This is a draft prepared by one contributor, published for public discussion. Nothing here is an adopted position of the project or a proposal it endorses. The purpose is to learn where Albertans agree, disagree, and want changes.
Alberta can adopt this now under its own authority (Constitution Act, 1982, s.45).
Current Law
Freedom of conscience and religion is protected by s.2(a) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Alberta Human Rights Act, R.S.A. 2000, c. A-25.5, prohibits discrimination on the basis of religious belief in employment, housing, and services within provincial jurisdiction.
Proposed
Every person has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, belief, and religion. This includes the right to adopt, hold, express, or change one's beliefs, and to worship or not worship freely and without coercion.
No person shall be compelled by any law or authority to affirm, deny, or participate in any belief system, religious practice, or moral ideology.
Peaceful Practice and Assembly
Alberta alone
Alberta can adopt this now under its own authority (Constitution Act, 1982, s.45).
Current Law
Religious practice is protected by Charter s.2(a) (freedom of religion) and s.2(c) (freedom of peaceful assembly). Reasonable limits on religious gatherings during public-health emergencies have been litigated under s.1 (Beaudoin v. British Columbia (Attorney General), 2021 BCSC 512; Gateway Bible Baptist Church v. Manitoba, 2021 MBQB 219).
Proposed
Individuals and communities shall have the right to manifest their beliefs in worship, observance, teaching, or practice, publicly or privately, individually or in community with others.
Religious gatherings, ceremonies, symbols, and institutions shall be protected, subject only to reasonable limitations necessary to preserve public safety and order.
Freedom from Discrimination and Retaliation
Alberta alone
Alberta can adopt this now under its own authority (Constitution Act, 1982, s.45).
Current Law
Religious discrimination is prohibited by the Alberta Human Rights Act in employment, housing, services, and tenancy. The duty to accommodate sincerely held religious beliefs is recognized in Canadian human-rights case law (Syndicat Northcrest v. Amselem, 2004 SCC 47).
Proposed
No person, institution, or organization shall be subject to discrimination, penalty, or exclusion on the basis of their religious belief, conscience, or non-belief, including in employment, education, public service, or participation in civil society.
Religious individuals and organizations shall not be compelled to act against their sincerely held beliefs1, except where refusal would result in direct and demonstrable harm to others as defined by law.
Legal accuracy note1Compelled conduct against sincerely held beliefs. The section as drafted protects religious individuals and organizations from being compelled to act against their sincerely held beliefs, except where refusal would result in direct and demonstrable harm to others. Canadian human-rights law applies a contextual balancing approach to these conflicts, weighing the sincerity of the belief against the rights of those affected (Trinity Western University v. Law Society of Upper Canada, 2018 SCC 32). The section's compelling-harm threshold is consistent with the existing direction of provincial human-rights jurisprudence.
Institutional Autonomy
Alberta alone
Alberta can adopt this now under its own authority (Constitution Act, 1982, s.45).
Current Law
Religious institutions in Alberta are governed by the Religious Societies' Land Act, R.S.A. 2000, c. R-15, and (for incorporated religious bodies) the Societies Act, R.S.A. 2000, c. S-14, or the Companies Act, R.S.A. 2000, c. C-21. Internal governance is recognized in Canadian law and is generally not subject to court interference except in cases of property, contract, or criminal matters (Highwood Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses (Judicial Committee) v. Wall, 2018 SCC 26).
Proposed
Faith-based institutions, including churches, schools, charities, and religious associations, shall have the right to self-governance in accordance with their doctrine, including the selection of leaders, governance structures, and moral teachings.
The state shall not interfere with the internal affairs of religious communities except to protect individuals from clear violations of criminal law or to uphold this Constitution.
Parental and Medical Conscience
Alberta alone
Alberta can adopt this now under its own authority (Constitution Act, 1982, s.45).
Current Law
Parental authority over religious upbringing is recognized in Canadian common law (B. (R.) v. Children's Aid Society of Metropolitan Toronto, [1995] 1 SCR 315). Medical conscience for health-care providers is partly governed by professional regulators and by the Reference re Genetic Non-Discrimination Act, 2020 SCC 17 line of cases for federally regulated subjects.
Proposed
Parents have the right to raise their children in accordance with their religious and moral beliefs, including in matters of education, health care, and identity.
No individual shall be compelled to participate in or endorse medical, educational, or governmental programs1 that conflict with their conscience, unless overridden by a court of law to prevent imminent and serious harm.
Legal accuracy note1Conscience overrides for medical and educational programs. The section as drafted lets individuals decline to participate in or endorse medical, educational, or governmental programs that conflict with conscience, except where overridden by court order to prevent imminent and serious harm. The section overlaps with Charter s.2(a) and with existing professional-conduct rules. It does not exempt practitioners from criminal-law duties such as those under the Criminal Code's failure-to-provide-necessaries-of-life provisions or from court-ordered child-protection interventions.
Freedom of thought, conscience, belief, and religion
Protection of religious gatherings, ceremonies, symbols, and institutions
Anti-discrimination protections on religious or conscience grounds
Institutional autonomy for faith-based organizations
Parental and medical conscience protections, with court-ordered exceptions
Why this article is proposed
Religious freedom is already strongly protected in Canadian and Alberta law: the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms s.2(a), the Alberta Human Rights Act, and a body of case law from the Supreme Court of Canada. The article would entrench these protections in a provincial constitution and add explicit protection for institutional autonomy and conscience.
What it would change
Section 1 restates the Charter freedom of conscience and religion in Alberta-specific language. Section 2 protects religious gatherings and symbols, subject to reasonable limits. Section 3 entrenches anti-discrimination protections on religious or conscience grounds with a direct-harm threshold for compelled conduct. Section 4 entrenches the institutional autonomy of faith-based organizations. Section 5 protects parental and medical conscience, with a court-order exception for imminent and serious harm.
The legal basis
Most of the article is within Alberta's jurisdiction through Constitution Act, 1867 s.92(13) (property and civil rights), s.92(7) (provincial hospitals and charitable institutions), s.93 (education), and s.92(16) (matters of a merely local or private nature). Constitution Act, 1982 s.45 lets Alberta entrench these protections. The article does not displace the Canadian Charter, which continues to apply, nor federal jurisdiction over criminal law.
Open questions
Two questions for Albertans: whether to entrench religious institutional autonomy more strongly than the courts have already done, given that internal governance is largely insulated from court review under Wall; and how to balance Section 5's medical-conscience protection with existing professional-conduct rules for health-care providers and with the existing duty-to-refer framework for ethically contested services.
Revision 12026-05-20
major
Initial draft of Article XIII from the v2 draft constitution, with per-section classification, current-law context, and editorial notes.