On Oct. 28, the Alberta government revealed its proposed amendments to the Alberta Bill of Rights, which would among other things include the addition of a novel right to keep arms and a novel right to refuse vaccination.

These proposals immediately received negative responses from many legal commentators. Speaking to CBC News, for instance, University of Alberta law professor Eric Adams suggested that the addition of these novel rights is unwise because they lack the political consensus necessary to justify them. Writing on X, University of Calgary Law Professor Lorian Hardcastle charged that “Ultimately, the (Canadian) Charter right to security of the person already includes a right to be free from coercive medical treatment, so this is more about scoring political points than making real changes to individual legal rights.”