You might be tempted to think Alberta Premier Danielle Smith was on the right track with her obvious discomfort at the thought of her predecessor’s Critical Infrastructure Defence Act being used to prosecute the so-called anti-carbon-tax protesters impeding traffic along the Trans-Canada Highway west of Calgary.
But we all know Smith would advocate using the problematic legislation in the blink of an eye if it were climate change activists or First Nations rights protesters who were slowing traffic on a highway on which Albertans think they have a God-given right to speed, instead of some of the same bad actors who blockaded the border at Coutts in 2022.
I was going to say misusing the act, but you can’t really misuse the Critical Infrastructure Defence Act.
That’s because Alberta’s last United Conservative Party (UCP) premier, the departed and unlamented Jason Kenney, intended it as a blatantly performative incursion into Ottawa’s jurisdiction over criminal law and to criminalize legal and constitutionally protected behaviour. That is to say, legitimate protest, when practiced by groups of people Kenney saw as enemies of the state.
It is an execrable law and deserves to fall to a constitutional challenge, which one of these days, all or part of it will.
This is not to say, by the way, that blockading highways and rail lines ought not to be restricted by the law – only that it already is, quite effectively, both by the federal Criminal Code and provincial traffic legislation, just to name a couple of laws.
In the meantime, though, it’s been fun to watch Kenney’s successor as captain of landlocked Alberta’s ship of state squirm when uppity reporters ask her questions about why the act isn’t being used to prosecute the MAGA protesters at the Cochrane turnoff of Highway 1.
At a news conference last Tuesday about the UCP’s new addiction, mental health and corrections agency, which really ought to be known as Not Alberta Health Services (NAHS), the CTV’s reporter cheekily asked her about this.
“According to Cochrane RCMP, obstructions are expected to continue today,” she told the premier. “Is the province at all considering using the Critical Infrastructure Defence Act, and is there any direction being given to the protesters to move to where they don’t constrict these economic corridors?”
“Well, look, let me give that direction,” Smith responded sharply. (Pay attention when Smith begins a response with an introductory “Well, look.” It’s usually a sign that a whopper is about to land.)
“I don’t support it when Extinction Rebellion glues themselves to the street and stops traffic, and I don’t support anyone stopping traffic as well. You can protest. Do it at the side of the road. Don’t interfere with the movement of goods. Don’t interfere with the movement of your neighbours. It’s the reason why we have the Critical Infrastructure Act, and I would just ask people to be compliant with the law.”
In the event, the reporter moved on, but another journo was waiting.
“I just wanted to follow up on a previous question there, premier,” said the reporter from The Canadian Press when she got her chance. “You just said in regards to the Critical Infrastructure Defence Act that you would just ask people to be compliant with the law. Can you just tell us, yes or no, whether you’re willing to use that act to quell these protests if they continue to affect highway traffic?”
Premier Smith trotted out a similar talking point, with an addition. “As you know, police make their own decision on arresting decisions,” she said sourly. “That’s not a decision for a premier to make.”
Well, to give Smith her due, she learned that one the hard way when she tried to influence what prosecutors were going to do about Artur Pawlowski, the unpastorly pastor from Calgary who persisted in ignoring vaccine mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’m just asking people to accept that we have a Critical Infrastructure Act in place and I wouldn’t, I don’t endorse it, when left-wing-activists wanna block bridges and roads, and I don’t endorse it when people who are opposing carbon taxes also wanna block bridges and roads,” the premier continued. “There’s a way to be able to do peaceful protests and continue to allow for the flow of goods and people.”
Of course, sometimes impeding the flow of goods and people is the only way to achieve justice, however you define it, but such behaviour in a society of laws comes with the understanding that you may have to face the metaphorical music when the cops move in. Preferably, this should be done without undignified whining.
But there’s no way, as the premier showed with Pawlowski, that she wants her friends and allies to face the music, be it that of church or state. (Pawlowski, by the way, came on down to the Cochrane turnoff last week to preach against the carbon tax, just as he preached against vaccine mandates.)
So there was equally no way she was going to answer yes or no to a question about whether she thought the Critical Infrastructure Defence Act should be used, because, like Kenney, she thinks it should be used against her enemies, just not her law-breaking friends.
This is just one reason why the UCP should never be allowed to set up its own politicized and ideologically blinkered police force.
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