In this essay, Colin May draws on his family’s experience with Alberta’s health system to reveal how professional regulators can overstep their mandates and harm the public they are meant to protect. He addresses the broad powers regulators hold, particularly over members’ speech, and highlights systemic failures, lack of accountability, and the risks of self-governance. The essay examines Alberta’s proposed legislative reforms, arguing they are a necessary step toward restoring balance, protecting free expression, and ensuring regulation is focused on competence, fairness, and patient-centred care.
Download the essay in PDF format. (14 pages)
Collin May is a lawyer in Calgary, Alberta, and an Adjunct Lecturer in Community Health Sciences with the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary. He is also a dedicated patient safety advocate. He holds degrees in political philosophy, religion (with a focus on medieval Islamic, Jewish and Christian thought), and law from Harvard University, the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (Paris), Dalhousie Law School, and the University of Alberta.
From 1997 to 2002, May worked with the United Nations International Telecommunications Union and later with the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva, Switzerland. He has served on multiple federal and provincial boards and tribunals and, in 2022, briefly held the role of Chief of the Alberta Human Rights Commission. He is currently developing a collection of essays on the legal, social, and psychological dimensions of cancel culture, and conducting research on the influence of Martin Heidegger’s philosophy on political radicalization and university movements.
