Ophelia Black is not just a young woman who lives in Calgary who likes to read fantasy romance novels and cross-stitch, she's also proof that safe supply programs can work. When the UCP tried to take away her treatment plan she took the government to court, and won. Black joins Duncan Kinney to talk about her case, the life she's built for herself thanks to her treatment and why the UCP are trying to kill her and other intravenous drug users. 

Until Feb. 27 even Danielle Smith’s UCP agreed that Alberta’s emergency medical services system is in crisis. But now, 100 days into Smith’s reign, it only takes 57 minutes to get an ambulance in most rural areas, down from a peak of a 64 minute wait in November. 

The emergency medical services crisis in Alberta is a labour crisis: there are too many calls and not enough paramedics to answer them. On the campaign trail, Danielle Smith promised to fix it all within 100 days, but local paramedics say we’ve arrived at the opposite, a system “in shambles.”

Canadian Anti-Hate Network writer and research Peter Smith joins host Duncan Kinney to talk about the recent spate of far right protests at all-ages drag events and at other queer events in Alberta as well as the encouraging amount of pushback we've seen from the community. 

Danielle Smith’s first, and hopefully last, budget is an expensive election campaign ad that every news outlet in the province devoted hours of coverage and tens of thousands of words to covering. Which is a shame because it should be taken as seriously as any crappy campaign junk mail you’d ignore and throw in the trash. 

Freelance investigative journalist and former paramedic Brett McKay joins Duncan Kinney to discuss his recent piece in the Breach which makes the convincing case that the increased use precarious paramedics in Alberta is a part of a deliberate strategy to make it easier for the UCP to privatize ambulance service in Alberta. 

The Edmonton Police Commission held their monthly public meeting this Thursday. Details dribbled out about the Healthy Streets Operations Centre, new downtown beats were drawn up because of its establishment, and the chief warned the public about an increase in the prevalence of ‘ghost guns’. 

Danielle Smith’s rule has been characterized by a loose relationship with the truth: among the big fibs have been a great-grandfather who didn’t actually flee communism, claims that she would, did, and then didn’t interfere in the prosecution of Coutts blockaders, and a false claim of Cherokee heritage.

Shama Rangwala joins Duncan Kinney to discuss the students of Uleth owning Frances Widdowson, the UCP reaction and the historical context of academic free speech and how it's been weaponized by the right. 

Despite the release of a recent study showing the closure of Lethbridge’s supervised consumption site cost lives, the UCP is shutting down another similar facility, this time in Red Deer.