The next chief of Alberta’s human rights commission, Collin May, wrote “Islam is not a peaceful religion misused by radicals. Rather, it is one of the most militaristic religions known to man,” among several other questionable remarks in his glowing 2009 review of Islamic Imperialism: A History by British-Israeli historian Efraim Karsh in C2C Journal. 

Alberta’s coffers are suddenly overflowing. Thanks to a few matters out of the control of anyone around here (the Russians invading Ukraine, mostly) the price of oil has been flying higher and higher since about February. And that’s changing the agenda for next year’s election dramatically.

The price of a barrel of Western Canada Select is higher now than it was before the precipitous collapse at the end of 2014. In fact, if I’m reading these charts correctly, Alberta oil has only once ever been worth more, during the brief spike in 2008—and for all we know it could get there again soon.

A proposed rail project between Calgary and Banff—whose backing by the Invest Alberta Corporation critics described as “a layer cake of conflicts of interest”—is unlikely to get financial support from the provincial government, according to sources contacted by the Progress Report. 

Host Duncan Kinney sits down with Dr. Jamie Livingston of Saint Mary's University to discuss why UCP's wrongheaded approach to centering police in mental health care and addictions and why we need well-funded, community led, civilian-led, unarmed mental health crisis response programs yesterday. 

The exact salary of Calgary’s chief of police is being kept secret in order to protect his privacy despite the fact that every other major Canadian city discloses the salary of its chief of police. 

Rob Houle joins host Duncan Kinney to discuss a month of police politics that saw the police and their business and UCP allies got everything they wanted with the police budget even if it took the likely withholding of vital facts about the Chinatown murders to get it.  

Jason Kenney’s interregnum continues to get weirder: over the weekend Kenney was doing online victory laps about one of the world’s largest crypto companies coming to Calgary.

Edmonton Police Chief Dale McFee has changed the Edmonton Police’s story about its contact with Justin Bone, the accused murderer of Hung Trang and Ban Phuc Hoang, in a way which absolves the Edmonton Police Service’s responsibility for the incident. However, new reporting from the CBC directly contradicts McFee's claims that Edmonton Police Service officers couldn't have picked Bone up for violating his bail conditions prior to the Chinatown murders. 

Never before have I written a preview of an Edmonton Police Commission meeting but we live in extraordinary times. 

Weeks of acrimonious debate around public disorder and the policing budget have come to a temporary conclusion in Edmonton, and the winners—to the tune of at least $22 million—are the UCP, the Edmonton Police Service, and the local business lobby.

At issue have been two sources of funding: a funding formula introduced during the Iveson years, and a pot of money derived from the city’s photo radar fines.