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Ric Mclver, a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, made comments during Question Period about power companies. His comments were subject to a complaint that he was in conflict of interest as his wife is a sole shareholder and director of a power company. The Ethics Commissioner investigated and determined that he breached the Conflict of Interest Act, RSA 2000, c C-23 [CIA][Any following references to legislative sections are assumed to be to the CIA unless otherwise noted] and eventually sanctioned Mr. McIver. He was ordered to apologize to pay $500 and to apologize to the Legislative Assembly. In an application for judicial review, Mr. McIver challenged the Ethics Commissioner’s decision and argued that she exceeded her jurisdiction in interfering with his free speech.

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photo: flickr.com/Sally T. Buck

In Canadian courts, even though they are not litigants, third parties may have an interest in intervening in court proceedings because the court’s judgment may affect them or others whom they represent. They often have information that they believe may be relevant to the courts in making their decisions. In Canada, interveners usually appear in appellate proceedings, but they can also appear in trial proceedings. Interveners commonly intervene on either side of a human rights or Charter dispute because these cases often deal with broad public policy issues. Interveners may include human rights statutory bodies (e.g., the Alberta Human Rights Commission), governments, unions, employer groups and interest groups (e.g., the Council of Canadians with Disabilities). While governments (e.g., Attorneys General) have the right to intervene in Charter cases and must be given notice in advance of a Charter claim, private interveners must seek leave (permission) from the court to intervene. It is quite usual for several interveners to seek leave to intervene in major human rights and Charter cases.

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photo: flickr.com/fstorr/

Recently, the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench (per Justice R. Paul Belzil) granted Unifor, Local 707A (the Union) an interim injunction prohibiting Suncor Energy Inc (Suncor) from implementing its random drug and alcohol testing policy pending either a successful application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada or, failing that, the parties holding a fresh arbitration hearing in early 2018.

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photo: flickr.com/talkradionews/

Alberta will be amending its Alberta Human Rights Act RSA 2000, c A-25.5 (“Act”), to expand protections for age discrimination and include improved program protections. Bill 23, which introduced amendments to the Act, was passed on November 14, 2017. These amendments were scheduled to come into force on January 1, 2018. The changes were prompted by a Charter challenge by elder advocate Ruth Adria, who argued that the exclusion of protections against age discrimination in the areas of services available to the public and tenancies (in sections 4 and 5 of the Act) violated her Charter equality rights. In early 2017, the Alberta government agreed to a court order that required age discrimination to be added to the Act by January 2018.

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photo: flickr.com/mastermaq/

Alberta’s youth criminal justice system is struggling to meet the demand for mental health treatment due to a lack of space in secure mental health treatment facilities. The youth criminal justice system would benefit from a more integrated approach to the administration of youth criminal justice services, the introduction of youth mental health courts, and the promised increase in funding for mental health services for youth in the system.

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