Editor:
It should be disconcerting to Albertans that our premier is making radical changes to our health services, policing, controversial transgender policies, etc., as well as to the Alberta Bill of Rights.
In response to a question asking what the provincial politicians could do to influence the criminal justice system, Smith replied, “We’ve also decided to create our own police force under sheriffs”. Even though the province denied any decision that had been made to create a provincial police force to replace the RCMP six months ago, they have been steadily increasing their numbers.
A recent poll shows that 86 per cent of Albertans want to keep the RCMP.
The fact that Danielle Smith is only revealing party policy changes to her own members and not the general public doesn’t phase her. She says Albertans shouldn’t be surprised by any laws her government is going to introduce in the legislature when it convenes this week. After all, it’s no secret she takes guidance from party members and we can tune in to her radio talk show too.
Calgary Herald columnist Don Braid alluded to a group of UCP activists that wrote a new bill of rights for Alberta. These self-named “Black Hat Gang” members didn’t like the way the province was going. They fell together to rewrite the bill, adding 21 new articles, effectively to run the province their way.
It proposes protection for people who refuse to be vaccinated-no surprise-but also “the right to keep and bear arms, to use sufficient force to defend on’'s property, and “freedom from excessive taxation”.
It was endorsed “verbatim” by a vote of the party board which consists of volunteers elected by party members.
Some of it sounds heavily U.S. influenced.
Leighton Grey, a lawyer and ally of the Black Hat Gang, said “this new bill of rights is aimed at providing protections for Albertans against federal government overreach. It really is part of the whole sovereignty project that Premier Smith is so committed to”.
Marilyn Foxford,
Canmore
