Alberta Politics: Something for Doug Ford to remember: Once in a while when you pull the cork from a bottle a genie pops out!

The Conservative movement’s vast army of online trolls has been strangely silent about the right of poorly paid Ontario education workers to negotiate a decent salary for themselves. Ontario Premier Doug Ford, encountering a stiff breeze (Photo: Premier of Ontario Photography/Flickr). Funny that, Conservatives being such lovers of Canadian rights

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Alberta Politics: On the 40th anniversary of proclamation of the Constitution Act, Conservative distrust of the Charter still runs deep

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the signing of the proclamation of the Constitution Act, 1982 – including, importantly, our Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  The English-language version of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Image: Government of Canada). Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau

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Alberta Politics: 10 months in the life of Jason Kenney: from bitter foe of illegal protests to fierce defender of protesters’ rights, or something

What a difference a year makes!  Not even a year: Ten months in the life of Jason Kenney.  Alberta Premier Jason Kenney (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). Ten months ago, blockades in support of opposition by members of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation to pipeline construction on ancestral lands in north-central British

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Alberta Politics: Apparently desperate, health minister tells College of Physicians and Surgeons it can’t let doctors quit

Tyler Shandro’s on fire! Not in a good way, though. There was a strong signal yesterday that Alberta’s health minister has completely lost control of the fight he’s picked with the province’s physicians. Yesterday’s AMA newspaper advertisement (Image: Alberta Medical Association). It turns out that while the minister and the

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Alberta Politics: Alberta Union of Provincial Employees goes to court to challenge UCP law that criminalizes public protest

It was inevitable that sooner or later someone would challenge the United Conservative Party Government’s so-called Critical Infrastructure Defence Act, which appears on its face to include patently unconstitutional attacks on fundamental rights protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In the event, the challenge was sooner and

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Alberta Politics: Unconstitutional anyone? If Lieutenant Governor Lois Mitchell is doing her job, she’ll refuse to sign Bill 1 into law

Bill 1 is a breathtakingly terrible piece of legislation. The bill, given first reading in the Alberta Legislature on Tuesday, is called the Critical Infrastructure Defence Act. Edmonton lawyer Simon Renouf (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). Just for starters, in case you missed it, Bill 1 appears to be intended to

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Alberta Politics: Shut down your ‘anti-Alberta campaigns’ inquiry or the courts will shut it for you, tiny group warns Alberta government

OTTAWA – Well, one thing’s already clear, there’s no way the mighty Kenney Government will shut down its so-called inquiry into “anti-Alberta energy campaigns” on the say so of Progress Alberta, a small Edmonton-based research and activist organization. That said, the day may come when the government’s leaders wish they

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Alberta Politics: The ‘most pro-life Legislature in decades’ gets ready to make its first move to restrict reproductive rights

Does anyone recall when Cameron Wilson, political action director of the “Wilberforce Project,” previously known as Pro-Life Alberta, bragged that “if the UCP wins the upcoming election, then we will have the most pro-life Legislature in decades, and maybe ever”? That was only in February this year, a century or

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