The Edmonton Public School Board voted to thoroughly review and research the school resource officer (SRO) program, but in a tie vote it did not suspend the program while the review is underway. 

The Edmonton Public School Board and the Edmonton Catholic School district spent $1.67 million combined on armed police in schools for their school resource officer (SRO) program in the 2018-2019 school year. 

In the 2019-2020 school year there were 29 police officers in 36 different schools in Edmonton. 

After months of ‘work’--and then weeks of being kept out of the hands of the public--Alberta’s ‘Fair Deal’ Panel report was finally released by the UCP government last week.

Police violence and brutality happens with great and terrifying regularity here in Canada. This is not just an American problem.  

The proof of this brutality is in the Edmonton Police Service’s own reporting.

Inspired by the protests against the murder of George Floyd, and inflamed by numerous reports of police brutality in Canada against Black and Indigenous people, the movement to radically change the nature of policing in Canada continues to grow.

Most of our coverage to date has been about how this movement is fighting tor change at the municipal level. But what about the provincial government?

What does society look like when community safety isn't handled by armed cops authorized to kill people? We rejoin our conversation on disarming, defunding and dismantling the police with Reakash Walters and Molly Swain. 

Responding yesterday to criticism for letting Alberta Premier Jason Kenney take a question from a reporter for a controversial right-wing news site during Tuesday’s virtual COVID-19 update, Press Secretary Christine Myatt tweeted defensively that “I don’t think anybody wants the government deciding who is or is not a journalist.”

Oliver, the largest neighborhood by population in Edmonton, is named after Frank Oliver, a racist, corrupt, land thief who was instrumental in creating modern western Canada. This is not an isolated event, Edmonton has a rich history of naming neighborhoods, streets, parks, LRT stations and buildings after racist, criminal and problematic characters from history. 

The uprising against systemic racism and police brutality that was sparked by the murder of George Floyd has gone global. And the demands of the demonstrators are coalescing around a single goal: defund the police.

So what does that mean, to ‘defund the police?’

Edmonton and Calgary spend nine times more on the police than they spend on housing the homeless or social programs. Combined the two cities spend $750 million a year on cops. We talk with Reakash Walters and Molly Swain about how to divest from police and invest in the community.