Bicycling has always had a bad rap it seems, accruing devoted haters from the get-go. In the late 19th-century women cyclists were warned they’d develop “bicycle face” and the greater social mobility these contraptions afforded them had some worried that gender lines were being blurred. Medical journals raised fears of reproductive damage, deformations, mental illness—even “homicidal lunacy.”

Speed and danger to pedestrians (and horses) were also early concerns. Safety is no small issue—73 per cent of cyclist fatalities are caused by motor vehicle collisions. Failure to respect road safety rules can be deadly for cyclists, pedestrians, and motorists alike. However, stats show that in areas where cycling is more prevalent—including dedicated cycling infrastructure—collision and fatality rates drop substantially.

But the dialogue has shifted. These days it seems that bicycles are often viewed as being in competition with motorized vehicles as they tend to share the same infrastructure. Rather than being understood as a method of lowering vehicle congestion, bikes are being blamed for making the situation worse. 

There’s no political event in Alberta more quintessential than Stampede, and I don’t mean that as a compliment.

When the American vaudevillian entertainer Guy Weadick first cooked the idea up in 1912, Alberta’s ranching industry was already largely out the door. As several essays explain in Lewis Thomas’s Rancher’s Legacy, advances in mechanized farming coupled with a brutal 1906-1907 winter had already pushed ranching into steep decline, and agricultural land in the province was increasingly being used for wheat, not cattle.

A year before employees at two downtown Edmonton mental health clinics were pressured into transferring their patients’ prescriptions to Shoppers Drug Mart, Alberta Health Services (AHS) signed a contract to embed Shoppers within a northeast Edmonton addictions recovery facility, according to documents obtained through FOIP. 

A former employee of Henwood Treatment Centre told the Progress Report that the presence of an on-site pharmacy created pressure to accept more in-patients than before, compromising their quality of care, and redundantly fill patients’ prescriptions that they had brought with them before entering treatment. 

Edmonton Ward Papastew councillor Michael Janz joins us on the pod to talk about Edmonton's upcoming municipal election.

Edmonton city councillor Michael Janz launched his re-election campaign for Ward papastew on Friday, speaking to a crowd of about 150 supporters at the University of Alberta’s student union-owned pub, the Room At The Top.

Janz told the crowd that the event marked a full-circle moment, returning to the same room where some of his earliest political work occurred.

Stephen Magusiak from Press Progress joins us on this week's Progress Report podcast to take a look at this week's G7 conference from the local perspective. Who was organizing, who was protesting, and were they successful? And what was up with the media coverage? The fellas dig into it.

A student graduating from MacEwan University in Edmonton says she was barred from her June 17 convocation ceremony as retribution for her pro-Palestine activism. 

Eve Aboualy, who’s graduating with a major in psychology and minor in sociology, told the Progress Report that rather than engage with student demands to disclose MacEwan’s investments and divest from those implicated in Israeli human rights abuses, university administration is targeting the student advocates for reprisal.

“They're trying to topple our movement at McEwen University, trying to take out the individuals who are advocating for just disclosure and divestment, very simple asks,” said Aboualy, who is a founding member of MacEwan’s Palestinian Students Alliance (PSA). 

Ten years ago, Jim Prentice argued that Albertans weren’t paying enough in taxes to maintain quality health-care services and pitched a return of the wickedly unpopular health-care levy right before an election. Alberta had a health-care levy right up until 2009 and it was broadly hated; Jim’s reprise was a bit gentler and a hair more progressive than the old version, but that didn’t save him.

What happened next is common knowledge: Prentice got thoroughly cooked in the 2015 election, the Alberta NDP got their first taste of power, and the Progressive Conservatives rapidly degenerated into the UCP.

Well, here we are ten years later, and Danielle Smith has figured out how to get away with it.

This episode, Jim and Jeremy speak with participants in an ongoing 40-day fast for Gaza about the present situation in Palestine, organizing back here in Edmonton, and the difficult task of grappling with power from a disempowered position.

The Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) has received an overwhelming strike mandate of 95 per cent from its membership, but it’s unclear if or when teachers will proceed with job action. 

ATA president Jason Schilling announced the results of the vote, which occurred from June 5 to 8 with a turnout of 76 per cent, in an online Tuesday afternoon news conference. 

Schilling said that teachers’ strong strike mandate sends “an unmistakable message.”