EDMONTON-
Top adviser to Alberta’s new premier, Danielle Smith, says her proposed sovereignty bill will respect Supreme Court rulings – a reversal of her core policy promise on how she would challenge the premier’s government. Minister Justin Trudeau.
Rob Anderson, Smith’s campaign chairman for the United Conservative Party leadership and now executive director of his transition team, told CBC in an article published Saturday that Smith’s proposed sovereignty law will not empower Alberta. to ignore the decisions of the Supreme Court.
But Anderson promised that the law, which has yet to be drafted, “would have a whole head of very sharp teeth” and would “change the dynamic” with Trudeau’s Liberal government.
Smith’s spokesman, Jonah Mozeson, responding to an email request for comment on Monday, declined to answer specific questions about Anderson’s statement.
In a brief statement, Mozeson said: “As the Prime Minister-designate has said, the Sovereignty Act will be drafted in accordance with sound constitutional principles.
“The Premier-designate looks forward to working with caucus to craft legislation that protects and affirms Alberta’s constitutional rights under the rule of law.
The Sovereignty Act is the signature policy of Smith, who is due to be sworn in as prime minister on Tuesday.
She won the UCP leadership race last week, presenting the act as the vanguard of a broader paradigm-breaking challenge against what she called the “anarchic” intrusion of Trudeau in areas of provincial scope, ranging from energy development to COVID-19 health rules.
The law as proposed by Smith would allow the province to refuse to follow federal laws and court rulings that it deemed contrary to the best interests of Alberta and an unlawful intrusion into its duly delegated spheres of influence under the Constitution.
Just a month ago, Smith said the Sovereignty Act would only be used in special circumstances using “special motions” requiring the consent of the legislature.
She also emphasized that Alberta would not consider itself bound by the courts.
“If a court stays or ultimately finds that the actions taken by the province under a specific special motion of the Alberta Sovereignty Act are unconstitutional, then the government and the legislature will have to review the actions of the special motion in question and decide whether or not to modify, terminate or continue them, understanding the legal implications that such a decision could entail,” Smith said in a press release on September 6. .
The Sovereignty Act dominated debate throughout the summer-long leadership campaign to replace Jason Kenney as party leader and prime minister.
It was denounced by five of Smith’s six leadership rivals and by Kenney as a deeply illegal and dangerous plan destined to trigger economic chaos because Albertans, investors and businesses would not know what laws they had to follow.
Alberta Lieutenant Governor Salma Lakhani entered the debate at one point, saying she had a duty not to enact a bill that violates the Constitution.
Martin Olszynski, an administrative law professor at the University of Calgary who has written about the sovereignty law, said if Anderson’s overthrow is as advertised, that’s the legally proper way to proceed , but represents a fundamental reversal of Smith’s original proposal.
“All sovereignty law, as it has now been described, could only work if the Prime Minister and the Legislature were willing to ignore the courts. It was very clear. That’s why everyone was so alarmed,” Olszynski said in an interview.
“We have to see the details, of course,” he added.
“But if all of a sudden now the Prime Minister-designate and her office are willing to say, ‘of course we’re bound by the courts’, then the Sovereignty Act is going nowhere.”
Smith said the Sovereignty Act will be introduced in the upcoming fall session.
It grew out of the Free Alberta Strategy, a policy document released last September by Anderson, University of Calgary political science professor Barry Cooper and lawyer Derek From.
In the paper, the trio calls for sweeping actions, such as refusing to implement federal laws and court rulings, to fight decisions deemed deadly to Alberta’s development.
Cooper, in a June editorial, said the unconstitutionality of such a proposal is not a bug in the program but its main feature.
In a National Post article published on June 17, Anderson reportedly said, “The idea is that whatever the Supreme Court or the federal government says about it, if it attacks Albertans, the interests of Albertans, and it attacks our jurisdictional rights, we simply won’t enforce them with a provincial agency.
Anderson told the newspaper at the time that he expected the sovereignty law would likely be ruled unconstitutional, but the province could ignore such a court ruling.
“The Alberta legislature would say, ‘Thank you for that, but we’re not going to enforce it. So you can’t force us. And what are they going to do? Maybe send in the army? Is this the plan? Anderson said.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on October 10, 2022.