Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced plans to protect professionals from getting fired by their employers for expressing themselves freely in public.

In a video with Justice Minister Mickey Amery, the Premier said that her government is considering legislative changes that would expand free speech rights in the province for professionals.  

“George Orwell’s fictional 1984 should remain fiction,” Smith said.

The UCP will introduce legislative amendments to the Alberta Bill of Rights this fall, aiming to limit the authority of professional regulatory bodies over their employees. The expanded law would apply to bodies such as the Law Society of Alberta, and the Alberta College of Physicians and Surgeons. 

Minister Amery noted examples in Canada where regulatory bodies are effectively silencing their members from saying anything controversial, including Dr. Jordan Peterson’s drawn-out battle with the Ontario College of Psychologists.

“What professional regulatory bodies must not involve themselves in is regulating the speech and beliefs of their members outside of their professional duties,” Smith said.

Amery noted examples of regulatory abuse, such as a Saskatchewan nurse, Carolyn Strom, who had to pay over $20,000 in legal fees to fight her Registered Nurses Association after she made critical comments about the care that her grandfather received at a long-term care facility.

Smith also said that the UCP will conduct a review of Alberta’s regulatory bodies, spanning eleven ministries.