Alberta Tories Join Growing Calls For Anti-SLAPP Law to Protect Free Speech and Democracy in Alberta

Alberta’s other conservative party is joining growing calls for the province to bring in legislation that would end “frivolous, abusive and politically-motivated lawsuits.”

Peter Guthrie, the leader of Alberta’s Progressive Tory Party and current MLA for Airdrie – Cochrane, is the first member of Alberta’s legislature to publicly call for anti-SLAPP legislation following an open letter co-signed by the Canadian Association of Journalists and over one hundred journalists, news publishers, digital creators, academics, lawyers and civil society groups.

“I strongly support effective anti-SLAPP legislation,” Guthrie said in a statement to PressProgress, adding that he believes people should not be able to “misuse the legal system to intimidate, silence or financially exhaust others without accountability.”

“The courts exist to resolve legitimate legal disputes not to become a strategic tool for those with greater financial resources to intimidate critics, suppress free expression, or burden people with lengthy and costly litigation,” the Alberta Tory leader explained. “That principle applies whether the target is a journalist, publisher, political opponent, advocacy group or private citizen.”

Guthrie, who previously served as a minister in Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party government, said his new party is committed to including anti-SLAPP protections in proposed legislation focused on “accountability and transparency,” alongside “tighter lobbying rules, improved access to information” and “stronger whistleblower protections.”

This is bang on.

I’ve seen it firsthand.

Anti-SLAPP legislation shouldn’t just protect Albertans from private actors – it should also protect them from governments that misuse the courts to intimidate, silence, or simply delay.

Abuse of power should have consequences. Alberta… https://t.co/mzu2gDPpyI

— Peter Guthrie (@PeterGuthrie99) July 17, 2026

According to Toronto Metropolitan University’s Centre for Free Expression, SLAPP lawsuits (or, “strategic litigation against public participation”) are designed to “intimidate and silence critics by forcing them into legal battles that would be extremely costly and time-consuming to fight.”

Last week’s Anti-SLAPP Alberta open letter noted a growing number of journalists and other voices in the province have in recent years been increasingly “subjected to legal threats and lawsuits over their reporting and commentary on issues of public interest.”

Anti-SLAPP legislation creates an early step in the legal process that allows courts to weigh the merits and motives of a lawsuit, giving judges the option of dismissing groundless claims targeting expressions on issues of public interest.

“Many of these legal threats and actions have been launched by individuals with clear political connections,” the open letter states. “Some threaten to bury media outlets with multimillion-dollar lawsuits while others try to misuse Alberta’s court system to scrub the internet of information that the public has a right to know.”

“Whether it’s a journalist investigating powerful people, a civil society group advocating for social change, or simply an ordinary person with opinions about their government, democracies need legal mechanisms to protect free and democratic speech from frivolous, abusive and politically motivated lawsuits.”

Nate Pike, host of an Alberta-focused political podcast called The Breakdown, has first-hand experience with Alberta’s litigious political culture – in 2024, a controversial businessman with ties to Alberta Premier Danielle Smith served Pike with a staggering $6 million defamation lawsuit after raising questions about government contracts awarded to the businessman’s companies.

A few months later, the businessman filed an emergency injunction that resulted in Pike being forced to temporarily shutdown his independent media company to comply with an unusually broad court order that he remove all content relating to the businessman and anyone associated with him.

“We had to shut down everything because it was written in such a way that anybody affiliated with the situation … had to be removed,” Pike told PressProgress. “I couldn’t at that point in time talk about the UCP.”

“It blocked me out of Alberta politics quite effectively for two weeks.”

Pike, who has already crowdfunded hundreds of thousands of dollars to cover legal fees, said his lawsuit remains active and projects he will need to continue raising money to cover his growing legal costs.

“This has been extremely stressful on my wife,” Pike noted. “She’s very gracious in letting me do as much as I do, but when she saw the $6 million number on the initial statement claim, she was terrified.”

URGENT

Those afraid of truth and scandals becoming public, are using their influence to muzzle the “The Breakdown” through a Court Order.

As of Friday, the podcast is shot down.

This is not the Alberta we can tolerate!

PLEASE donate to fight the Gag Order.

www.gofundme.com/f/vggge-lega…

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— Hon. Thomas A. Lukaszuk (@lukaszukab.bsky.social) February 17, 2025 at 12:35 AM

Brent Jolly, president of the Canadian Association of Journalists, says the legal conditions in Alberta currently create imbalances of power by allowing those with “money and deep pockets” to bring forward “frivolous litigation that ties up small not-for-profit groups, academics, journalists and others who don’t necessarily have the resources.”

“Those in positions of financial power here understand that,” Jolly told PressProgress. “Anti-SLAPP legislation is important because it levels the playing field in this regard.”

The international press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders says it is tracking an alarming rise of journalists around the world who are being targeted by legal threats and lawsuits that seek to “impose substantial financial, professional and psychological costs.”

“Journalists are increasingly being investigated, harassed, threatened and targeted,” Reporters Without Borders’ Ben Grazda told PressProgress. “Politicians and public figures who find coverage unfavourable to them aim to silence journalists through frivolous lawsuits that are costly and time consuming.”

“Without legal safeguards, politicians and powerful figures can destroy news outlets for coverage they disagree with.”

@pressprogress.ca is proud to join 100+ journalists, news publishers, academics and civil society groups in endorsing calls for anti-SLAPP legislation in Alberta

Frivolous, abusive and politically motivated SLAPP lawsuits are a threat to free and democratic speech

READ MORE: antislappalberta.ca

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— PressProgress (@pressprogress.ca) July 13, 2026 at 12:51 PM

South of the border, US President Donald Trump has repeatedly served media outlets with outlandish multimillion dollar or even billion dollar lawsuits, including against the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, BBC News, ABC, CBS and others.

In recent years, Alberta has likewise seen numerous lawsuits involving politically-connected figures targeting journalists, news publishers and other critical voices – Alberta’s current premier, Danielle Smith, and Alberta’s former premier, Jason Kenney, have both issued legal threats to media outlets.

Smith’s former chief of staff is currently suing the Globe and Mail and separately issued legal threats over an op-ed printed in the Calgary Herald.

Alberta’s Tory Party leader Peter Guthrie said he has himself been subjected to legal actions by Smith’s UCP, something he believes was “designed to delay and obstruct a legitimate political competitor.”

Pike says many in Alberta political circles understand these kinds of lawsuits are not genuinely seeking compensation for real damages, but are instead used as a heavy-handed “communications tool” to neutralize critics.

“This isn’t a legal strategy. This is a communication strategy,” Pike said. “This is the tool in their toolbox.”

“If you have people in the highest corridors of power who are looking at ways to weaponize the legal system as communications tools, then I can think of no greater argument for anti-SLAPP legislation.”