On May 26th, exactly one year after the murder of George Floyd, the ‘thin blue line’ flag flew at the Edmonton Police Association’s headquarters.

Attention across the country has rightly been dominated for several days now by the news that a mass grave with the remains of 215 children was uncovered at the grounds of a former residential school near Kamloops.

Canada’s extreme brutality and injustice towards the FIrst Nations is one of those open secrets everyone knows but not many want to acknowledge. The documentation is all there—not that you should need it. In most cities in Canada all it takes is a walk downtown to see, very obviously, the marginal position that Indigenous people have been forced into in this country. Very few if any figures of authority in Canada are not complicit in the colonial project in some way. But on somber occasions like these, Albertans get the particular dissonance of hearing our official statements of grief and reconciliation come from the right flank of Canada’s conservatives—a political movement that seems to go especially out of its way to be awful about the whole thing.

York University humanities professor Shama Rangwala joins us to dissect and discuss copaganda—everything from Adorno and Althusser to Brooklyn 99 and Falcon and the Winter Soldier as well as some examples from the local media and the local cops. And while we're bringing a critical and educational lens to this pod we need to be clear, this is a no-scold zone. You can still listen to this podcast and enjoy your shows. 

Alberta’s legislative assembly is back in session and the UCP’s brief break from scrutiny in the house is over. One file in particular they’re taking a beating on this week: their plan to scrap and replace Alberta’s school curriculum.

We have the originator of the term maplewashing, podcaster and Jacobin staff writer Luke Savage, on the pod to discuss the way politicians, corporations and the media sanitize and conceal Canada's violent, genocidal past and present by perpetuating the notion that Canada is somehow morally superior to other countries. 

One nice consequence of Jason Kenney losing the anti-masker constituency: at least now he doesn’t have any reason to keep appeasing them.

You could hear a touch of derision in his voice as he held an unusual ‘myth-busting’ variation of the usual COVID update on Monday. No, he said, COVID isn’t just in the cities, almost seeming to strain to not add you idiots at the end. No, he said, PCR tests actually work and are not a scam. No, it isn’t safe for young people to get COVID. Yes, there is an actual risk of ICUs being overwhelmed (as I’m writing this, there are only four available ICU beds in the entire province.)

You’ve seen the car, whether it’s in person or on the net. It’s hard to miss. The massive wheels, bright paint job, and the words “Free Palestine” in giant text on the side of it. It’s one of the most viral and talked about vehicles on Earth and so we tracked down Ayman Rayan, the creator of the “Free Palestine” car.

Enforcement against the anti-maskers seems to have finally kicked off, as over the past week several prominent figures in the movement have successfully taunted authorities into taking action. 

Two organizers of the Bowden ‘anti-lockdown’ rally, which drew hundreds the weekend of May 1, have been charged with breaking the Health Act. Chris Scott, the owner of the Whistle Stop Cafe in Mirror, was arrested after his latest anti-mask protest event, and many attendees were ticked. Down in Calgary, street preacher and far-right organizer Artur Pawlowski and his brother were arrested on Sunday.

Every day for the past 14 months independent journalist Nora Loreto has tallied up COVID deaths in residential care. We chat with Nora about her incredibly valuable but unpaid journalism, the long-term care disaster and the state of Canadian media. Don't miss it. 

Will the Alberta government bring in stricter pandemic measures today? That was the assurance of Premier Jason Kenney yesterday, in a long, rambling, confusing afternoon press conference.