Reclaiming Our Rights and Freedoms

Albertans are proud, pragmatic, and fiercely independent. We believe in the freedom to live according to our values, the right to make personal decisions, and in parents’ responsibility to guide their children. We also believe that the best decisions are often made close to home by people who know their neighbours and communities.
Yet legislation passed or proposed by the provincial government over the past three years has slowly eroded what it means to be Albertan. One after another, our choices, freedoms, and rights are being restricted. We are seeing the provincial government replacing individual freedom with state control over important parts of our lives: school, work, health care, and community life.
At school, the government has inserted itself into decisions that were previously handled by students, families, teachers, and school boards. It has imposed restrictions on what names and pronouns young people may use, what students may learn about sexuality and gender, and what books are available in school libraries. Youth are losing autonomy over core elements of their identity, and teachers are no longer trusted to help students become informed and caring citizens.
The long arm of government also reaches into hospitals and clinics, traditionally spaces where patients make deeply personal decisions with trusted healthcare providers. Bill 26, the Health Statutes Amendment Act, limits some young people in the medical care they can access with their families through their doctors. And if Bill 18, the Safeguards for Last Resort Termination of Life Act, is proclaimed into law, Albertans will have fewer choices to alleviate suffering at the end of life than other Canadians with access to medical assistance in dying.
Albertans value the teachers, doctors, and librarians who live in and serve our communities. But the provincial government is becoming increasingly coercive toward these trusted community members, forcing teachers to act against their students’ best interests and compelling doctors to go against their professional obligation to offer patients the full range of legally available medical options at the end of life.
In workplaces, the government has shown it is prepared to override collective bargaining, impose a contract rejected by an overwhelming majority of teachers, and shield itself from legal action. Whether or not one agreed with the teachers’ strike, every Albertan should be concerned about the unwarranted use of the notwithstanding clause to prevent workers from relying on human rights protections guaranteed under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
In our communities, the province is seeking more control over public libraries. Bill 28, the Municipal Affairs and Housing Statutes Amendment Act, limits how Albertans can use community libraries by restricting access to information and compromising privacy around book choice. Bill 28 effectively says parents can no longer be trusted to guide their own children’s reading, and librarians and community library boards can no longer be allowed to make decisions for their own communities.
Albertans may have different views on any particular issue, but we should all be worried about the pattern of governance. We need not agree with every choice our neighbours make but we need to protect the rights of all Albertans because one day our own choices may depend on the same protection. We should be concerned when decisions move away from local people toward cabinet ministers exercising control from afar without knowledge of our communities.
Albertans cannot stand idly by as the very things that make us Albertan are taken from us. It is up to all of us to protect what we value, and that begins with conversations around kitchen tables, in coffee shops, at community meetings, and with our neighbours. Together, we need to exercise, defend, and renew our rights and freedoms through citizen action.
We can attend municipal and library-board meetings, support local councillors and library board members, and speak up when local institutions are threatened. We have to write to or meet with our MLA and ask pointed questions: Will you support access to lawful health care and end-of-life choice? Will you defend workers’ right to collective bargaining? Will you protect local library governance and privacy? Will you oppose the use of the notwithstanding clause except in truly exceptional circumstances?
Finally, we need to vote, organize, and recruit credible candidates. Through voting, political donations, and involvement in constituency associations, we can strengthen democracy and make it politically costly for any Alberta government, now or in the future, to casually override our rights, weaken our institutions, and centralize power in the hands of the political elite.
Albertans should reject paternalist overreach by governments of any stripe. Instead, we must hold our elected politicians accountable for the job they were elected to do: make life better by focusing on the foundations of our prosperity — quality education, decent jobs, accessible health care, and affordable housing. Government is expected to serve, not control us.
Vamini Selvanandan is a family physician and public health practitioner in Alberta. For more articles like this, visit www.engagedcitizen.ca. By Vamini Selvanandan© 2026. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license.