It’s paradoxical for UCP to support gender equality
By Lethbridge Herald on October 9, 2025.
Editor,
It was paradoxical to read Government of Alberta (GoA) Minister of Arts, Culture and Status of Women, Tanya Fir, issue a statement on Sept. 22, “in recognition of Gender Equality Week,” which read, in part, that: “…I want to thank the community groups, non-profits and volunteers for continuing to champion gender equality on every front.”
This is paradoxical, since Minister Fir congratulates the groups and volunteers noted above for their championing of gender equality, but this championing evidently does not apply to the government in which she serves.
In a memo leaked to the public last week, it was indicated that the government of Alberta will be taking steps in its fall sitting to invoke Section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms – the Charter’s so-called “notwithstanding clause” – with respect to the application of three statues, one of which is the so-called “Fairness and Safety” in Sport Act.
In the regulations pertaining to this Act, the government is requiring that policies established, implemented and maintained under the Act, must:
• 3(a) state that the purpose of the policies is the promotion of fairness and safety in sport,
• 3(b) include female sex at birth as an eligibility requirement to participate in the relevant sport where the participation is (i) in a female-only league, class or division of the sport, and (ii) by an individual 12 years of age or older,
• 3(c) include, as a process or method for determining whether individuals meet the eligibility requirement referred to in clause (b)
Such legislative and regulatory requirements are the exact opposite of “champion(ing) gender equality on every front,” since these provisions only apply to women (not men) and, indeed, to trans-gender women as well.
That the government of Alberta does not believe in gender equality is clear from its actions, and its nascent plan to use Section 33 of the Charter to nullify certain rights of all women in Canada.
Furthermore, Section 33 of the Charter was never intended to expunge citizens rights permanently, hence the five-year limit on the application of Section 33 of the Charter, but the government plan will do exactly that. Women will not be treated equally under the Act. Furthermore, various of their other Charter rights will also be violated, since the net effect of the Act and the application of Section 33 of the Charter, represent a permanent violation of women’s rights to security of the person, when they participate in sports in situations that are purported to be encompassed by the Act, given the onerous requirements of Section 3 of the regulation for the Act quoted, in part, above.
If the government of Alberta is truly committed to gender equality, it should immediately take steps to revoke the Alberta “Safety and Fairness in Sport Act” and the other two pieces of legislation through which it intends to divest other groups of citizens of other rights guaranteed to them under the Charter. Nothing less will do.
And, what the heck, might as well start during Gender Equality Week.
Christopher J. Nicol
Lethbridge
16-15
Hear! Hear!
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