Albertans must stand up because our rights are on the line

By Lethbridge Herald on November 14, 2025.

Jason Schilling
For the Herald

When you hear the phrase notwithstanding clause, do your eyes glaze over? Well, they shouldn’t, because these two simple words can have a profound impact on your rights and mine, and we all need to understand them with absolute clarity.

The notwithstanding clause is the legal switch our provincial government just flipped to suspend teachers’ charter rights. By invoking the notwithstanding clause to force teachers back to work, the government has admitted—plainly and unapologetically—that its Bill 2, the Back to School Act, violates teachers’ constitutional rights. 

This is not just an attack on teachers. When the government decides that our fundamental rights are conditional, and that those rights can be erased with the stroke of a pen when they become inconvenient, it’s an attack on every Albertan who believes in democracy and equity. 

All Albertans should have the right to negotiate a fair contract without being sent back to work and fined if they do not comply. The right to bargain collectively is protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The government knows this. That’s why it used the notwithstanding clause — to avoid being held accountable in court. This is a deliberate move to silence workers and override decades of legal precedent.

When it was first introduced, the notwithstanding clause was meant to be used sparingly, as a safety valve in exceptional circumstances. It was never designed to be a tool of political convenience or a weapon to end uncomfortable conversations. Yet this is exactly how the government has chosen to use it. 

Throughout our 22-day strike, teachers stood strong, not just for ourselves but also for the 720,000 students we serve and the very future of public education in Alberta. Classrooms are overcrowded. Resources are stretched thin. Alberta spends less per student than any other province in Canada. Bill 2 does nothing to fix this crisis.

The government has argued that Bill 2 is about protecting students by reopening classrooms, but let’s remember that the overcrowded and under supported conditions in those classrooms are the result of the government’s failure to adequately plan for and support these very same students. Legislating compliance may refill classrooms with teachers and students, but it will empty them of morale, of dignity and of the goodwill that keeps our schools thriving.

To parents across Alberta: your voices matter. You know as well as we do what underfunded schools look like. You’ve seen the impact of growing class sizes, fewer supports and limited resources. You’ve supported us through this strike, and now we ask you to take the next step.

Call your MLA. Write to the premier. Demand that this government repeal this legislation, and demand an investment in the future of our children. 

Jason Schilling is the president of the Alberta Teachers’ Association and has taught in Alberta’s public education system for nearly 25 years.