The COVID-19 pandemic is out of control in Alberta and it’s in our hospitals where the effects are being felt the most. 

That headline is not hyperbole, a Calgary Police officer sued to try and stop the documentary No Visible Trauma from being screened. Thankfully the filmmakers won and we have Marc Serpa Francouer and Robinder Uppal on to talk about their case as well as their documentary that examines several cases of police brutality and explores just how broken of an institution the Calgary Police Service really is. 

Alberta is careening towards a Christmas lockdown as our COVID-19 rates, already the worst in the country, surge exponentially. But over the last week Premier Kenney and his cabinet appear more concerned with polling and shoring up the support of their base than doing anything to pull us away from this disaster.

Recently disclosed public documents show the Government of Alberta gave the NHL $4 million dollars in a sole-source contract between July 31, 2020 and October 1, 2020 in order to “promote investment in Alberta to provincial, national and international audiences through a unique partnership opportunity with the NHL.” But no public statement from Premier Jason Kenney or the Alberta government has made mention of the $4 million dollar payment.

Sandra Azocar, the executive director of Friends of Medicare, joins us to analyze and breakdown Jason Kenney's new COVID restrictions as well as a recently passed bill that allows private, for-profit plasma farming operations to be set up in Alberta. 

Alberta will do only the bare minimum on COVID, says premier

You can’t have your grandma over to visit, under the new pandemic restrictions announced by the UCP government yesterday--but you can still take her to the casino.

It’s one of the many contradictions in the strange, piecemeal set of rules laid out by the Premier and Health Minister Tyler Shandro yesterday.

From firebrand student politician to city hall’s resident skeptic--and from anonymous rabble-rouser to very public rabble-rouser--Councillor Mike Nickel's story is a strange one. Now once again the Ward 11 councillor's ambitions seem to be in a position he has chased before: the mayor's seat. 

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 

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.

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.