‘Pretty unethical’: Alberta premier criticized for pressuring businesses to drop vaccine mandates

Ethical concerns are being raised after Alberta’s premier suggested her government would pressure businesses and organizations to reconsider their vaccine mandates.

Danielle Smith initially promised to introduce legislation this fall to enshrine protections for the COVID-19 unvaccinated into the provincial human rights law. She later backed down from that plan.

But experts have viewed her comments in the aftermath as threatening to pull provincial funding from organizations that implement vaccine mandates.

“For instance, the Arctic Winter Games wanted $1.2 million from us to support their effort, and they were discriminating against the athletes, telling them they had to be vaccinated. So we asked them if they would reconsider their vaccination policy in the light of new evidence, and they did, and I was pleased to see that,” Smith said.

Political scientist Feo Snagovsky says those comments were problematic when it comes to public perceptions and trust that funding of events is nonpartisan.

“It’s really pretty unethical of the premier to say, ‘nice funding you’ve got here, it would be a shame if something happened to it,’” said the University of Alberta assistant professor.

While vaccine requirements have diminished in recent months, there are no laws against employers or organizations requiring vaccines for health and safety in Alberta, so long as the policies make room for human rights like religious or medical exemptions.

Arctic Winter Games drop policy

Organizers for the Arctic Winter Games (AWGIC) were not immediately available for comment. However, a statement from earlier this month shares how they have dropped their policy to “align with public health advice.”

The Games will be held in the northeastern Alberta community of Wood Buffalo next year, drawing teams from across northern Canada as well as Alaska, Greenland, and northern Scandinavia.

“The AWGIC does support any jurisdiction who wishes to enforce its own requirements, including other health measures related to COVID-19,” John Rodda, the AWGIC president, said in the statement. “We would respect the autonomy of this as a team decision.”

“The AWGIC is working closely with the Wood Buffalo 2023 Arctic Winter Games Host Society to encourage adoption of the recommended health measures at the time of these Games including masking, hand sanitization and other actions that can help mitigate the effects of these diseases,” the statement concluded.

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While Smith did not overtly say funding would be revoked had the event went forward with a vaccine mandate, mentioning the dollar amount raises concerns for Snagovsky.

“It definitively creates the perception of unequal application of the policy and the law,” he said.

Snagovsky says decisions around funding for international events typically come from civil servants to remove partisanship.

“We should all expect government to apply the same rules to everybody,” he said. “But moreover, we should expect government to behave in a way that is consistent with the public good, rather than their own political agenda.”

‘The Government of Alberta will bully you’

Duane Bratt, political scientist at Mount Royal University, says it makes sense Smith is backing away from outlawing vaccine mandates. However he adds that doesn’t mean the province won’t act according to Smith’s preferences.

“It appears that it is not illegal to have a vaccine mandate, but the Government of Alberta will bully you if you introduce one,” Bratt said.

He says it’s “highly problematic” and “inappropriate” to hear a premier say they will target individual businesses and intimidate them into lifting vaccine mandates they may have in place.

Bratt adds it remains to be seen whether the sovereignty act will launch a constitutional challenge or just be a “meaningless” piece of legislation.

Delaying changes to human rights laws

Professor Lorian Hardcastle understands why Smith delayed changes to human rights laws around vaccination, particularly with the backlash the premier received in her first news conference when she claimed the unvaccinated were the most discriminated group in her lifetime.

“Put that on the backburner and pursue things she thinks will appeal to the average Albertan,” said the professor in health law policy at the University of Calgary.

However not putting it into law and using this “backdoor” means to pressure business is problematic, according to Hardcastle.

“If you let those cases go to the human rights tribunal, you get beneficial case law,” she said. “Where the human right tribunal talks about when vaccine policies may be warranted.”

Hardcastle points to how a tribunal would need to weigh the rights of the unvaccinated against other protected human rights in Alberta.

“For example, if vaccine discrimination were prohibited under human rights law, the human rights tribunal might say, ‘yes, but in a context where you are working with a vulnerable group that actually is a reasonable employment requirement.’”

While the bill will not be in the fall session of the legislature, government house leader Joseph Schow declined to say whether the bill is gone for good.

—With files from Joey Chini and The Canadian Press