The academics have a word for what we’re seeing in Alberta, and it’s necropolitics: the politics of who lives and who dies. The subjugation of life to the power of death.

Achille Mbembe, the scholar who coined the term, looked at it in the context of wars and occupations. He wrote that those who have power create death-worlds, “forms of social existence in which vast populations are subjected to conditions of life conferring upon them the status of living dead.”

Where did Kevin J. Johnston come from? Independent journalist Kevin Metcalf digs into the history of this infamous Ontarian and relatively recent Calgary transplant who has recently been locked up for a series of increasingly dangerous and aggressive anti-lockdown stunts. 

The UCP are off to a hilarious start this week, still stumbling to properly announce Alberta’s new COVID vaccine lottery.

You’d think it’d be an easy crowd pleaser—and simple to explain. ‘If you get your vaccine, we’ll put you in a draw for a million dollars!’ But by the end of day Monday, we had all sorts of variations from the Premier, the Health Minister, and their interminably-posting caucus staff. In one weird version presented by Kenney, you could enter the lotto, not bother with the shots, and then if you did get the winning ticket still claim the prize as long as you ran out and got vaccinated before picking it up.

Kevin “Jackal” Johnston is in pre-trial custody until his trial on July 12 following a series of anti-lockdown stunts in Calgary, Edmonton and Dawson Creek, BC. He’s been in the news recently as a mayoral candidate in Calgary, but what you might not know is that he has a storied history out east, too. 

University of Manitoba history professor Sean Carleton joins us to break down Jason Kenney's long history of defending the genocidal legacy of Canada and its first prime minister John A. MacDonald, whether Canada Day is cancelled (it is) and the pros of tearing down the statues of the architects of genocide. 

Management at Alpha House—which operates shelters in Calgary and Lethbridge for people with a broad range of physical, mental health, and substance abuse challenges—is trying to stop its staff from unionizing. And according to one employee, they’ve crossed the line into illegal practices: management recently fired a staff member who was part of the union drive.

There is one scandal in Alberta right now that demands all of our attention. It doesn’t have anything to do with sky palaces. Brian Jean isn’t in it. There won’t be a referendum on it. And while the columnists and pundits seem to have all the time in the world for those gaffes and stunts, this issue is getting pushed to the back burner.

I would describe it as Alberta’s most pressing and severe crisis. I would say that every day that passes with things the way they are currently is a cruel, brutal injustice. And outrageously, that opinion probably puts me in the minority.

In 2019,  Jason Kenney said he was going to put 50,000 Albertans back to work with a massive corporate tax cut. In 2020 Jason Kenney said he was going to put 112,400 Albertans back to work with a massive corporate tax cut,  infrastructure spending and by investing in the Keystone XL pipeline. In 2021 Jason Kenney says he’s going put 22,000 Albertans back to work by providing cash to companies and not-for-profits to hire or train unemployed or underemployed workers. 

Given his track record it makes sense to be a little skeptical. 

University of Calgary law professor Martin Olzsynski joins us to discuss the inquiry that never ends. Regardless of whether or not the Allan Inquiry meets its latest deadline the inquiry has been an omnishambles since it started—we break down why as well as what's going to happen with this mess. 

In the homestretch of the 2019 Alberta election Jason Kenney fired a vicious attack at groups on the left who had been a thorn in his side during the race. The UCP put out a press release—following up on a Vivian Krause article in the National Post—that tied together Progress Alberta, Leadnow, the Rockefellers, and various other political enemies of Alberta’s conservative movement in a complicated conspiracy alleged to be hurting Alberta’s economy while “benefiting U.S. interests to the tune of billions,” in the words of Krause.