Alberta NDP MLA under fire for Holocaust comparison in legislature debate

An Alberta NDP MLA is under fire for comparing the UCP government to Nazis during a legislative debate, a move former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi defended despite outrage from United Conservative MLAs

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An Alberta NDP MLA is under fire for comparing the UCP government to Nazis during a legislative debate, a move former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi defended despite outrage from United Conservative MLAs.

In a Thursday statement, UCP MLA Chantelle de Jonge called the comments “appalling and deeply offensive.”

“Yesterday in question period, NDP MLA for Edmonton-Riverview Lori Sigurdson invoked the Holocaust while criticizing Alberta’s use of the notwithstanding clause. It was an appalling and deeply offensive comparison,” said de Jonge. “She went so far as to compare a provincial labour dispute to genocide.”

“This unhinged rhetoric is disgraceful and beneath the dignity of Alberta’s legislature. Invoking the Holocaust and comparing United Conservatives to Nazis to score desperate political points trivializes one of the darkest chapters in human history,” she added. “Every member of the assembly has a duty to speak with respect for the six million Jews and five million other victims, including people with disabilities and those of different ethnicities and religions. It is abhorrent to exploit their suffering for partisan attacks.”

The Alberta UCP called on Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi to condemn the comments and for Sigurdson to apologize.

“Albertans can hold differing views on the notwithstanding clause or any government decision. But there is no place for comparing policy debates to the Holocaust or the atrocities committed by the Nazis,” de Jonge’s statement concluded.

Nenshi defended Sigurdson at a press conference later in the day, saying she read a poem about human rights and claiming the UCP wants to ban books.

Alberta’s government removed sexually explicit books — including images of penetration, masturbation, sex toy use, or child molestation — from school literary collections.

The UCP previously blasted Sigurdson after she criticized the province’s plan, claiming it amounted to censorship. The books highlighted by the premier and shown on TV were actually censored due to their graphic nature.

Nenshi also claimed the UCP wants to violate human rights by using the notwithstanding clause again.

However, Alberta Finance Minister Nate Horner said it is “highly unlikely” the government will invoke the notwithstanding clause to end a potential nurses’ strike. He didn’t want to take anything completely off the table, but said it is not something they’re focused on.

“It is a perfectly fair comment,” Nenshi said of Sigurdson’s Holocaust comparison. “Who should be apologizing is the UCP for trivializing the Holocaust to cover up for their trampling on human rights for the first time in Alberta’s history, passing a law they know to be unconstitutional.”

Christine Van Geyn, Litigation Director for the Canadian Constitution Foundation, compared Alberta’s use of the notwithstanding clause to a Quebec case headed to the Supreme Court.

She explained that arguments against its use are “creative, Hail Mary legal arguments untethered to the text of the actual constitution and contrary to the intentions of its drafters.”

Former Alberta premier Jason Kenney similarly defended its use, warning that efforts to restrict it would threaten the federation’s balance.

“It’s a very strange and dangerous initiative on the part of the federal government,” Kenney said in a September interview. “The provinces only signed on to the repatriation of the Constitution, including the Charter of Rights, back in 1982 because they included the Section 33 notwithstanding clause.”

Together, their comments underscore that the clause was designed as a constitutional safeguard to preserve the balance between the courts and legislatures, ensuring democratically elected governments can make final decisions even when judicial interpretations conflict.