{"id":9861,"date":"2019-11-12T14:51:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-12T22:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/?p=9861"},"modified":"2020-08-13T20:25:02","modified_gmt":"2020-08-14T03:25:02","slug":"albertas-conscience-rights-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/?p=9861","title":{"rendered":"Alberta\u2019s conscience rights bill"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Western Standard<br><em>Reproduced with permission<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">John Carpay<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/flagalberta.jpg\" alt=\"Alberta\u2019s conscience rights bill\" class=\"wp-image-10211\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.consciencelaws.org\/law\/proposed\/canada-alberta-002.aspx\">Bill 207<\/a> enshrines \u201cfreedom of conscience and religion\u201d \u2013 protected by the\u00a0<em>Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms<\/em>\u2013  for Alberta\u2019s health care providers. For many years, Premier Jason  Kenney has consistently and publicly supported protecting freedom of  conscience, so nobody should be surprised if he supports this Private  Member\u2019s Bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\n        Bill 207 will not limit patient access to abortion. Firstly, \nabortion does not require a referral, as any abortion clinic will tell \nyou when you call and ask. Secondly, even if abortion did require a \nreferral, if one physician refuses to provide such referral then the \npatient would simply go to another doctor. Inconvenient? Yes, \nabsolutely. In a free country, the right to honour one\u2019s conscience \ntrumps someone else\u2019s interest in not being inconvenienced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\n        Forcing someone to do something that they believe to be wrong is\n serious business. It is also a hallmark of totalitarian states. But in \nfree and democratic societies, the government will bend over backwards \nto avoid coercing citizens to participate in what they see as evil. This\n is why the&nbsp;<em>Charter<\/em>&nbsp;describes freedom of conscience and religion \nas \u201cfundamental,\u201d and mentions it ahead of the freedoms of expression, \nassociation and peaceful assembly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\n        When a democracy is at war, the pacifists who oppose killing \nanother human being will not be required by government to serve on the \nfront lines and shoot at foreign troops. A democracy can continue with \nits war efforts without requiring every citizen to be willing to kill \nenemy soldiers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\n        Just because pork is legal and popular does not mean that all \nbutchers should be forced, by law, to sell it. Some Muslim and Orthodox \nJewish butchers will refuse to handle or sell pork, and no doubt this \nrefusal will inconvenience some customers. The disappointed customers \nwill need to go elsewhere, upon learning that the store they travelled \nto does not carry what they want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\n        The BC Human Rights Tribunal recently issued a pro-freedom \nruling that female estheticians could refuse to wax the male genitalia \nof Jessica (Jonathan) Yaniv, for religious and other reasons. Yaniv will\n be inconvenienced by having to locate a waxologist who is willing and \nable to provide a Brazilian bikini wax for male genitals. But not \nforcing women to handle male genitalia is more important than sparing \nsomeone the inconvenience of going elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\n        Put simply: in a free society, you do not have the right to \nrequire other people to do things that they do not wish to do. In a free\n country, nobody has a legal right to be free from the inconvenience of \nneeding to look elsewhere for a product or service. This respect for \nfreedom is consistent with \u2013 or is supposed to be consistent with \u2013 the \nphilosophy of the United Conservative Party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\n        Bill 207 protects doctors from being required to assist their \npatients in committing suicide, as one example of a medical service that\n some doctors see as wrong. Many non-religious doctors believe on \nconscientious grounds that suicide is not a valid or legitimate medical \ntreatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\n        Providing a referral is active participation. This is why the \nColleges of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario prohibits doctors from \nperforming female genital mutilation (FGM) and also prohibits doctors \nfrom referring for this medical service. If it\u2019s wrong to remove \nportions of a young girl\u2019s genitals, then it\u2019s also wrong to refer her \nto another doctor who will provide that same service.&nbsp; As in Ontario, \nAlberta\u2019s College states that \u201cno physician should perform such \nprocedures, irrespective of cultural norms in other societies, and no \nphysician should be complicit in allowing such procedures to go ahead.\u201d \nTo refer for FGM is to be complicit in FGM. Requiring doctors to refer \nfor a service they believe to be wrong is to violate the conscience of \ndoctors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\n        And yet the Alberta College of Physicians and Surgeons requires \ndoctors to refer for assisted suicide. Bill 207 addresses this problem \nby protecting the fundamental&nbsp;<em>Charter<\/em>&nbsp;freedoms of doctors and other health care providers. A vote for Bill 2017 is a vote for freedom.<br>\n        \n        \n    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Western StandardReproduced with permission John Carpay Bill 207 enshrines \u201cfreedom of conscience and religion\u201d \u2013 protected by the\u00a0Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms\u2013 for Alberta\u2019s health care providers. For many years, Premier Jason Kenney has consistently and publicly supported protecting freedom of conscience, so nobody should be surprised if he supports this Private Member\u2019s Bill. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/?p=9861\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Alberta\u2019s conscience rights bill&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5432,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,77,32,8,760],"tags":[3857,3843,3239,3433,1545,293],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-9861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abortion","category-assisted-suicide","category-canada","category-legal-commentary","category-proposed-laws","tag-alberta-bill-207","tag-dan-williams","tag-female-genital-cutting","tag-jason-kenney","tag-john-carpay","tag-referral"],"yoast_head":"\r\n<title>Alberta\u2019s conscience rights bill - Protection of Conscience Project News<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/?p=9861\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Alberta\u2019s conscience rights bill - Protection of Conscience Project News\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Western StandardReproduced with permission John Carpay Bill 207 enshrines \u201cfreedom of conscience and religion\u201d \u2013 protected by the\u00a0Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms\u2013 for Alberta\u2019s health care providers. For many years, Premier Jason Kenney has consistently and publicly supported protecting freedom of conscience, so nobody should be surprised if he supports this Private Member\u2019s Bill. &hellip; Continue reading &quot;Alberta\u2019s conscience rights bill&quot;\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/?p=9861\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Protection of Conscience Project News\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ConscienceProject\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-11-12T22:51:00+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-08-14T03:25:02+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/flagalberta.jpg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@consciencepro\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@consciencepro\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.consciencelaws.org\\\/?p=9861#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.consciencelaws.org\\\/?p=9861\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Alberta\u2019s conscience rights bill\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-11-12T22:51:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-08-14T03:25:02+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.consciencelaws.org\\\/?p=9861\"},\"wordCount\":686,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.consciencelaws.org\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.consciencelaws.org\\\/?p=9861#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.consciencelaws.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/flagalberta.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Alberta Bill 207\",\"Dan Williams\",\"female genital cutting\",\"Jason Kenney\",\"John Carpay\",\"referral\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Abortion\",\"Assisted suicide\",\"Canada\",\"Legal Commentary\",\"Proposed Laws\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/news.consciencelaws.org\\\/?p=9861#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.consciencelaws.org\\\/?p=9861\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.consciencelaws.org\\\/?p=9861\",\"name\":\"Alberta\u2019s conscience rights bill - 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