Hundreds of Calgarians gather at city hall for 'Stop the UCP' rally

More than 1,000 Calgarians showed up at city hall Saturday to protest against the United Conservative government.

The "Stop the UCP" rally, organized by Trans Action Alberta and Queer Citizens United, ran from about 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and featured speakers including NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi.

The Alberta government introduced bills earlier this week to prohibit minors from receiving certain types of gender-affirming care, require parents be notified when a child wants to use a different name or pronoun in the classroom, and also require that parents opt-in before their children are taught about sex in class.

Another bill is designed to address the participation of transgender athletes in sport.

Egale Canada and the Skipping Stone Foundation are responding to the province's introduced legislation by taking legal action, the organizations said.

Victoria Bucholtz, an organizer with Momentum Canada, Trans Action Alberta and Queer Citizens United, told CBC News the protest Saturday was not just about fighting against those bills and supporting trans rights in Alberta.

"We're here because of schools that need funding, that need teachers who are ... being paid a living wage for the vital care that they provide our students," Bucholtz said. "We're here because we're seeing doctors not supported, nurses not supported. This is a broad coalition of Albertans who are saying 'this government is not serving us.'"

She added protestors are calling on the provincial government to stop introducing policies that politicize the lives of trans people.

"Stick to your mandate. Fund the schools, fund health care and leave trans people alone."

Bucholtz said the province should leave the health care of trans youth to doctors and stay out of the relationships between trans youth and their teachers.

"Return social transition to those trans kids who, as they're coming out, may come out to a teacher before they come out to a parent, or vice versa," she said. "Let that process develop naturally instead of including government provisions in that."

Bucholtz said this was the broadest rally she and the groups she represents have ever organized.

She said there has been massive support from groups including the United Nurses of Alberta, Friends of Medicare, the Alberta Teachers' Association and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Alberta, among others.

The "Stop the UCP" rally coincided with the UCP's annual general meeting in Red Deer, Alta., where Premier Danielle Smith received 91.5 per cent support for her leadership from those who voted. 

Bucholtz said the hundreds who gathered in Calgary wanted to send a message that, as Smith and the UCP are celebrating her leadership, there a lot of people who are not happy with how the province is being run.

Referring to Smith's comments during a news conference on Thursday, where the premier tied the actions of doctors to the current opioid crisis, Bucholtz said Smith was out of line.

Smith claimed that, because doctors were inappropriately prescribing opioids, it led to the current fentanyl crisis, a statement that Alberta doctors rebuked.

"Danielle Smith was very pithy saying that doctors aren't always right. I don't think politicians have the greatest track record when it comes to health care decisions either," she said.

Rory Gill, the president of CUPE Alberta, attended the rally. He said unions like his will stand with the province's trans community because the policies that the UCP is introducing are discriminatory.

"For unions, this is a workers' issue, because these vile and despicable bills will be compelling workers to discriminate against trans and non-binary youth and trans and non-binary people," he said.