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.”

For the workers who may soon have to contend with lockouts or a protracted strike, Alberta’s deteriorating labour peace signals a lot of incoming stress. But for the general public frustrated with a UCP government shrugging off all public opposition, it presents an opportunity.

If the UCP government is concerned about the age appropriateness of books in school libraries, then it should ensure school boards have the funding necessary to hire more teacher-librarians, the head of Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) says.

Last week, Minister of Education Demetrios Nicolaides announced that the provincial government will establish stricter guidelines about what books can be in school libraries by September, claiming that a group of concerned parents approached him with a list of “incredibly inappropriate” books they had found in Edmonton and Calgary public schools.