It’s a true Canada Day political mystery! What happened between 9:03 a.m. and 1:02 p.m. that dramatically changed Jason Kenney’s holiday message? Alberta Premier Jason Kenney (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). At 9:03 a.m. yesterday, a minion on the Alberta premier’s staff sent the media the sort of Canada Day Message
Continue readingTag: Canadian Politics
Alberta Politics: Happy Canada Day! Or, as the UCP would have it in some corners of rural Alberta, Grumpy Dominion Day
Happy Canada Day! Alberta is the only place in Canada, I’d wager, where someone who was barely out of diapers when our country’s national holiday was renamed Canada Day would make the point they really think it oughtta still be Dominion Day. But these are strange times and Wild Rose
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Kenney’s controversial speechwriter listed as CEO of federal Conservatives’ Edmonton Strathcona constituency association
Given the uproar over an article widely perceived as expressing racist sentiments by Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s speechwriter, it will be interesting to see how the Conservative Party of Canada reacts to the fact Paul Bunner is also chief executive of its Edmonton Strathcona constituency association. As of the close
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Meng Wanzhou, Huawei and Canadian Law
Huawei booth at the Mobile World Congress 2015 Barcelona. Photo by Kārlis Dambrāns/Flickr. One of the graver risks for big-time criminals is that investigators will be able to identify them and their deeds by ‘following the money’. The criminals have to hide the proceeds of their crimes. This is done
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Time to Fundamentally Reassess Canadian Foreign Policy
Members of the Lima Group meet at the G20 summit in Osaka to discuss next steps towards an “urgent and peaceful resolution” to the crisis in Venezuela. Photo from Twitter. Below is an open letter published by the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute, calling for a fundamental reassessment of Canadian foreign
Continue readingAlberta Politics: It seems Alberta’s inquiry hasn’t found any foreign-funded anti-energy campaigns yet, but it’ll keep looking!
I’m sorry to have to report, Alberta, that the inquiry into foreign-funded campaigns targeting Alberta’s oil and gas industry apparently hasn’t found any foreign-funded campaigns targeting Alberta’s oil and gas industry. Don’t worry, though, they’re pretty sure that if they keep looking they can find something. Energy Minister Soya Savage
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Referenda are ‘a device for dictators and demagogues’ — but never mind about that, Alberta, or who said it …
Referenda, British prime minister Margaret Thatcher once observed, “are a device for dictators and demagogues.” I mention this in light of of Alberta’s new referendum legislation — Bill 26, the Constitutional Referendum Amendment Act — which our province’s United Conservative Party Government introduced yesterday. Clement Attlee, Labour Prime Minister from
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Trudeau should withdraw from the Lima Group, rescind sanctions on Venezuela
President Maduro among other Latin American leaders participating in a 2017 ALBA (Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America) gathering. Photo from Wikimedia Commons. On June 17, the Trudeau government suffered a humiliating defeat by losing its bid for a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) seat to Ireland and
Continue readingAlberta Politics: State-supported academic research in Alberta should be about more than Making Oil & Gas Great Again
As Alberta launches its 10-year plan for “transformational change” in post-secondary education, a new study suggests the province’s universities and the government agencies that fund them are helping to prolong the worst aspects of the fossil fuel era. Alas, by trying to make oil and gas great again when there’s
Continue readingAlberta 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
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The federal Conservative leadership race takes a turn both sinister and juvenile
Probably the last thing the Conservative Party of Canada needs right now is a side battle over allegations of dirty tricks and data theft between the campaigns of the two leading candidates in an already uninspiring leadership race. I mean, it’s not as if frontrunners Peter MacKay or Erin O’Toole
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Feed children instead of training them for war
Canadian Army Cadets march in a parade. Photo from Cadets.ca. In Canada’s capital, children whose families cannot afford internet access at home camp out in their school’s parking lot to attend class. An internet connection has become a necessity for work and school but Canadians do not have universal internet
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: International community rejects Canada’s bid for a seat on UN Security Council
June 17, 2020 – Canada lost its high-profile bid for one of the rotating seats on the United Nations Security Council. A total of 128 votes were needed to secure a two-thirds majority. Norway secured 130 votes while Ireland got 128. Canada received just 108 votes. The international community’s rejection
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: More Than 900 Scholars and Lawyers Call on Government to Defund Police
Riot police at the G-20 Summit, Toronto, June 26, 2010. Photo from Wikimedia Commons. In light of ongoing police violence against Black, Indigenous and racialized people in Canada and around the world, a group of scholars from various Canadian universities have collectively penned an open letter to all levels of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Corrupt language corrupts minds: Police are civilians, under control of civilians
One of the bees in my bonnet has long been the misuse of the term civilian to describe people who are not sworn police officers. I wrote the post below almost a decade ago — as the startling appearance of the then-sitting prime minister in the text as if he
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: ‘Policing Black Lives’ author on confronting Canada’s historical amnesia, Black expendability, and the path forward
Justice For Regis – Not Another Black Life rally and march in Toronto, May 30, 2020. Photo by Jason Hargrove/Flickr. The murder of 46 year-old George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department has become a watershed moment in American history. At the time of writing, protests against
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Despite COVID-19, 15,000 people join Fight for Equity rally against racism at Alberta Legislature
A mostly youthful throng estimated at more than 15,000 people braved the coronavirus pandemic yesterday evening to join the Fight for Equity rally against racism at the Alberta Legislature in Edmonton. The rally was organized in response the public murder of George Floyd, an African American man, at the hands
Continue readingAlberta Politics: No need to lose much sleep over yesterday’s firearms ownership announcement by the UCP
If you’re worried by the announcement Alberta Premier Jason Kenney is seeking ways of “respecting law-abiding Albertans’ long history of responsible firearms ownership,” there’s no need to lose much sleep just yet. The premier’s press conference and news release about how he’s setting up a panel of firearms enthusiasts to
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: ‘Carceral systems won’t solve crime’: An interview on theft, policing, and disability justice
A cyclist talks to a Winnipeg Police Service officer. Photo by Dave Shaver/Flickr. Allen Mankewich is a disabled resident of downtown Winnipeg. His handcycle was stolen in May. Although he filed a police report about the theft, Mankewich was hesitant to further involve the police. He also turned down several
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