Article by Rebel News staff.

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Alberta Premier Danielle Smith told an audience of 300 at Rebel News LIVE! in Calgary on Saturday, Oct. 31, that she was in an “active conversation” with her justice minister about prioritizing repeal of Section 3 of the Alberta Human Rights Act. Her justice ministry now says it is not contemplating any changes to the Act.

Ezra Levant, who asked the question, was himself the target of a Section 3 complaint over the Danish cartoons he published, and says it dragged on for 900 days. The section lets a tribunal hear a complaint over something a person published if it is deemed likely to expose a group to hatred or contempt. Ezra says truth is no defence.

It is being used now against Benita Pedersen, a grandmother and DJ from Westlock, over a flyer she handed out three years ago opposing a rainbow crosswalk in her town. Closing arguments in her case are set for Dec. 8 and 9.

Smith said she was “watching the case with great dismay” but could not comment on it because it is before an independent tribunal. Ezra says her Wildrose Party promised to repeal the section in 2012, and that nothing bad happened to Stephen Harper when his government repealed the federal version in 2013.

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Ezra walked through what happened next on the Nov. 5 Ezra Levant Show. On Monday, The Watchdog quoted University of Alberta law professor Florence Ashley, who said repeal has “less to do with protecting freedom of expression than it has to do with empowering hatred.” On Tuesday, NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi said Smith was “making things up” to satisfy an interviewer, and that repeal would cost taxpayer money.

Postmedia then asked the premier’s office about her comments. The office passed the question to Justice Minister Mickey Amery’s office, and on Tuesday evening press secretary Heather Jenkins replied by email that the government was “not contemplating any changes to the Alberta Human Rights Act.” The Edmonton Journal’s Jonny Wakefield reported it Wednesday under a headline that began “Ministry walks back.”

Ezra says few noticed that Amery had told reporters at the legislature that same Tuesday afternoon, before the email, that his ministry would be reviewing the Act to make sure it does not infringe on constitutionally protected free speech rights, as the Journal reported.

That makes three positions in a few days. The premier said she was prioritizing repeal on Saturday, the minister said it was under review at 3 p.m. Tuesday, and his press secretary said no changes were planned at 6 p.m.

He adds that, as of the taping, Smith herself had said nothing publicly on Section 3 since Saturday, leaving a press secretary to walk it back by email.

The pattern repeats, Ezra says. After the Oct. 19 referendum, in which he says Albertans passed five immigration questions even though Mark Carney campaigned against them, Smith said the bills would come in the spring. The move is always the same, he says. Say the conservative thing to the conservative room, let her office soften it, and let the timeline slide past the next election.

On the cost, Ezra says repealing a section takes a one-line bill, while a three-year tribunal case over a grandmother’s flyer is what costs taxpayers money. He says the commission’s own figures put Section 3 complaints at under one per cent of its caseload, so repeal would leave almost no one less protected.

Repeal would not legalize discrimination, he adds, because Sections 4 through 10 of the Act would stay, a point John Carpay of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms made in September.

Ezra calls Section 3 “a weapon they keep in the drawer” for the occasional political case. He cites Red Deer pastor Stephen Boissoin, who was ordered to pay $5,000 over a 2002 letter to the editor before the Court of Appeal threw it out in 2012.

What happens next, he says, is not up to a press secretary. The UCP’s annual general meeting runs Nov. 27 to 29 in Calgary, with a resolution to scrap Section 3 up for members to rank, and Pedersen goes back before the tribunal on Dec. 8.

Ezra ends with the question he put to Smith on Saturday. Her party promised repeal, she said she was prioritizing it, and her ministry says it is not. “Which one is the real you?” he asks.