Alberta

Alberta lacked a strong presence among the first generation of rights associations with the exception of five small chapters of the League for Democratic Rights, and the province did not become active in the second generation until International Year for Human Rights. A year earlier the government had set up a provisional human rights committee with the goal of establishing a provincial group to work with voluntary organizations on human rights programs. It was part of the nation-wide effort to promote awareness of human rights in anticipation of the anniversary in 1968. In the same year the provincial government hired a full time human rights officer to bring provincial human rights legislation to the attention of the public. The provisional committee eventually evolved into the Alberta Human Rights Association which was incorporated in 1968 under the leadership of F.C. Brodie, secretary of the Alberta Federation of Labour, and was centered in Edmonton. The group struggled in its early years, kept alive predominantly by the efforts of government officials. Within a few years the group was forced to release its secretary due to lack of funding, but in 1971 it was able to secure funds from both the Secretary of State and the provincial government to stay afloat. By 1972 the group enjoyed greater stability with about 200 members and a new president who took an active interest in cases of discrimination and the need for an independent review board for police complaints. It was soon renamed the Alberta Human Rights and Civil Liberties Association to broaden the group's appeal.

In 1973 the Alberta Human Rights and Civil Liberties Association established its first successful chapter (a previous attempt in Calgary had failed) with the Lethbridge Civil Liberties Association in reaction to local concerns about the use of corporal punishment in public schools. This led to a successfully lobbying campaign by the Lethbridge association against the school board to have the regulations for corporal punishment removed. A group of academics, including Ed Webking, a political science professor at the University of Lethbridge, founded the organization and kept it active until the group folded in 1983 [By the late-1970s Ed Webking had become the driving force behind the Lethbridge association. When he went on sabbatical in 1982 and moved to Ottawa to help Walter Tarnopolsky found the Human Rights Research Centre at the University of Ottawa, the group became defunct. Upon his return to Lethbridge Webking decided not to revive the organization, but became active instead in the Calgary Civil Liberties Association]. Within a year of its founding, however, the Lethbridge group became independent and changed its name to the Lethbridge Citizens Human Rights Council in order to qualify for Secretary of State grants under the program for new groups. Through state funding it was able to operate a downtown office for screening and referral services and spent most of the 1970s organizing education programs funded by provincial and federal grants. It remained active until 1982 when Ed Webking left the group for Ottawa and the driving force behind the organization was lost. Additional rights associations were formed in Fort McMurray and Grand Prairie in 1977, but they only managed to stay alive for a handful of years and never numbered more than a couple of dozen people.

The most enduring rights association to emerge from Alberta appeared in 1973 as the Calgary Civil Liberties Association. Its founder was Sheldon Chumir, a tax lawyer and former Rhodes scholar from Calgary who was independently wealthy thanks to a small oil and gas company. Chumir established a private practice in 1975 and became noted for his civil liberties work in Alberta and chaired the civil liberties section of the provincial wing of the Canadian Bar Association. The fledgling rights association began meeting informally at a Chinese restaurant every second Friday to discuss issues of interest until it members decided to incorporate themselves into a formal organization in 1977 under the Societies Act. Among its founders was Gary Dickson (lawyer), David Cruickshank (law professor, University of Calgary), Ed Wolfe (Calgary oil patch worker) and Joan Ryan (anthropology professor, University of Calgary). Most of their early work involved drawing attention of local human rights abuses to the media and writing letters to the provincial government. In fact, despite the presence of a few non-lawyers, by 1982 the Calgary Civil Liberties Association was in effect little more than a small group of lawyers lobbying and litigating cases. Once they were incorporated, the association developed a working relationship with the CCLA although never formally affiliated. Among the issues the group concerned themselves with were free speech and municipal bylaws dealing with parade permits and public signs, discrimination against aboriginals by Calgary landlords, various breaches of privacy access regulations and prayers in public schools. Once the Alberta Human Rights and Civil Liberties Association had became defunct in the mid-1980s the group changed its name to the Alberta Civil Liberties Association and founded the Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre in 1982 (with the help of a grant from the Alberta Law Foundation) to receive donations and conduct civil liberties educational programs and research. Today, the Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre is affiliated with the University of Calgary.

The following excerpt is from: Jeremy Patrick, "Civil Liberties Advocacy Organizations in Canada: A Survey and Critique" (February 13, 2007). bepress Legal Series. Working Paper 2007.

Civil liberties activists in Alberta have two main outlets for their endeavors: the Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre and the Alberta Civil Liberties Association. The first organization focuses primarily on research and education, while the second engages in traditional advocacy. Unlike some other groups which maintain a nominal “separation” between education and advocacy activities for tax purposes, the two organizations in Alberta have truly separate leadership, administration, and funding.

The Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre was created in 1982 as an organization “dedicated to promoting awareness among Albertans about civil liberties and human rights[.]” Supported primarily through a grant with the Alberta Law Foundation, the Centre became affiliated with the University of Calgary in 1997. The Centre holds occasional conferences, publishes a newsletter, and maintains a lending library of materials on civil liberties and human rights. The Centre’s two primary activities are publication and education. The Centre’s Human Rights Education Project creates classroom materials and conducts workshops for high school students on topics such as the Charter, provincial human rights codes, and international human rights law. [Webmaster Note: A list of the Centre's publications is available at http://www.aclrc.com]

The Centre is loosely affiliated with the Alberta Civil Liberties Association and acts as a conduit point for persons attempting to contact the Association. The Association, unlike the Centre, does engage in advocacy activities and has spoken out in the media on issues such as police whistleblowing and forced treatment of drug addicted youth. Litigation activities are rare, but included intervention in the famous Vriend case that required Alberta to add sexual orientation as a prohibited ground of discrimination in its human rights legislation. The Association also succeeded in intervening in a case concerning the right of Sikh RCMP officers to wear turbans and a case considering the relationship between electoral boundaries and the Charter, but was turned away from a case adjudicating whether a convicted criminal should be sentenced as a dangerous offender. On at least one occasion, the Association made submissions before a Parliamentary committee. It maintains no offices, has no paid staff, and has no website. Its current President and frequent spokesman is a Calgary lawyer in private practice.