Don Braid: Gun rights endorsed by UCP board would make Second Amendment Americans drool with envy

The United Conservative Party board has approved a gun rights law that would make American firearm advocates drool with envy.

Some time ago a group of UCP activists in Medicine Hat wrote a new Bill of Rights for Alberta.

This detailed document focuses heavily on COVID-era grievances and would also guarantee an unfettered right to own and use weapons.

It’s just one of many policy ideas burbling in the party as the UCP gears up for its annual convention Nov. 1-2.

But the Medicine Hat document is special. It was endorsed “verbatim” by a vote of the party board, which consists of volunteers elected by UCP members.

Rob Smith, the party president, included the entire Medicine Hat scheme in an email he sent to all party members. He even suggested that the board’s approval be considered “as representing our full membership.”

No other local policy proposal was mentioned in the mail. Smith (no relation to the premier) and the board give the Medicine Hat proposal serious credibility in advance of the convention.

The draft bill contains 21 rights. One is “freedom to keep and bear arms, including ownership and use of firearms.”

This echoes the Second Amendment of the U.S. constitution — but it’s even stronger.

There’s some nuance to the U.S. guarantee, which says: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

America has always debated whether that means arming an official force or giving all individuals the right to weapons. The U.S. Supreme Court has long since sided with the individual.

The UCP proposal is not ambiguous. It places no limit on the individual right to own and use any kind of firearms, in whatever quantity.

Firearms are largely a federal matter in Canada. The impact of declaring such a provincial “right” would be uncertain. But the whole idea is far too extreme.

I doubt Premier Danielle Smith will include it in the government’s draft Bill of Rights, which should be released soon.

The government seems focused on two key areas for its overhauled rights legislation — property guarantees, a longtime passion of Smith’s; and so-called “bodily freedom,” including the right to refuse vaccines or unwanted medical intervention of any kind.

The whole overhaul of human rights legislation is heavily influenced by experience with COVID-19 vaccines, government restrictions, and the legal cases that followed.

The Medicine Hat group calls for “freedom to use sufficient force to defend person, family, home and property from any and all occupation, theft or destruction.”

This has been a growing obsession in rural Alberta stretching back to the RCMP’s seizure of guns in High River after the 2013 flood. Rural crime has escalated the demand for legal rights to property and self-protection.

This leads to a long and very detailed set of freedoms. The drafters are trying to close every single loophole that might threaten their rights.

“My concern with the Medicine Hat proposal is it’s just too complicated — it’s too lengthy, it’s too much legalese,” says Nadine Wellwood, chair of the 1905 Committee, which paints itself as a conservative watchdog on the Smith government.

“If we’re going to do something like that, it needs to be simple, needs to be easy for people to read, easy to understand.”

That’s exactly what the first PC premier, Peter Lougheed, did when he introduced The Alberta Bill of Rights on March 2, 1972.

It can easily be printed on one page: “It is hereby recognized and declared that in Alberta there exist, without discrimination by reason of race, national origin, colour, religion or sex, the following human rights and fundamental freedoms, namely:

(a) the right of the individual to liberty, security of the person and enjoyment of property, and the right not to be deprived thereof except by due process of law;

(b) the right of the individual to equality before the law and the protection of the law;

(c) freedom of religion;

(d) freedom of speech;

(e) freedom of assembly and association;

(f) freedom of the press.”

That would still do just fine in Alberta today.

Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Herald

X: @DonBraid

The full Medicine Hat proposal is below.

The Rights, Freedoms and Responsibilities, which are affirmed in this Alberta Bill of Rights, Freedoms and Responsibilities are: affirmed for people in Alberta; absolute within their defined limits; expansive beyond these minimum extents; not diminished by their order of listing and, as part of the Constitution of Alberta, have supremacy over all other subordinate legislation.

1. Freedom of Religion, Belief, and Conscience;

2. The Right to Life, Liberty, Property & the Pursuit of Happiness;

3. Freedom of Speech, Expression and from Private or Public Censorship in any Form;

4. Freedom of Parents to Make Decisions Concerning the Health, Education, Welfare and Upbringing of their Children;

5. Freedom to Keep and Bear Arms, including Ownership and Use of Firearms;

6. Freedom to Keep and Own Private Property, Including Land, Livestock, and Chattels;

7. Freedom from Supervision, Surveillance, and Unreasonable Search and Seizure;

8. Freedom of Mobility, Including to Enter, to Remain, to Move about, to Leave, and to Return to Alberta;

9. Freedom to Remain Silent under Questioning, Detention, Arrest, or at Trial;

10. Freedom to Consult Legal Counsel and to be Properly Informed of Such Right;

11. Freedom to Demand Natural Justice and Procedural Fairness in all Criminal and Civil Matters; and to Demand Compensation for Denial or Infringement of Rights by a Person, a Corporation or a Government;

12. Freedom from Arbitrary Detention, to be Presumed Innocent in Criminal Proceedings, to be Provided with Full Crown Disclosure, to be Tried within a Reasonable Time;

13. Freedom to Democratically Elect and Recall Legislators by Voting through Secret Paper Ballots to be Manually Hand Counted;

14. Freedom to use Sufficient Force to Defend Person, Family, Home, and Property from Any and All Occupation, Theft, or Destruction;

15. Freedom of Informed Consent and to Make Personal Health Decisions, Including to Refuse Vaccinations, Medical or Surgical Procedures;

16. Freedom to Peacefully Assemble, Associate and Protest;

17. Freedom from Excessive Taxation, and from Taxation without Representation;

18. Freedom from Discrimination, Including upon the Basis of Diversity, Inclusion, or Equity;

19. Freedom of Access to Financial Services, to Goods and Services, and to Conduct Commerce via Bills of Exchange;

20. Freedom to Demand Independent Public Inquiry into the Conduct of Legislators, Judges, and other Government Appointed Officials;

21. Freedom to Access Government Services and Government Information; &

22. The Right of Official Languages.