Our guest Abdul Malik makes the case for why the UCP's new union busting bill is actually good. Plus Duncan follows up on his story about the Ukrainian Nazi collaborator war criminal statue by going down the Ukrainian Nazi collaborator rabbit hole. 

As the cries for defunding the police and investing in community supports grows, police forces are blunting these with their own attempts at reform. Edmonton police are putting video cameras in cars and the Calgary police are expanding use of body cameras. But focusing on cameras is a smoke screen that doesn’t address the systemic racism in how policing works or stop police violence. 

Real heads have known since the passing of Alberta’s anti-union bills 9 (lifting bans on replacement workers and more oversight over bargaining) and 21 (which delayed wage arbitration for public sector unions) that something like Bill 32 was coming. 

Alberta’s about to Make Child Labour Great Again!

If you think this is a breakthrough, you’re probably a fast-food franchise owner.

A brief Jim update. He's still in the hospital. He has responded to treatment but he has also had some setbacks so you get me again for this newsletter. 

A quick thank you to all the lovely folks who sent Jim a message or who donated from the last email as well. We picked up 23 new monthly donors as well as several generous one-time donors Thank you so much. Like a lot of organizations we are concerned about our finances and this goes a long way. 

And if you wanted to become a monthly donor but for whatever reason you didn't get around to it last week here's the link to donate. Even $5 a month goes a long way. 

As statues of Christopher Columbus and Confederate generals are pulled down all over the United States in the aftermath of the uprisings against police brutality and systemic racism, Edmonton, Alberta has its own monuments to deal with. 

The UCP have dramatically changed the rules around municipal elections in Alberta making it easier for conservatives to win and for big money to sway elections. We dissect the rule changes and the upcoming municipal horse races in Edmonton and Calgary with Romy Garrido. 

Hey hey, so this is Duncan here writing this message from Jim’s account. Jim is in the hospital and while he is responding well to treatment for his colitis I think he would definitely appreciate some get-well messages. You can reach him at [email protected] and given all the time he’s spending in a hospital bed Jim is also spending a lot of time on Twitter, so please send him a message on there as well. 

We discuss the the organizing and struggle to end police brutality in Calgary and rural Alberta with comedian, public speaker and organizer Adora Nwofor. 

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.