Danielle Smith pushes back at criticism for using Charter override on Alberta’s transgender laws

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 challenges.

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

2SLGBTQ+ 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 sexual abuse and exploitation material 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."