Alberta aims to stop regulatory bodies from approving workers for after-work activities
Many Alberta workers in regulated professions can no longer be scrutinized 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 Business Neutrality Act, also known as Bill 13, in the Legislature on Thursday, a year after he said it would. the government was To scrutinize regulators for overreach affecting free speech.
“When regulators start disciplining people for speaking their minds on their own time, that’s an overreach — and at worst, it becomes a huge threat to free expression,” Premier Danielle Smith said at a news conference Thursday morning.
Health law experts say such rules would increase the spread of medical misinformation and make professional regulation in Alberta at a disadvantage compared to the rest of the country.
“It’s going to limit the ability of professional regulators to protect the public,” said Lorien Hardcastle, associate professor of law and medicine at the University of Calgary.
Smith dubbed the legislation the “Peterson Bill”, referring to psychologist Jordan Peterson. Accepted in 2022 He was cited by the College of Psychologists of Ontario for statements he made online, saying they could be “offensive” and bring the profession into disrepute.
The college ordered Peterson to take social media training, which he appealed in the courts, until the Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear his case.
If passed, Bill 13 would also limit what types of training regulatory bodies can mandate for their members. According to background information about the law, regulators may not be required to mandate “cultural competency, unconscious bias, or diversity, equity and inclusion training.”
According to background information, training about political, historical, social or cultural issues may be required only if it is essential to the worker’s competence or ethics.
The bill would allow regulatory bodies to discipline members’ behavior 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 inappropriate communication with a minor.
The bill will apply to more than 100 regulated professions, including lawyers, engineers, nurses, teachers, doctors, architects, accountants and accredited professionals.
At the time of publication the government did not have information about how much time regulatory bodies would have to adapt their bylaws and training requirements, or when any legislation would take effect if passed.
There was a pushback from UCP members
In 2023, members of the United Conservative Party voted to adopt a motion to limit professional disciplinary investigations to activities on the job and to exclude workers’ personal lives from the code of conduct.
Last year, Smith said regulators had “gone too far” in monitoring college members’ public statements, and promised to introduce legislation to change this.
Smith told reporters Thursday that he has heard from doctors who are afraid to publicly support the government’s ban on puberty blockers and gender-affirming hormone treatments for children under 16 because of possible discipline from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta.
Timothy Caulfield, a health law professor at the University of Alberta who has written books on misinformation and hosts a Netflix series, said the government is promoting the perception that “there are brave voices that were silenced because of regulatory overreach,” especially during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Caulfield said research shows the opposite is true – investigating medical professionals accused of providing misinformation. Make up a small proportion of cases before health regulators,
“We know that health misinformation causes serious, serious harm, especially if it comes from health care professionals,” he said.
Being a regulated professional is a privilege that confers power but it must also come with responsibility, he said.
Hardcastle said the opinion of a person with a professional designation carries more weight, which is why unproven claims from doctors or nurses will be amplified online.
“It puts us in a dramatically different position than the rest of the country,” he said of professional regulation.
Hardcastle said regulatory bodies mandating anti-racism training and similar education are also in place to protect the public.
Research shows this occurs more widely in patients of certain ethnicities. received worse health careAnd medical treatment can lead to worse outcomes, he said.
Hardcastle said businesses are often left to rule over their peers because they know the area best, adding that he believes the law is largely overreaching.
Smith said scientific knowledge and evidence evolve over time, and best practices change. He said he was more afraid of spreading information that would later be proven wrong than of suppressing the debate.
Equity trainer says bill perpetuates myths
Marcy Horanik, founder and CEO of Calgary-based Canadian Equality Consulting, said in an interview Thursday that she’s disappointed to see the government mishandling diversity and inclusion training.
Education about different cultures and unconscious biases helps improve communication and prevent conflicts and errors in workplaces, she said. He said he believes regulators, not governments, should decide when professionals need that education.
“One of the many reasons these independent regulatory bodies exist is to keep politics out of professional practice,” Havranik said.
Alberta NDP justice critic Irfan Sabir said the bill is troubling because it opens the door for people to say racist or hateful things without any consequences in an increasingly multicultural society.
“As usual, the government has not consulted,” he said. “Nobody was asking for this except the UCP’s own marginal base.”
A spokesperson for the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta said the organization will need time to understand the implications of the bill, particularly how it will meet its mandate.
Elizabeth J., CEO and Executive Director of the Law Society of Alberta Osler provided a statement to CBC News about the proposed legislation on Thursday, saying the organization “has a duty to protect the public interest in the regulation of legal services.”
“The organization will conduct a thorough review of the new legislation to understand what it means for the Law Society (Alberta), the public and the legal profession in Alberta,” Osler said.
