Alberta aims to curtail regulatory bodies from sanctioning workers for after-hours activities
CBC
Many Alberta workers in regulated professions could no longer be investigated by their licensing bodies for what they say outside of work hours, should the legislature pass a new bill.
Justice Minister Mickey Amery introduced the Regulated Professions Neutrality Act, also called Bill 13, in the legislature on Thursday, a year after saying the government was scrutinizing regulators for overreach affecting free speech.
“When regulators begin disciplining people for simply speaking their mind on their own time, that's overreach — and at its worst, becomes an outright threat to free expression,” Premier Danielle Smith said at an news conference Thursday morning.
Smith dubbed the legislation “the Peterson bill,” referring to psychologist Jordan Peterson, who was sanctioned in 2022 by the College of Psychologists of Ontario for statements he made online that it said may be “degrading” and called the profession into disrepute.
The college ordered Peterson to take social media training, which he appealed to the courts, until the Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear his case.
If passed, Bill 13 would also limit what types of training could be mandated by regulatory bodies for their members. According to background information about the legislation, regulators couldn’t require “cultural competency, unconscious bias, or diversity, equity and inclusion training” to be mandatory.
Training about political, historic, social or cultural issues could only be required if it’s necessary for the worker’s competence or ethics, the background information says.
The bill would allow regulatory bodies to discipline members’ behaviour outside of work in limited circumstances, such as when a person is threatening violence, shows intent to harm an identifiable person, misconduct or sexual misconduct that crosses professional boundaries, or sexual or improper communications to a minor.
The bill would apply to more than 100 regulated professions, including lawyers, engineers, nurses, teachers, doctors, architects, accountants and accredited tradespeople.
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