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January 10, 2017 The Alberta government is taking a “piecemeal approach” to changes in the Alberta Human Rights Act, said Liberal Leader David Swann.
His comments follow the Court of Queen’s Bench ruling last Friday that adds age as a prohibited ground of discrimination.
Swann says the act should be fully reviewed.
“Revisiting the act to implement the ruling gives us an opportunity to extend leading edge human rights protections to further categories such as pregnancy, social condition, political belief and Aboriginal heritage,” he said.
Swann noted that the last time the Alberta Human Rights Act was “substantially” amended was in 1996.
“Since that time, our understanding of human rights has evolved to include categories that would never have been considered 20 years ago. Simply put, there is clearly room to modernize and improve the act, and now we have an excellent chance to do so,” he said.
“We have a duty to the vulnerable segments of our population to protect their fundamental human rights from abuse.”