Scrap the Censorship Law!
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Alberta's hurt-feelings law is back. Let's get it repealed!
If your opinion is "likely" to hurt someone's feelings, it's illegal in Alberta. The same law used on Ezra Levant twenty years ago for the Danish cartoons is now being used on a DJ from Westlock — over a flyer. Danielle Smith has said hate speech belongs in the Criminal Code, not a tribunal. Help us help her repeal it.
Take a look at this flyer
Benita Pedersen of Westlock, Alberta handed it out in June 2023 because her town council wanted a rainbow crosswalk and she didn't. She listed the town office's phone number and told her neighbours to call. For this, she is on trial — not in a court, but before the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal. Eight days of hearings. Fifteen witnesses. Duelling expert psychiatrists. An embarrassment to Alberta.
Her "crime": section 3(1)
Section 3(1) bans publishing anything "likely to expose a person or a class of persons to hatred or contempt." Not that does — that is likely to. Not to anyone in particular — to a class of persons. Decided by a government appointee, with no rules of evidence, where truth is not a defence. A future crime: it doesn't have to happen, you're guilty because it might. Hurt feelings, that is.
They used this law on Ezra Levant
Twenty years ago, Ezra was hauled before an Alberta human rights officer for publishing the Danish cartoons of Mohammed in the Western Standard. Nine hundred days. A hundred thousand dollars in legal fees. Half a million taxpayers' dollars to prosecute him. Then they dropped it. That's the trick: the process is the punishment.
But Ezra had lawyers and a national magazine. Benita Pedersen is a DJ who does kids' birthday parties. She had a flyer.
A discredited law
The only other hearing in twenty years — Red Deer pastor Stephen Boissoin, over a letter to the editor — ended in a $5,000 fine and a lifetime ban on "disparaging" gay people, until the courts threw it out and the Court of Appeal warned the law would "cast a chill" on free speech. By the Commission's own annual report, section 3 complaints are under one per cent of its caseload; last year they rounded to zero.
This law protects no one. It's a trap that, every decade or so, destroys a year of someone's life and $100,000. This year it's Benita Pedersen.
The problem is the statute, not the people
The Director who sent this flyer to trial, Nicholas Milliken, is a lawyer and former UCP cabinet minister appointed by Danielle Smith's own government in 2024. Not a Trudeau holdover. A conservative appointee, applying the law as written, still put a flyer on trial. Change the people and you get the same result. The only fix is to change the law.
The good news: Danielle Smith agrees
Two years ago at Rebel News Live in Calgary, the Premier told Ezra Levant that on hate speech "the Criminal Code already draws the lines" and that "the tribunals are very subjective." Her 2012 Wildrose platform proposed repealing section 3, calling the commissions "something akin to kangaroo courts." She was right then and she's right now. We don't have to change the Premier's mind — just help her get it done.
Ottawa did it. Alberta can too.
In 2013 the Harper Conservatives repealed the federal version of this law — same "hatred or contempt" words — on a bill from Brian Storseth, a backbencher from Westlock, of all places. The sky did not fall. Ottawa tried twice to bring it back and failed; this spring the Carney Liberals gave up. So the Liberals in Ottawa now have less of a censorship law than the Conservatives in Alberta. Alberta would be the first province to scrap its version.
Here's the plan
A permanent campaign, until section 3(1) is gone. And don't say it can't be done: Ezra helped repeal the federal version in the national Parliament. This battle is in Alberta.
One. UCP members are ranking policy resolutions for the November convention right now. One, written by Benita Pedersen herself, tells the human rights bodies to give free expression "the widest possible interpretation." It's resolution WG-2026-P-22. Rank it first.
Two. Our Highway 2 billboard between Calgary and Edmonton, where every delegate driving to that convention will see it: "Repeal 3(1). Alberta's censorship law."
Three. The UCP convention in Calgary, November 27 to 29, with the petition and a respectful question for the Premier: Ottawa dropped its version thirteen years ago. Is Alberta ready? We think her answer is yes.
Four. Every one of the eight hearing days, covered. If this were a CBC reporter on trial for a pamphlet, it would lead every newscast. It's a DJ from Westlock, so it's nothing.
This one is winnable. Here's how to be part of it.
Sign the petition
Tell Premier Danielle Smith and Justice Minister Mickey Amery: repeal section 3(1) of the Alberta Human Rights Act. Real crimes belong in a real court, before a real judge — not thought crimes in a kangaroo court.
UCP member? Rank resolution WG-2026-P-22 first.
The ranking opens September 18 and takes two minutes. Look for WG-2026-P-22, the resolution written by Benita Pedersen. We'll show you exactly how, step by step, right here.
Chip in for the billboard
We're not asking you to pay Benita Pedersen's lawyers — the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms is doing that, and doing it well. To help her directly, go to jccf.ca.
We're asking you to fund the campaign: about $6,000 for the billboard through November, and roughly $17,000 for the petition, the convention and ads on Alberta's independent media. If you can, please chip in below. Thanks.
Fine print: This campaign is run by Rebel News. It does not fund Ms. Pedersen's legal defence; the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms does, at jccf.ca. Section 3(2) of the Act says "Nothing in this section shall be deemed to interfere with the free expression of opinion on any subject." We intend to test that.
Latest news
Sheila Gunn Reid is in the hearing every day it sits, live-tweeting the proceedings. Her reports, and every step of the campaign, are below.
