Bill 13 shifts the balance away from prevention and toward after-the-fact responses, weakening the safeguards that make trust in professionals possible.JASON FRANSON/The Canadian Press

Malinda S. Smith is a political science professor and associate vice-president research at the University of Calgary.

Bukola Salami is a professor and Canada Research Chair in Black and racialized peoples’ health at the University of Calgary.

Kannin Osei-Tutu is an associate professor and senior associate dean, health equity and systems transformation at the University of Calgary.

Alberta’s government has passed the Regulated Professions Neutrality Act (Bill 13), legislation it describes as a safeguard for freedom of expression and ideological neutrality. While framed as a narrow response to concerns about speech, Bill 13 makes a deeper and more consequential intervention: It alters the scope and purpose of professional regulation itself.

The government’s stated rationale is straightforward. Ministers argue that some professional regulators have exceeded their mandate by disciplining members for lawful opinions expressed outside the workplace. In this view, professionals should not face licensure consequences for personal expression unrelated to technical competence or job performance. Bill 13 is framed as restoring a clearer boundary between professional........

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