I’m sure the United Conservative Party will say I’m wrong, so can somebody please explain to me how the UCP’s rural crime “task force” proposal to let rural property owners defend themselves and their property with firearms is not the same as the stand-your-ground” laws in the United States that
Continue readingTag: Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Alberta Politics: Is rural crime actually getting worse in Alberta? What we know and what we don’t
PHOTOS: Unlike these guys, real RCMP officers cost money to train, pay and outfit. When he promised many more of them to rural Alberta, Jason Kenney didn’t explain how he proposes to pay the freight. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons.) Below: Mr. Kenney and Postmedia political columnists Don Braid, Rick Bell and
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Go figure! St. Albert report claims city will need 10 more cops because marijuana will soon be legal!
PHOTOS: St. Albert’s iconic City Hall. Below: St. Albert Mayor Cathy Heron, City Councillor Ken MacKay, anti-smoking lobbyist Les Hagen, and former mayor Nolan Crouse. ST. ALBERTA, Alberta An arresting news story in a community newspaper on Saturday claimed Ottawa’s plan to legalize marijuana this summer will result in more
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Saskatchewan’s War on Licence Plates: Is Brad just mad because he’s been upstaged by a woman, and an NDP woman at that?
PHOTOS: No press releases about Texas plates? Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall didn’t used to have a problem with out-of-province tags on work trucks, at least when they were being used to undermine publicly owned Crown corporations, as this photo posted on social media by Saskatchewan Federation of Labour President Larry
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Congrats to Commanding Officer Butterworth-Carr
It’s always encouraging to see a woman get a top job, and encouraging also to see a Native person get a top job. With Brenda Butterworth-Carr we get two for one. Ms. Butterworth-Carr, from the Tr’ondek Hwech’in Han Nation in Yukon, has been appointed Commanding Officer for the RCMP in
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Congrats to Commanding Officer Butterworth-Carr
It’s always encouraging to see a woman get a top job, and encouraging also to see a Native person get a top job. With Brenda Butterworth-Carr we get two for one. Ms. Butterworth-Carr, from the Tr’ondek Hwech’in Han Nation in Yukon, has been appointed Commanding Officer for the RCMP in
Continue readingAlberta Politics: RCMP explanation of why Nigel Wright was never charged doesn’t quite pass sniff test
PHOTOS: Sen. Mike Duffy arrives at the courthouse for the final day of his trial in April 2016 in this screenshot. A couple of hours later he would look considerably happier. Below: Nigel Wright, Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper’s chief of staff at the time of the events for which
Continue readingAlberta Politics: RCMP turn a blind eye to abandoned firearms in Fort Mac – manna to the gun lobby but a worry to the rest of us
PHOTO: RCMP officers like these in High River during the flooding to 2013 were subjected to a vicious campaign of vilification by some Alberta gun enthusiasts for seizing abandoned weapons in the Southern Alberta town (CBC photo). QUEBEC CITY We know f…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Questions without answers: Why are our U.S. allies so ambivalent about ISIS, and what does it mean for Canada?
PHOTOS: U.S. State Department spokesperson Mark Toner. (Screen grab from C-SPAN.) Below: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Conservative interim Opposition Leader Rona Ambrose and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. For all we know, Syrian President Bashar a…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Big Tobacco’s doubtful claim high taxes encourage cigarette smuggling finds support on Alberta’s Wildrose benches
PHOTOS: Young cigarette smokers in 1910. The tobacco industry and its friends on the Opposition benches think high tobacco taxes are a problem. Below: Wildrose Party Finance Critic Derek Fildebrandt, an advocate of this view; NDP Finance Minister Joe C…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Death threats and vile misogynist commentary about NDP politicians infest Alberta social media
PHOTOS: An organizer of a rally by the group Albertans Against the NDP, addresses a couple of dozen supporters in Calgary last Saturday. The horses are public art and were not technically part of the rally. Until recently, the group’s home page featured violent and offensive commentary about the Alberta
Continue readingAlberta Politics: ‘Event logisticians’? Give us a break! They’re bouncers! What’s that tell you about the Tories?
PHOTOS: Prime Minister Stephen Harper meets a group of foreign event logistics consultants while travelling abroad (Government of Canada photo). Below: Pierre Trudeau does suppressed fury the right way; Mr. Harper does it with considerably less appeal. Clearly, the continuing uproar about Stephen Harper’s “event logistics team members” tells us
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: RCMP planning mass arrests of indigenous Unist’ot’en activists under Bill C-51: Reports
Canadian rights defenders are warning that the RCMP is planning mass arrests of members of the indigenous Unist’ot’en First Nation using the country’s new police state law, Bill C-51. The post RCMP planning mass arrests of indigenous Unist’ot’en activists under Bill C-51: Reports appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: MP Wai Young’s lines were flubbed, but nevertheless they sound like a cynical Harper Government talking point
PHOTOS: The Cone of Silence – it just doesn’t work for anyone any more. Below: Conservative MP Wai Young, Conservative PM Stephen Harper and Jesus, whose position on Canadian politics is unknown. It seems likely Vancouver South MP Wai Young fumbled a cynical Harper Government talking point when she claimed
Continue readingWhere is the outrage about the RCMP’s witch-hunt?
At one time I instinctively assumed that government agencies were apolitical, servants of the people, not the servants of any particular philosophy or party. That, it increasingly seems, was the good old days. Recently I, like many others, have the distinct impression that the Canada Revenue Agency, for example, is
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: RCMP’s War On Canadian Environmentalists Escalates
A newly-released RCMP report wants Canadians to believe that “environmental extremists” pose a “clear and present criminal threat” to Canada’s tar sands-dominated energy sector. The post RCMP’s War On Canadian Environmentalists Escalates appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
Continue readingJoe Fantauzzi: The Militarization of Police: But Why?
Since the beginning of the year, several stories in high-profile mainstream media publications have examined what some find to be the increasing militarization of police forces in North America. In March, The Economist wrote a feature on the phenomenon noting that the use of tactical units, which are often armed with
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: False Passengers and Fake Promises: Could the PC Party be choosing the next opposition leader?
TweetHere’s a question that isn’t often asked in Alberta: Which of the three Progressive Conservative leadership candidates would make the best Leader of the Opposition? An insane trail of scandal continues to leak out of the 43-year-long governing PC Party as it lurches towards a leadership vote on September 6. A
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The most important Duffy trial must be held in the court of public opinion
Mike Duffy, back in pre-Senatorial days, but already feeling the heat. Below: A more recent shot of Senator Duffy; former prime ministerial chief of staff Nigel Wright. How could the handoff of a $90,000 cheque to Senator Mike Duffy by the prime minister’s chief of staff not be worthy of
Continue readingAlberta Diary: With floodwaters rising again, will Sun News Network renew its hysterical ‘gun grab’ attacks on the Royal Canadian Mounted Police?
Sun News Network columnist Lorne Gunter is presented an award by National Firearms Association President Sheldon Clare for his commentary on the so-called “High River Gun Grab.” (Grabbed from the NFA’s website.) Below: Floodwaters roar through High River last year. (CBC Photo) Rain is falling and floodwaters are rising again
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