Who is Impacted?
The Compassionate Intervention Act directly affects people who use drugs, especially those already facing systemic barriers such as poverty, trauma, racism, or disability. This law allows family members, healthcare providers, and police to request involuntary treatment orders without a person’s consent.

While the Act claims to offer compassionate care, it enables forced assessment, treatment, and confinement, undermining bodily autonomy, a cornerstone of ethical care. For many, this means being detained in secure facilities or community programs without a choice, consent, or guarantee of culturally safe, trauma-informed support.

 
What is at Stake?
Alberta is set to spend $180 million on a coercive care model that public health research shows can increase drug poisoning risk, re-traumatize individuals, and erode trust in health systems.

The threshold for forced intervention is dangerously broad, especially for marginalized people who already face over-surveillance and criminalization.

This is a concerning overreach of government power, replacing consent with control. If we normalize involuntary treatment, we risk dismantling person-centred care in favour of a punitive system that may do more harm than good.

 
Why is now the time to act?
The Compassionate Intervention Act may be law... but that doesn't mean we have to accept it. Now is the time for Albertans to speak up and tell the government that care without consent is not real care. We support recovery, but it must be voluntary, evidence-based, and led by the communities it claims to serve.

Public pressure now can shape how this Act is implemented, resisted, and ultimately re-evaluated. Help us defend the right to make decisions about our own bodies and our own care.

Sign the petition and help build a future rooted in dignity, choice, and real compassion... not coercion.