Guy Kerr cannot be blamed for the tragic wrong turn the Alberta Workers Compensation Board took nearly 30 years ago under the Conservative governments of premiers Don Getty and Ralph Klein. Under those premiers, Alberta’s effective workers’ compensation system was subverted and undermined. The victims have been injured workers. By
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Alberta Politics: Today’s Day of Mourning pieties aside, Alberta workplace injuries are vastly underreported
Today is the International Day of Mourning. Who we mourn are the untold, uncounted numbers of women, men and children who have been killed, injured, disabled or sickened while doing their work. The occasion is mostly marked with modestly unobtrusive ceremonies where organized working people gather – union halls, lunchrooms,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Bill 30, Alberta NDP’s workplace safety and Workers Compensation legislation, steps bravely into 21st Century
PHOTOS: Alberta Labour Minister Christina Gray, in a shot taken by the author at last summer’s Premier’s Pancake Breakfast on the Legislature grounds. In the background, media camera crews mob Premier Rachel Notley as she flips pancakes on the griddle. Below: UCP leader Jason Kenney and Joe McCarthy, some guy
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Report calling for big changes to Workers Compensation in Alberta is a step toward ending WCB’s ‘culture of denial’
PHOTOS: Alberta Labour Minister Christina Gray. Below: Alberta Workers Compensation Board CEO Guy Kerr and the members of the WCB Panel, labour relations consultant Mia Norrie, labour lawyer John Carpenter, and Covenant Health labour relations consultant Pemme Cunliffe. Perhaps the two most symbolically important and potentially beneficial changes to Alberta’s
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Opposition parties strangely quiet as Alberta Finance Minister stops the ABC Sector gravy train
PHOTOS: Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci considers a reporter’s question during Friday’s news conference (screenshot). Below: Alberta Workers Compensation Board CEO Guy Kerr and Alberta Energy Regulator CEO Jim Ellis. Being a conservative in opposition apparently turns what your Mama taught you on its head: If you can’t say anything
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Even some farm leaders admit the Alberta NDP’s notorious Bill 6 is an improvement
PHOTOS: Agriculture Minister Oneil Carlier as he walked through an anti-NDP demonstration in front of the Alberta Legislature shortly before the passage of Bill 6 in December 2015. Below: NDP Labour Minister Christina Gray, Alberta Federation of Agriculture President Lynn Jacobson and Wildrose Agriculture Critic Dave Schneider. The New Democratic
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Insightful Parkland Institute study of how media covers workplace injuries helps put yesterday’s tragedy in perspective
PHOTO: An Alberta Occupational Health and Safety officer on the job. (Government of Alberta illustration.) Below: Athabasca University labour relations professors Bob Barnetson and Jason Foster, authors of a new study on how media coverage distorts our…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Never mind the ‘Fuddites,’ Alberta needs Bill 6, although Bill 6 needs fixes
PHOTOS: NDP Labour Minister Lori Sigurdson chats with anti-Bill-6 protesters in front of the Legislature on Friday. Below: The crowd of protesters at its zenith and members of the Legislative Press Gallery interviewing a turkey, not for the first time,…
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Alberta Workers Compensation Board poised to give back more than $500 million to employers
Alberta Workers Compensation Board officials ready shipments of money to send back to employers. Actual WBC staff may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Labour Minister Thomas Lukaszuk and now-official Tory leadership candidate Ric McIver, who gave up the K in his first name for the benefit of all Albertans.
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