them about their gender identity or sexuality.

“Instead of creating safety, it can place vulnerable students at risk of rejection, punishment or emotional harm,” Schilling said. “It takes what should be a moment of trust and turns it into a mandatory disclosure.”

Saskatchewan passed a similar school pronoun law in 2023 and invoked the clause to shield it.

Another Alberta law using the clause blocks transgender athletes 12 and older from competing in female amateur sports.

In Ottawa on Wednesday, federal Justice Minister Sean Fraser weighed in.

Asked what he thinks of Alberta’s use of the clause, he told reporters he’s concerned about it being used to address “very complex social issues.”

Fraser said the Constitution already allows for policies that run counter to people’s rights to be adopted — provided the policy can be reasonably justified.

“When you are reaching for the notwithstanding clause, what you’re essentially doing is saying we’re going to adopt a law without regard as to whether that law is reasonable in a free and democratic society,” he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 19, 2025.

— With files from Nick Murray in Ottawa