Source: The Canadian Constitution Foundation
Alberta Health Services has issued a one-year, province-wide trespass notice banning independent journalist Mocha Bezirgan from every AHS facility until March 2027. The Canadian Constitution Foundation has responded with a formal Charter warning, arguing the ban is an unjustified interference with freedom of expression and the public’s right to information about public institutions.
The incident that triggered the ban took place on March 25, 2026, at Beaver Lodge Municipal Hospital. Bezirgan entered the hospital to report on a matter of public interest, asked to speak with a doctor who declined to comment, then left the building and waited outside to try again after the doctor’s shift. Waiting outside a public facility to speak with someone is a standard journalistic practice. AHS responded by barring him from all of its properties across the province for a full year.
The CCF has written to AHS demanding the ban be rescinded immediately. Counsel Alexander Surgenor noted that journalists play a vital role in informing Canadians about how public institutions operate, and that government agencies cannot simply sidestep the Charter by issuing sweeping trespass notices without regard for constitutional rights. The foundation is calling on AHS to reverse the decision and ensure that journalists can do their work without this kind of broad interference.
Public hospitals are taxpayer-funded institutions. The public has a legitimate interest in knowing how they function, how resources are used, and how staff interact with the community. Using a province-wide ban as a response to a reporter seeking comment risks creating a chilling effect that extends far beyond one individual. If health authorities can exclude journalists from entire networks of facilities for attempting to ask questions, the practical ability of the press to scrutinize public institutions is weakened.
The CCF’s intervention underscores a basic point: constitutional protections for expression and the press do not disappear at the doors of government-run facilities. AHS should reverse the ban. Journalists need to be able to report on public institutions without the constant threat of being locked out of the entire system for doing their job.
