KIDDIE DOPE BILL ON SHAKY GROUND

A bill that would allow parents to force drug-addicted kids into treatment
has passed its second of four votes in the Alberta legislature. But its
author, Red Deer Tory MLA Mary-Anne Jablonski, admits it's standing on some
very shaky legs.

"There's a need to do some work with the bill so it can withstand a charter
challenge," Jablonski said yesterday.

Officials in Alberta Justice have told the veteran MLA the wording of her
proposed law would certainly fail if a youth confined for treatment could
petition a judge for release under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Even if the bill is passed, the government can still decline to enact the
law or have it proclaimed, which it has done with other private bills it
didn't support.

Jablonski said she now hopes Justice Minister Ron Stevens will assign some
help from his department to tweak her bill into a form the government can
accept.

However, if Justice can't charter-proof the bill, the government could
still use the controversial and politically sensitive "notwithstanding
clause" in the Constitution to override a court challenge.

"I haven't even thought about that, yet," Jablonski said.

The clause became infamous in Alberta when the Klein government tried to
use it to pass a law limiting compensation available to people who were
subjected to forced sterilization under the Social Credit government of
decades past.

A national uproar forced a full retreat by Klein, and the Tories vowed
never to use the clause for any law - except the government's equally
controversial Marriage Act. That act seeks to restrict the definition of
marriage to heterosexual unions only.

Jablonski's faltering Bill 202 will now go to a legislature committee for
examination. It must be passed by that committee, then approved by the full
legislature for a third and final time.

Then it will be in the hands of Premier Ralph Klein's cabinet to enact or
ignore as it chooses.