As free as it gets

Even if you’re not excited about the prospect of AI replacing legal work, hopefully you can at least celebrate its other groundbreaking achievements.

Osmo (billed as the company giving computers a sense of smell) announced a breakthrough yesterday. They managed to digitize scent — reproducing the smell of a fresh plum after scanning it into a computer. Osmo uses AI models to spot patterns in air composition, giving your favourite smells a unique (and reproducible) signature.

Get ready to take your perfume game to the next level.

— Dylan Gibbs

• Canada’s freest province

• Advance MAiD requests

• AI guidelines for judges

• Abortion disclosures

• Carbon tax fights

• Bail reform

SPOTLIGHT 🔦

Alberta unveils its four-point freedom plan

Alberta tabled proposed changes to its provincial Bill of Rights this week. The amendments rest on four pillars: vaccines, property, guns, and speech.

But if you’re looking for changes that might make a difference, your attention should be on the first two.

The right to anti-vax

Under the updated law, every Albertan can control their medical decisions. Well, almost every Albertan — there’s a carveout for anyone likely to cause “substantial harm” to themselves or others.

The carveout leaves room for mandatory addictions treatment. Through the Compassionate Intervention Act planned for next year, the government wants to force certain people with addictions into treatment. And unlimited autonomy over medical decisions would have gotten in the way.

But for anyone worried the harm exception might also force people into getting vaccinated, don’t fret — the amendments cover vaccines expressly.

And the right to refuse vaccines doesn’t come with any caveats.

Harmful or not — Albertans can Just Say No to vaccines.

At least, within reasonable limits: The updated legislation includes an equivalent to section 1 of the Charter (which it didn’t have before). So, like all of the freedoms enshrined in Alberta’s Bill of Rights, the vaccine protections will be subject to reasonable limits.

That’s a fairly big “but”, since plenty of courts dealing with COVID restrictions have upheld them as justified and reasonable government policies (like the Newfoundland and Labrador travel ban case that’ll soon be heard at the SCC).

Opening the constructive expropriation floodgates?

The province’s new private property protections might be the most interesting change of all. Even though Premier Smith calls this one a “reaffirmation” of existing rights, it looks like Alberta is completely overhauling the definition of constructive expropriation.

As a refresher, the common law test for constructive expropriation has two parts. We deem the government to have taken someone’s property if the property owner loses (all reasonable uses of their property) and the state gains (an interest in, or flowing from, the property).

If the state prevents an owner from using their property but doesn’t get anything in return, there’s no expropriation. And that frees governments up to limit the use of property without forking over cash to every affected property owner.

But Alberta’s new amendments use a simpler definition. A property owner can establish expropriation by showing they were “deprived of all reasonable uses of [their] property”. Bye-bye to half of the test.

That’s a big difference. And you don’t need to take my word for it. Here’s what the Alberta Court of Appeal recently had to say about modifying the common law test:

Maybe those are the exact consequences the government has in mind with this change. Alberta won that case — so they probably know what they’re doing? But if that’s the case, “reaffirmation” of existing rights isn’t the best descriptor.

What else does the legislation do?

Not much. The other two pillars — guns and speech — are more theatre than substance. Albertans will have the right to legally own guns (like everyone else). And their provincial right to freedom of speech will be upgraded to “speech and expression”.

If you’re interested in the bill’s full text, you can check it out here.

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HEARSAY ROUNDUP

🤔 Ontario pitched a wild approach to bail reform that includes outlawing bail for certain offences (like intimate partner violence). Setting aside the presumption of innocence for a second — where the heck would we put everyone?

🧑‍⚕️ The federal government isn’t challenging Quebec’s bespoke approach to MAiD, which lets people make advance requests for assisted death. As of today, Quebec patients can note their wishes in advance and have doctors follow through (even if they lose capacity). Federal law prohibits advance designations — requiring consent immediately before assisted death takes place — but the government won’t be taking Quebec to court over its modified approach.

🛢️ There’s now a direct challenge to the federal government’s carbon tax home heating oil exemption. Unlike Saskatchewan’s roundabout challenge premised on withholding carbon tax payments, Alberta is challenging the federal policy through judicial review in the Federal Court.

🤰 The federal government wants charities providing reproductive health services to disclose their stance on giving out abortion information. New legislation tabled by the government addresses the risk that women will be pushed away from services simply because they attended a clinic that refuses to explain all the options. Crisis pregnancy centres that don’t comply would lose their charitable status.

🤖 The Canadian Judicial Council released guidelines for the use of AI by judges. The guidelines are high-level, with a fair bit of fluff, but worth a skim. The focus is on knowledge, training, and appropriate use — there’s no ban on judges using generative AI.

THINGS NOT TO DO 😤

Don’t steal from clients. And if you do, don’t disobey the court.

Justice Chalmers of Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice sentenced two lawyers to jail last week for contempt of court. The lawyers are already under an interim practice suspension — wrapped up in allegations they stole more than $6.5 million from clients. The contempt ruling comes from their refusal to explain what happened to the money. They’ll each spend 30 days in custody unless they spill the beans and purge their contempt.

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