POD: Dr. Hinshaw has sweeping powers to stop COVID-19 and she isn't using them
University of Calgary law professor Lorian Hardcastle joins us to talk about her controversial piece on Dr. Hinshaw and why she needs to exercise her powers to stop the death and destruction that COVID is wreaking. We also talk about what the government of Alberta needs to do get this disaster under control
Read moreThe Next 30 is a joke, but don't count them out
On November 12th, The Next 30 launched, professing to be a grassroots platform that will “engage in discussions with citizens about values that unite us and ideas and policies to build our shared future.” If this sounds vague and toothless, it’s because it is. This is a project led by a cadre of centrist professionals who, for all their professional success, understand their increasing irrelevance as political actors in this province. It’s easy to dismiss, and many have, but don’t count them out. The Next 30 bears the hallmarks of other projects that have proven to be harmful to the left.
Read moreLocals stepped in when the UCP took Lethbridge's SCS away. But now police and the city are pressuring them to stop
Two months ago, Lethbridge citizens got together to figure out how respond to the UCP’s recent closure of the local supervised consumption site (SCS). The SCS had been the busiest consumption site in Canada (possibly North America) and provided comprehensive consumption services, as well as 16 other health care and outreach services. Locals stepped up to provide what had been taken away. But now the Lethbridge police and city administration are trying to shut that down.
Read moreContact tracing is broken and it’s the canary in the coal mine
Contact tracing is broken.
Dr. Hinshaw told us on November 5th that contact tracers would now only be contacting people in “high priority settings.” Only the close contacts of health care workers, minors, and individuals who live or work within communal facilities (like long term care homes) would be notified that they had been exposed to COVID-19 and that they should self-quarantine. People sick with COVID in a non-priority setting were now expected to now do all of this on their own.
Read morePOD: Alberta – This is fine
Dave Cournoyer of Daveberta fame joins us to discuss Alberta's multiple overlapping crises. We talk COVID-19, Jason Kenney's $1.7 billion dollar whoopsie, conservative connected law firms making bank and how the smart money is on Joe Biden cancelling the Keystone XL pipeline.
Read moreOpen Letter to the Hope Mission from Shades of Colour
Originally published on the Shades of Colour Instagram account. Republished with permission.
Read moreThe latest UCP anti-labour bill means a crueler world for sick and injured workers and even more power for the boss
The UCP’s latest anti-worker legislation, the Orwellian-named Ensuring Safety and Cutting Red Tape Act (otherwise known as BIll 47), is another attempt by the UCP to roll Alberta back a couple decades when it comes to workers rights.
These changes reduce costs for employers on the backs of workers, transfer even more power to the boss and will see workers face an even crueler world if they get sick or injured on the job. When Albertans get up in the morning to go to work they expect to come home safe and healthy. For some workers that isn’t the reality. Here are the biggest changes to Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) and the Workers Compensation Board (WCB) in this legislation that will affect you in your day to day work life.
Read moreKenney bet big on Trump and KXL – but Biden won
Six months ago president-elect Joe Biden said "I've been against Keystone from the beginning. It is tarsands that we don't need — that in fact is very, very high pollutant."
Joe Biden has been clear: he’s going to kill this project. He was always going to kill this project. Yet even when it was brutally obvious that Biden would be America’s next president, Premier Kenney kept betting the farm on Keystone XL.
Read moreThe poppy is over. Remembrance Day is not.
Every year the poppy is at the centre of a cyclical, empty, culture war debate. Last year, it was Don Cherry. This year, it’s Whole Foods.
Read moreJason Kenney's $1.6 billion whoopsie
It’s been a wild week for political news. Now that the big distraction to our south is (mostly) out of the way, let me catch you up on what’s been happening locally.
The Auditor General released the latest audit of Alberta’s books and wow, is it brutal. The AG found over $1.6 billion of accounting screw-ups under the UCP, a nearly unprecedented level of book-fudging.
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