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A Journal editorial published on April 3, 1998, the day following the Supreme Court of Canada’s ruling on Vriend v. Alberta.

Do the people of Alberta accept bigotry and discrimination institutionalized in their laws?

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That is the question that led to Thursday’s judgment of the Supreme Court of Canada in Vriend v. Alberta.

Albertans have debated it throughout this decade as their government stalled and obfuscated on inclusion of sexual orientation as a protected element in the province’s rights law. Other jurisdictions have faced it throughout the ages.

The Supreme Court hasn’t changed the question, just put it in a context that even this government can’t avoid.

The country’s highest court said that having a rights law that excludes one of the most common grounds for discrimination “sends a message to all Albertans that it is permissible, and perhaps even acceptable, to discriminate against individuals” on those grounds.