Friends,

It’s hard to believe it’s winter already! As I mentioned last time I wrote, my Alberta NDP Caucus colleagues and I headed back to the Legislature at the end of October. I’ve continued to push for action on the issues I’ve been hearing from you about: affordable housing, public health care where and when you need it, a compassionate and evidence-based approach to the drug poisoning crisis, education funding, and protections for vulnerable and marginalized Albertans.

In all of this, human rights have always been important to me, as they are to so many of you. In fact, protecting and strengthening supports for human rights is a key reason why I ran for political office in the first place, and why I keep giving my all to this role. This has been at the forefront of my mind throughout this legislative session, and it’s something I’ve been hearing about from so many of you as well.

Housing is a human right, yet so many of our neighbours remain unhoused even during unimaginable heat waves, periods of severely poor air quality, and dangerously cold Edmonton winters. Others find that they are forced to spend nearly their entire incomes on rent, meaning that they cannot afford other basic needs.

Education is a human right, but countless students in Edmonton and across the province are forced to learn in overcrowded, under-resourced classrooms. 

Health care is a human right, but many of us find it impossible to access a primary care physician, and even to access life-saving care during significant medical events.

Across these huge gaps in human rights in Alberta, marginalized community members often find that these gaps seem even more insurmountable, that their human rights are disregarded by a government that is supposedly in place to protect these rights. These include our Indigenous, racialized, disabled, and 2SLGBTQ+ neighbours, and others. And this is not acceptable.

Please know that my colleagues and I will keep fighting alongside you for human rights for all Albertans.

If, like me, you are alarmed about the erosion of human rights we are witnessing, I encourage you to speak up. Contact me, and contact your elected representatives at all levels of government. Attend protests and rallies. Organize. And stick together—we are stronger together. 

Please keep in touch to share your priorities and concerns so that I can keep doing my best to represent you, and all of us, in the Legislature.

In the meantime, I’m looking forward to continuing to connect with you, and to celebrating all the ways in which our community comes together even during the coldest winter. As always, I want to hear from you. Please reach out anytime.

Take good care of yourselves and each other.

Janis Irwin, MLA for Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood
Email: Edmonton.HighlandsNorwood@assembly.ab.ca
Phone: 780-414-0682