The UCP trotted out four Calgary-based cabinet ministers to announce the creation of the Edmonton Public Safety and Community Response Task Force on Dec. 13. While its goal is ostensibly to improve things the UCP have made worse concerning houselessness, addiction and public safety, this announcement centered the police and their value as “the pointy end of the stick” in directing unhoused substance users to the correct services. 

University of Calgary law professor Martin Olszysnki joins Duncan Kinney to discuss the recently passed Alberta Sovereignty Act and its corrosive effects on democracy, the rule of law and the treaties.  

Danielle Smith and the UCP rammed their Alberta Sovereignty within a United Canada Act through the Legislature at 1 AM on Thursday morning. Once again Danielle Smith is doing her part to undermine the rule of law and break our democratic institutions. 

The UCP government has introduced legislation that if passed will update the Police Act, create a new independent oversight body to investigate complaints against police officers, and concentrate power and control of municipal policing in the hands of the provincial government. 

A long-running police misconduct complaint against Const. Wayne Paesch concluded on Nov. 4, 2022 when he pleaded guilty to two counts of neglect of duty and one count of discreditable conduct under the Police Act. The fourth charge, unlawful or unnecessary exercise of authority, was dropped. Const. Paesch received a suspension without pay of 80 hours to be served in five hour increments per pay period. 

The fall legislative season—Danielle Smith’s season—has kicked off, and the field’s already a mess.

Most critical attention right now is on the Premier’s Alberta Sovereignty within a United Canada Act and for good reason. The first draft of this law is absolutely wild.

What the UCP says this bill does is protect you from Ottawa. What the NDP says this bill does is threaten Alberta’s democracy and economy.

Our publication schedule for the Progress Report newsletter got nuked by my medical problems last month, so we’ve got a lot to catch up on. Let’s get right to it with the big news from Thursday afternoon: Danielle Smith has fired the entire board of directors of Alberta Health Services.

On multiple occasions Danielle Smith lobbied energy minister Sonya Savage on ‘RStar,’ a scheme one critic called “sheer robbery” But RStar wasn’t her only pitch: Smith was lobbying the government on dozens of files.

Publicly available documents show that before becoming Premier, Danielle Smith submitted an application to open a charter school and lobbied the government to approve it.

It’s been nearly a year since the Edmonton Police got their new armoured vehicle hung up on an ornamental crab apple tree stump in Candas Dorsey’s yard after an incident with an intruder. We checked in with Dorsey to find out about the aftermath of this now infamous incident.