HIGH RIVER, Alberta (LifeSiteNews) – Alberta Premier leadership candidate Danielle Smith said that as leader of the province she will make it “illegal” for post-secondary institutions to shut out students who choose “not to be vaccinated.”
“It was wrong for Alberta to deny access and sanction post-secondary students for choosing not to be vaccinated. This decision damaged the education and mental health of thousands of Alberta’s best and brightest. It can’t happen again,” Smith wrote Monday on Twitter.
“As Premier, I will make it illegal for post-secondary institutions to deny students access or otherwise sanction them based on their vaccination status.”
Smith also said that she would mandate it so that there never again would be the “further shutting down of in-person classes at our post-secondary institutions.”
She then wrote that the protection of our “students’ rights to pursue their education” as well as “respect for their bodily autonomy” is “non-negotiable.”
Like all provinces in Canada, during the height of COVID, the Alberta government shut down all post-secondary institutions and schools for in-person learning. Some Alberta colleges, including both the University of Calgary and University of Alberta (Edmonton), enacted draconian COVID jab mandates for students and staff. This policy forced many students as well as staff to be let go or kicked out of school.
While the jab mandates have since been lifted, many fear that the mandates could return in the fall, at least in post-secondary schools.
Indeed, this past week Western University in London, Ontario said it would institute a COVID jab and mask mandate for the upcoming school year. This news prompted many students to protest the new rules.
Smith has earlier said that should she become premier she would never impose jab “mandates” or lock down the province.
She has blasted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s divisive language against the vaccine free and has promised to allow for free votes on all matters for her MLAs.
Smith has promised that if she becomes premier she will introduce the Alberta Sovereignty Act, which she said will help make Alberta as independent from Ottawa as possible while still staying in the Confederation.
During a leadership debate earlier in the month, Smith, along with the other leadership frontrunners Travis Toews and Brian Jean, all made statements promoting adoption over abortion.
Smith, however, is not without controversy on some social conservative issues. She describes herself as a Libertarian and does seem to favor at least allowing abortion in the first few months of pregnancy, and she did throw her support behind same-sex “marriage.”
No doubt due to public support of the Freedom Convoy, which fought for an end to all COVID mandates, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney dropped a provincial mask mandate in March after earlier removing the province’s vaccine passport on February 8.
He has admitted the vaccine passport system was effective in coercing people to take the abortion-tainted experimental jab.
In May, Kenney announced his intention to resign as United Conservative Party (UCP) leader as soon as the party elects a new head. This came after he only narrowly passed a confidence vote from party members, no doubt due to his track record of locking down Alberta hard.
The UCP will elect its new party leader in October.
Canada’s top pro-life group Campaign Life Coalition (CLC) put its support behind pro-life candidate Todd Loewen to lead the UCP.