When is a person old enough to know better? I ask because Danielle Smith was 50 when she said 75% of the public who took the covid vaccine would support a tyrant like Hitler. She also said she wasn’t wearing a poppy because the politicians “ruined it for me this
Continue readingTag: Crime and Justice
Susan on the Soapbox: Gondek, Notley and Smith: An important conversation
Last week Calgary Economic Development presented its Report to the Community. The highlight of the event was Mayor Jyoti Gondek’s conversations with Rachel Notley and Danielle Smith. Gondek asked each leader 4 pre-set questions and 2 questions from the audience. She talked with Notley first and Smith second. It was
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Hiding From the Fourth Estate
Last week Danielle Smith announced her new “one question, no follow up” rule for journalists asking questions at her press conferences. She said the “one question” rule would apply to everything, not just the ethics commissioner’s investigation into whether Smith interfered with the administration of justice in her 11
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Smith’s 11 Minute Phone Call with the Pastor
“That’s an astounding thing to say from the Premier of the province.” – Law prof Eric Adams On May 29 Danielle Smith issued a press statement to pre-empt a CBC story about a conversation she had with street-pastor Artur Pawlowski. People thought she was bracing for renewed accusations that she
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: The UCP Government Responds to Justice Paul Rouleau’s Report on the Emergencies Act
On Friday Justice Paul Rouleau released his report of the inquiry into the Trudeau government’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Act in response to the convoy protests in Ottawa and elsewhere in Canada. Rouleau determined the Feds’ decision met the “very high threshold” necessary to invoke the Act. The Alberta
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: The RStar Debacle (Who’s going to clean up this mess?)
“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” — opening scene, Star Wars The first thing I thought of when I heard the word RStar was the opening sequence in the first Star Wars movie: yellow letters scroll up the screen and the audience learns about the
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Woke? What?
Woke (/ˈwoʊk/ WOHK): adjective: aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice)—Merriam-Webster I don’t read publications like the Western Standard or the Dorchester Review as a rule but thanks to the imbroglio over Law Society Rule 67.4, I made an
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: “Too Many Gotchas”
“Nothing to see here, move along.” – Movie trope Last week the CBC published a story saying that a staffer in Danielle Smith’s office sent a series of emails to Crown prosecutors challenging their assessment and direction on criminal cases arising from the Coutts border blockades and protests. You remember
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Political Interference in the Administration of Justice (Again!)
“What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.”—Proverb, originated 1562 Did you catch all that? Premier Smith has been all over the airwaves saying that regardless of what it looks like she wasn’t trying to interfere with the administration of justice. On Thursday Jan 12 in a discussion
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: When the UCP Government Ran Amok
“There is no room for the unilateral assumption of authority in a constitutional democracy.” – Nigel Bankes, U of C emeritus professor of law, on the government’s decision to rescind masking in schools. Last week an Alberta court ruled that the Chief Medical Officer of Health’s Order rescinding masking in
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Jason Kenney’s “Breaking Bad” Press Release
Last week, the feds granted BC a 3-year exemption from the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act decriminalizing the possession of up to 2.5 grams of certain illegal drugs for personal use. Judging by Jason Kenney’s response, you’d think Breaking Bad had set up shop next door. Leaving aside Kenney’s hypocritical
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: A Traffic Ticket and a Phone Call
On Feb 25, 2022, Premier Kenney issued a misleading press release setting out his rationale for a Cabinet shuffle. Two cabinet ministers, who should have been (back) benched a long time ago, will swap ministries. Kaycee Madu will “step aside” from his role as Minister of Justice and Solicitor
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Jason Kenney Reacts to the Emergencies Act
“We needed to see it to believe it.”—Ottawa resident talking about police clearing out Ottawa’s downtown core after 22 days of occupation. Our trust in government was at such an all-time low that when the Federal government invoked the Emergencies Act, many of us didn’t believe the police would enforce
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Quick comment on the Illegal Occupation & Blockades
Ms Soapbox is under the weather, as such there will be no blog post today. I expect to be fully functional next week, at least physically. It will take longer than that to restore my mental equilibrium given the ongoing mismanagement of the occupation of Ottawa, the blockade at Coutts,
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Kenney Condemns (sort of) the Actions of the Freedom Convoy
I didn’t want to write about the Freedom Convoy, aka the yahoos who converged on Ottawa to protest the federal government’s truckers vaccine mandate (and everything else covid related) and created a blockade around Edmonton’s Legislative buildings and blocked the international border at Coutts. These bone heads don’t deserve any
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: The Allan Report: Foreign Funding of Anti-Alberta Energy Campaigns
First, we had Steve Allan’s Report on the (not so public) public inquiry’s findings with respect to the role of foreign funding into Anti-Alberta Energy Campaigns. Then we had the Kenney government’s press release which said the Allan Report confirmed “hundreds of millions of foreign dollars were used to block
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: On Liberty and Alberta’s Covid Crisis
This is for the woman who yelled “Do you feel safer now?” when my daughter stepped off the sidewalk to give the woman and her rambunctious dog room to pass. Do you feel safer now? My daughter stepped off the curb to give the woman and her dog some space.
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: The Marieval Residential School
This weekend Ms Soapbox was going to write a breezy little blog saying she was taking the summer off. She was going to wish everyone a safe and pleasant summer and ask them to check back here on September 5, 2021, to resume the battle of trying to stay ahead
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Kenney and the Autocrat’s Handbook
The Alberta Legislature ended the 2021 Spring Session on a particularly disturbing note. Members of the Opposition asked Jason Kenney to apologize for his role in pushing the niqab ban, a policy that contributed to growing Islamophobia, while he was a federal cabinet minister. Instead of an apology, Kenney stood
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Fighting Racism in Kenney’s Alberta
Sometimes it pays to sit through a 53 minute 42 second Kenney press conference because something unexpected will happen at the very end. In this case it happened at the 46:24 mark. Last week in the wake of the horrific attack on the Afzaal family in London, premier Kenney and
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