Many Alberta workers in regulated professions could no longer be investigated by their licensing bodies for what they say outside of work hours, should the legislature pass a new bill.
Justice Minister Mickey Amery introduced the Regulated Professions Neutrality Act, also called Bill 13, in the legislature on Thursday, a year after saying the government was scrutinizing regulators for overreach affecting free speech.
“When regulators begin disciplining people for simply speaking their mind on their own time, that’s overreach — and at its worst, becomes an outright threat to free expression,” Premier Danielle Smith said at a news conference Thursday morning.
Health law experts say such rules would exacerbate the spread of medical misinformation and put professional regulation in Alberta offside with the rest of the country.
“It’s going to limit the ability of the professional regulators to protect the public,” said Lorian Hardcastle, an associate professor of law and medicine at the University of Calgary.
Smith dubbed the legislation “the Peterson bill,” referring to psychologist Jordan Peterson, who was sanctioned in 2022 by the College of Psychologists of Ontario for statements he made online that it said may be “degrading
