Many Alberta workers in regulated professions will no longer be able to be investigated by licensing authorities for what they say outside of work hours if the legislature passes a new bill.
Justice Minister Mickey Emery introduced the Regulated Professions Neutrality Act, also called Bill 13, in the legislature on Thursday, a year after the announcement the government was scrutinizing regulatory authorities for abuses affecting free speech.
“When regulators start punishing people for simply speaking their minds in their free time, it is an overexertion and, at worst, a direct threat to free speech,” Prime Minister Danielle Smith said at a press conference on Thursday morning.
Health law experts say such rules would worsen the spread of medical misinformation and put professional regulation in Alberta behind the rest of the country.
“This will limit the ability of professional regulators to protect the public,” said Laurian Hardcastle, assistant professor of law and medicine at the University of Calgary.
Smith called this legislation the “Peterson bill,” referring to psychologist Jordan Peterson, who sanctions introduced in 2022 College of Psychologists of Ontario for statements it made online that could be “degrading” and that the profession was discredited.
The college ordered Peterson to undergo social media training, which he appealed to the court until the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear his case.
If passed, Bill 13 would also limit what types of training regulators can mandate for their members. Regulators cannot require that “cultural competency training, unconscious bias training, or diversity, equity and inclusion training” be mandatory, according to the legislative background.
Training on political, historical, social or cultural issues may be required only if it is essential to the employee's competence or ethics, the background information states.
The bill would allow regulators to impose disciplinary action for members' off-duty behavior in limited circumstances, such as when a person makes threats of violence, demonstrates an intent to harm a specific person, misconduct or misconduct of a sexual nature that crosses professional boundaries, or sexual or inappropriate communications to minors.
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 on how long it would take for regulators to adapt their regulations and training requirements, or when the legislation would come into force if it were passed.
The push came from UCP members
In 2023, United Conservative Party members voted to pass a resolution to limit professional disciplinary investigations to workplace activities and exclude workers' privacy from codes of conduct.
Last year, Smith said regulatory boards had “gone too far” in policing members' public statements and vowed to introduce legislation to change that.
Smith told reporters Thursday that she has heard from doctors who are afraid to publicly support the government's ban on puberty blockers and gender-affirming hormone therapy for children under 16 because of possible disciplinary action from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta.
Timothy Caulfield, a health law professor at the University of Alberta, author and host of a Netflix series about misinformation, said the government is encouraging the notion that there are “brave voices that have been drowned out by regulatory overreach,” especially during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Caulfield said research shows otherwise: investigation of health workers accused of providing misinformation constitutes only a small portion of cases reviewed by health care regulators..
“We know that health misinformation causes serious, serious harm, especially when it comes from health care professionals,” he said.
Being a regulated professional is a privilege that comes with power, but should also come with responsibility, he said.
Hardcastle said the opinions of someone with a professional title carry more weight, so unexpected statements from doctors or nurses will spread even more online.
“This puts us in a very different position than the rest of the country,” she said of professional regulation.
Regulators mandating anti-racism training and similar education are also meant to protect the public, Hardcastle said.
Research shows that patients of some nationalities suffer in general received the worst medical careand may have worse treatment outcomes, she said.
Members of the professions are often left to manage their colleagues because they know their field best, Hardcastle said, adding that she believes the law is a significant overreach.
Smith said scientific knowledge and evidence evolves over time and best practices change. She said she was more afraid of stifling debate than spreading information that would later be proven wrong.
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Marcy Huranic, founder and CEO of Calgary-based Canadian Equality Consulting, said in an interview Thursday that she is disappointed that the government has mischaracterized diversity and inclusion training.
Education about different cultures and unconscious bias helps improve communication and prevent conflict and mistakes in the workplace, she said. She added that she believes it is up to regulators, not the government, to decide when professionals need such education.
“One of the many reasons these independent regulatory bodies exist is to take politics out of professional practice,” Huranic 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 consequences in an increasingly multicultural society.
“As usual, the government was not consulted,” he said. “Nobody asked for this except the UCP’s own fringe 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 carry out its mandate.
Elizabeth J. Osler, CEO and executive director of the Law Society of Alberta, provided CBC News with a statement about the proposed legislation Thursday, noting the organization has a “commitment to protecting the public interest in regulating legal services.”
The organization will carefully review the new legislation to “fully understand what it means for the Law Society.” [of Alberta]the public and the legal profession in Alberta,” Osler said.
