Author of the article: Don Braid • Calgary Herald
Publication date: Dec 05, 2022 • 1 hour ago • 4 min read 47 Comments Premier Danielle Smith details Alberta’s sovereignty under the United Canada Act on Tuesday, November 29, 2022. Photo by Greg Southam/Postmedia

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Alberta is mired in a heartbreaking children’s health crisis that makes even official cruelty inevitable.

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Terminally ill children are transferred from the hospice where they were lovingly cared for when they died, to the Alberta Children’s Hospital itself, along with their care teams. Sign up to receive daily news headlines from the Calgary Herald, a division of Postmedia Network Inc. By clicking the subscribe button you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our emails. Postmedia Network Inc. | 365 Bloor Street East, Toronto, Ontario, M4W 3L4 | 416-383-2300

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Respite care, which helps families whose children have severe disabilities, will simply stop. Children will be sent home or to such other destinations as parents may arrange. Everyone involved is horrified that this is happening. Dr. Ed Less, an ER doctor at Children’s Hospital who writes passionately and often controversially about what he sees, posted on Sunday: “For us to be forced to give up children who have the worst hands so we can care for other children is something I never, ever thought I would witness as a doctor in a country as rich and advanced as Canada.

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“This is something that should keep us all up at night. and something that – if nothing else – should push your government to get this crisis right.” The UCP, in its denial of the late pandemic, has not publicly elevated a genuine system breakdown to the level it deserves. There is an almost pathological reluctance to acknowledge the power of this latest viral attack, so desperate are leaders to move on. At a time when so many children are sick, Premier Danielle Smith seems more passionate about protecting people from vaccination. The government is also frozen in a crisis of its own making, the act of sovereignty. This is perhaps the worst bill introduced in Alberta since the social credit bills of the 1930s, which sought, among other things, to jail government critics and bring national banks under provincial control.

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The Sovereignty Act has three huge problems. it’s really dictatorial, too broad in scope and completely unworkable. It includes an outrageous application of the “Henry VIII clause”, which takes the power to change and write law from the legislature and gives it to the prime minister and cabinet. The clause was named after the murderous king who in 1531 passed the Statute of Sewers (which fits our new context) which gave taxation powers to standing commissions. The federal government recently used the tactic in its greenhouse gas pricing bill. Alberta strongly objected to the Supreme Court. “This provision, known as the ‘Henry VIII clause,’ is inherently at odds with the established concept of parliamentary democracy and offends the rule of law,” a statement from the province said.

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Now the Smith government is the offender – but much more widely. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith as the fourth session of the 30th Legislature begins on November 29, 2022. Government of Alberta photo Once the cabinet passes a legislative resolution on some federal offence, the prime minister and ministers have full power to rewrite laws, declare laws invalid, write entirely new laws and issue action orders to “provincial entities”. All this without further reference to the legislature, whose main raison d’être is supposed to be to debate, amend and pass laws. The cabinet orders will expire in two years – unless ministers decide to extend them for a further two. The UCP has always protested Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s use of emergency law. Who is the dictator now? Second, the act of sovereignty is ridiculously broad. It would grant the power to override federal law not only when a federal move is arguably unconstitutional, but even when almost anything Ottawa says offends the government.

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A “federal initiative” that could be invoked in retaliation is defined as “a federal law, program, policy, agreement, or action, or a proposed or anticipated federal law, program, policy, agreement, or action.” Trudeau’s thoughts over morning coffee could send Alberta into a frenzy of retaliation. Finally, and equally absurd, actions against Ottawa would be carried out by “provincial entities” – that is, almost every body that receives provincial funding, and some that do not, including municipalities, school boards, universities and police forces. An entity could, for example, be ordered not to pay a federal carbon tax in retaliation for some offense or other. Appointed board members, forced to break a law, will void their own liability insurance.

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This is just one of a thousand unforeseen complications. This bill could create a strong resistance movement in Alberta – but against the heavy-hitting province, not Ottawa. For good measure (and for good reason), the act prohibits any injured Alberto on this forced march from suing the government.

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Yes, the province would often have to push back against Ottawa. Sure, the feds stretch the constitution every chance they get. But there are many legal steps the province can take without an act of sovereignty. Five of Smith’s leadership opponents vigorously made this case during the campaign. Four got an office job and are now singing Smith’s song. This bill is a complete mess that makes Alberta look ridiculous. It is seriously eroding the democratic rights of Albertans with little prospect of doing any good. The prime minister and her cabinet should drop the act of sovereignty and turn their full attention to the things that really need it – the children’s health crisis, for example. Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Herald Twitter: @DonBraid

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