A 2SLGBTQ+ advocate who was discriminated against by 911 dispatchers says she has applied for a judicial review of a ruling by the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal.

Calgary International Blues Festival organizer Cindy McLeod says earlier this month the city sent an updated map of their venue Cowboys Park, formerly called Shaw Millennium Park, on the west end of downtown.

Tsuut'ina Nation member Bruce Starlight thinks the province has not done enough to incorporate more Indigenous knowledge into Alberta’s revised K-12 curriculum, but Education minister Demetrios Nicolaides says consultations with First Nations groups are ongoing and feedback will help inform the next round of proposed changes.

A Calgary man facing two murder charges pleaded guilty to manslaughter in one of the cases but may be under investigation for an alleged threat he made during his plea on Thursday.

The threat of U.S. tariffs on Canadian energy won't affect planned spending by Cenovus Energy Inc., but the company says such levies may prompt a "rebalancing away from the United States" when it comes to where it ships its oil.

A Calgary Police Service officer has been charged after an investigation into an incident where he shot a man in a parking lot in northwest Calgary in 2022.

The MD of Pincher Creek utility rate open house scheduled for Feb. 20 has been postponed due to road conditions.

Watch for an update once the open house has been rescheduled.

The post MD Open House Postponed appeared first on Shootin' the Breeze.

Animal rescue operations in the Edmonton region are worried about how the closure of one large shelter will affect demands for space and emergency intakes.

The federal government is going to court to force a Toronto company to sell a $34-million stake in a Calgary-based lithium firm that it bought off a Chinese company.

The NDP, Canada’s traditional party of the left, is sitting stagnant in the polls with an impending federal election campaign.

Avi Lewis, who was acclaimed as the party nominee in Vancouver Centre, joins the Orchardcast to discuss his view that the NDP is the party Canadians need at this moment of intersecting crises.

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Emmanuel Rugamba, a veteran defensive player, is part of the Edmonton Elks' latest free agent signings. He embraces the challenge of helping the Elks return to the CFL playoffs.

The existence of completely free child care may come as a surprise to parents living in Calgary and Edmonton, who are used to paying significant fees. But, given the structure of Alberta's child-care system to date, it's been a reality for parents in some rural areas.

The City of Edmonton is developing a wildfire strategy to mitigate risks within the municipality and help neighbouring regions, the city's emergency advisory committee heard Wednesday.

Gerald Osborn, the Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival's first official historian, told Taproot that he always lies that he was at the first festival in 1982.

"But I wasn't. I didn't know anything about it," Osborn said. "But then in '83, a friend said, 'Want to go to the Fringe?' And next thing you know, you're sitting in some coffee shop at midnight with a pillar in front of your face and you're watching really strange things, but it was really fun."

Osborn is the Fringe's longest-serving employee and took on the additional role of official historian in January after years of it being an unofficial title. The role is still new, so Osborn said he isn't totally sure what it will entail at the 2025 festival. However, the Fringe is already planning for its 50th anniversary in 2031.

Osborn remembers when artists would camp outside for days in December to secure a spot in the festival; the year the festival started allowing unsanctioned, unconventional venues; and the time police gave warnings about a play with a title involving a crude word for a woman's body part. Unlike many historians, he's been around Fringe since (nearly) the beginning and has firsthand memories of the weird, lovely, and infamous moments that make up the history of North America's largest and oldest fringe theatre festival.

Brian Paisley, then artistic director of Chinook Theatre, started the Edmonton Fringe in 1982, inspired by the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, which began in 1947 as an unofficial offshoot "on the fringe of" the stodgy Edinburgh International Festival. With a $50,000 grant from Edmonton Summerfest, the first Fringe had five venues with four or five plays each.

Osborn produced his first Fringe show in 1986. He then started working in the Fringe office in 1989, a job he took, he says, so that he would have access to a real bathroom and not a Port-a-Potty on the Fringe grounds during the festival.

The Strathcona area was a bit dodgy when the Fringe started, Osborn said. "It was a lot of abandoned spaces and things like that, so it was perfect for doing a festival because you had, (for example), this storefront that you can do shows in," he said. "I walk past buildings sometimes, and I stop and I think, 'Did I see a Fringe show here?'"

In a way, Fringe history is Edmonton theatre history, as many artists and companies that saw local and national success did some of their earliest work at the Fringe, he said.

"The summer was really quiet a lot of times for performers, so it was a chance for them to do things that they would normally not be able to do," Osborn said. "And now it's part of the landscape."

Teatro Live! began as Teatro La Quindicina, founded by Stewart Lemoine at the first Fringe in 1982. The company had a certain style, Osborn said, and established theatre companies took note and started asking Lemoine to direct shows. "I don't know if they want us to claim it, but it's a success story of the festival," Osborn said.

Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie, the irreverent musical group known across Canada for tunes like The Toronto Song and The War of 1812, started in Edmonton and did an annual Fringe show for which audiences would line up for hours.

More recently, Bear Grease started at the 2021 Fringe and has now toured across North America and had a run at the Citadel Theatre; Makram Ayache's play The Green Line debuted at the 2019 festival and was shortlisted for the 2024 Governor General's Literary Awards; and Rat Academy won three Sterling Awards in 2024 and is wrapping up a western Canada tour.

Though Edmonton's Fringe was inspired by Edinburgh's, it quickly became its own unique festival and ended up as the template for fringe festivals across North America, Osborn said.

Edmonton's Fringe came up with the "bring-your-own-venue" system, or BYOV (that term was coined in 1992 — Osborn said he has two friends who each claim it was their idea). It started as a way to stage productions in an unconventional venue that worked thematically. One year a company did A Midsummer Night's Dream on ice at the Granite Curling Club. Another year a company used a garage as its venue and the actor peeled onto the "stage" in a car. Now, BYOVs are mainly just venues for those artists who didn't get drawn in the lottery, Osborn said.

The lottery system came a few years after Judy Lawrence, then festival director, restricted the number of spots in sanctioned venues for local acts to 50 for the 1993 festival. Applications are online now, but back then, Fringe artists had to line up with their application at the Fringe office. Thanks to the quota that year, applicants started lining up at 9pm on a Sunday night in the middle of December to have their application processed at 9am on Monday morning.

"I believe that we let them in just so they wouldn't have to be standing outside all that time," Osborn said.

The next year, applicants started lining up on Saturday night. The year after, an applicant paid a man to camp in a tent outside the office starting on Wednesday night. "We couldn't talk him into leaving because he was being paid and he had this job to do," Osborn recalls. "Maybe I'm exaggerating, maybe it wasn't Wednesday, but it sounds better if it's Wednesday." That jumpstarted the line — artists around the city called one another to alert them that the Fringe line had started. He remembers some sort of scuffle or threat among the artists camped out to earn their spot. "At that point, David Cheoros was running things and he just took everybody's name, sent everybody home, and from that moment on, we just went lottery the whole time," Osborn said. "Because to allow somebody to have that much power, in a way, it's crazy."

Only about 75 of the more than 200 Fringe shows are in official Fringe venues each year. The festival draws names for those spots and the artists receive about $10,000 of in-kind support, including the cost of the venue rental, lighting and sound equipment, and two venue technicians. All other shows are in BYOVs.

A key value of the Fringe is that it's not juried. Osborn himself, even though his plays have been produced at the festival more than two dozen times, had to enter the lottery just like a first-time theatre producer would have to. He didn't win a spot this year, by the way — look out for his show at the Holy Trinity Anglican Church BYOV this summer.

The festival also makes a point to not censor its artists, Osborn said, which is how police came to give warnings about the aforementioned play with a crude word in its title. It was the Fringe of 1994, and Osborn remembers that the play was initially called Good Girl, Bad Girl. The group changed its name one day after changes to the program were typically allowed, but former director Lawrence allowed the change to align with the anti-censorship value. "Judy was brave, because you didn't even know the legality of something like that, putting up certain words," Osborn said. "Nowadays, I don't think anybody even cares, really, but putting the poster up was sort of an act of — not defiance, but you know what I mean?"

When asked for a crazy Fringe anecdote, Osborn recalls a group of artists from Russia that produced Animal Farm in the early 1990s. Towards the end of the festival, it wasn't clear whether the artists would be able to return home, Osborn said.

"I just remember — I don't know if this actually happened, or maybe it's in the little Fringe in my head — but I remember walking across the site one evening and they were singing mournful Russian folk songs in the beer tent, very haunting," Osborn said.

Until he gets busy planning for the festival's 50th anniversary, he's working on a more robust historical timeline for the Fringe's website and filling in the gaps in his own memory by contacting Fringers from the past five decades.

"Somebody was inquiring because there used to be a street dance for Fringe before the festival, and the big famous one had k.d. lang performing. I was able to contact Brian Paisley, who created the whole Fringe. I think he lives in Mexico now — I Facebook him, ask him a few questions," Osborn said. "It's just so handy to have these people that I haven't alienated myself from them, so they tell me the truth."

Here are opportunities to inform municipal decision-making about renaming, rezoning, public art, and more. Please only answer surveys from the municipality where you live.

• Grandin renaming — The City of St. Albert is considering renaming municipal assets named after Bishop Vital Justin Grandin, who helped create Canada's residential school system. Residents are invited to submit new names based on the municipality's naming policy, which calls for names based on local geographical features, natural elements, Indigenous culture and history, and more. A survey is open until Feb. 21.
• Windermere Crescent rezoning — The City of Edmonton received a request to rezone a parcel in the Windermere Crescent area from a Rural Residential zone to a Small Scale Flex Residential zone. If the application is approved, the developer will be allowed to subdivide the site and add small-scale housing up to three storeys. Residents can ask a question or share their thoughts to a discussion board until March 2.
• Public art plan — Strathcona County is updating its public art plan, first developed in 2014. The county has public art installations in 40 locations, including visual art and multimedia pieces like murals and sculptures. Residents can complete a survey until March 5.

More input opportunities

• Until Feb. 21: Municipal Development Plan (Town of Morinville)
• Until Feb. 21: Towards 40: McConachie (City of Edmonton)
• Until Feb. 25: Vision Zero Street Labs — Mayfield, Parkview, and Wellington (City of Edmonton)
• Until Feb. 28: Policing Priorities Survey (City of St. Albert)
• Until March 4: Vision Zero Street Labs — Carlton, Laurel, and The Orchards (City of Edmonton)
• Until March 5: New Aquatics Centre Survey (Fort Saskatchewan)
• Until March 28: Engage and Play: Shaping Public Recreation (City of Edmonton)
• Until April 15: Passenger Rail Master Plan Survey (Government of Alberta)

Recognizing the industry's "huge" environmental footprint, the head of the Calgary Construction Association said he wants to see more carbon neutral features integrated into building designs — but there are some barriers in the way.

Donad Trump's threats and claims about Canada may be unprecedented in the history of U.S.-Canada relations. But they have a strong precedent elsewhere in recent history: They closely resemble remarks made by Russia's Vladimir Putin to justify his invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Calgarian Alicia Hunt says her mother is wasting away in a violent and overcrowded prison, all because she criticized Sierra Leone's president and first lady on social media.

Environment and Climate Change Canada recorded –27 C in Calgary early Wednesday. Thursday has a forecasted high of 5 C. That 32-degree change in a day can be a nightmare for people who are sensitive.

Premier Danielle Smith and Health Minister Adriana LaGrange will speak to reporters at 2 p.m. MT about steps the province will take in response to allegations levelled by the former CEO of Alberta Health Services. Watch it live here.

A Calgary criminal who was handed a six-year prison sentence last week for firearms and drug offences is now facing a manslaughter charge, accused of killing a man while on bail.

One person is dead after an officer-involved shooting in Calgary's southeast, police said Wednesday, adding that ASIRT, Alberta's police watchdog, will be investigating the incident.

Letter | Opinion

June Vastenhout — Crowsnest Pass

Our illustrious Municipality of Crowsnest Pass council has done it again! They held a public hearing on Feb. 11 in council chambers so the residents — that is, the taxpayers — could voice their concerns, then they totally disregarded those concerns.

We heard the rhetoric that they would listen to the people and let us have our say, then they turned around and blasted us all for our opinions. They went on and on about other issues that had nothing to do with the subject being discussed.

One councillor even moaned about how much pushback they had gotten from people over many issues! Welcome to public service. People have the right to their opinions, so maybe it’s time to put on your big-boy pants and actually listen to the people who elected you in the first place.

The primary purpose of a public hearing is to welcome a wide variety of suggestions from the public regarding matters that concern them. I feel that this was not the case at this hearing. I question why each speaker was allowed only five minutes to state their case, yet a couple of councillors were allowed to drone on and on in rebuttal.

To be fair, there were a couple of councillors that actually addressed the concerns of the people and acknowledged them as legitimate. I thank you for that. I would, however, question the purpose of a public hearing when councillors have already made up their minds before said public hearing.

It is time for this council and its mayor to be held accountable to the taxpayers that provide the funds for this municipality to continue to function. It is time to take your role as a public servant seriously and listen to the people who elected you, and not belittle their concerns.

Shootin’ the Breeze welcomes submissions about local issues and activities. Personal views expressed in Mailbox items are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Shootin’ the Breeze ownership and staff. Mailbox articles include letters to the editor, op-eds, news releases and notes from our readers.

The post Reader wants Crowsnest council to listen appeared first on Shootin' the Breeze.

Letter | Opinion

Allan Garbutt — Cowley

Following is an open letter to Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.

I am writing to express my extreme disagreement with your government’s efforts to allow coal mining in the Eastern Slopes in general, and near Crowsnest Pass in particular.

Coal mines require a lot of water to operate. They inevitably release large amounts of multiple contaminants into waterways. They are a source of airborne pollutants that are hazardous to the health of downwind residents.

If your ministers and staff tell you otherwise, either they are scientifically illiterate or they are lying. Neither is a good look for a government.

Here in the extreme southwest corner of Alberta, we are already short on water. Your government provided part of the funding needed to build a new water intake for our municipal district water system. They did that because the reservoir, built in the 1980s to ensure adequate water supplies in perpetuity, ran functionally dry.

My neighbours are hauling water to their cattle because most of our surface water supplies have disappeared. Reliable springs have gone dry. Local rainfall records show dramatic drops in totals over the last several years. Climate scientists tell us we may be at the start of a long drought.

To even contemplate approving a clean industrial project with high water demands is unconscionable. To entertain such a project when it will also contaminate the water that is essential to hundreds of thousands of Albertans and literally billions of dollars of annual agricultural production is worse than unconscionable. It is stupid.

To have your government claim they can double the tourism economy on one hand, while with the other destroying our mountains and waterways, is similarly foolish. Tourists will not come to areas that feature giant black holes, dead and/or dry streams, and coal-dust storms.

It would be helpful if we had some assurance that your various ministers actually talked to each other. Maybe then they would have a rational and reasonable strategy to ensure that Alberta, and especially those of us in the southwest corner, continues to prosper into the future.

Besides the logical and factual reasons why your government should ban coal mining in the Eastern Slopes, there are the very real desires of Albertans to consider. Many surveys, notably including the comments to the Coal Commission, have clearly shown that a large proportion of the populace is against coal mining in the Eastern Slopes.

Your energy minister recently commented after the bogus referendum in Crowsnest Pass that democracy had spoken. No, it did not. That was a carefully stage-managed process, backed by the foreign-funded eco-vandals known as coal companies.

It used a large-dollar program against an unfunded opposition, coupled with silent coercion, to get the desired result. It deliberately disenfranchised more than 90 per cent of those who are dependent on the water flowing from that watershed. That is, everybody downstream of the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass.

It might be helpful if you spent less time in Panama and Mar-a-Lago, and more time in the Lethbridge and Pincher Creek areas. Maybe then you would understand what adequate supplies of clean water mean to your citizens. In this corner of the world, it means life.

Ban coal mining in the Eastern Slopes.

Shootin’ the Breeze welcomes submissions about local issues and activities. Personal views expressed in Mailbox items are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Shootin’ the Breeze ownership and staff. Mailbox articles include letters to the editor, op-eds, news releases and notes from our readers.

The post Coal mining in the Eastern Slopes is a risk Alberta can’t afford appeared first on Shootin' the Breeze.

The government's fiscal watchdog says a guaranteed basic income program at the federal level could cut poverty rates in Canada by up to 40 per cent.

This week’s issue of Shootin’ the Breeze brings key updates on local decisions, community concerns and upcoming events.

Pincher Creek town council has shelved the Hyde Street extension plan, citing safety and engineering concerns, while a renewable-energy study presented to the MD of Pincher Creek has drawn skepticism from a resident who questions whether public feedback was truly reflected.

In a move to enhance road safety, the town has also approved replacing or relocating over 150 school and playground signs by spring.

Exciting events are on the horizon, with Heritage Acres Farm Museum set to host the RCMP Musical Ride this summer, offering a chance to witness the world-famous equestrian performance. Meanwhile, the Chili Bowl Festival returns to Crowsnest Pass.

Sports fans can look forward to a charity hockey game where Crowsnest Pass Minor Hockey coaches will trade their clipboards for sticks in an exciting on-ice showdown.

Plus, we recap last week’s hockey and basketball action.

Our publisher’s column also touches on concerns surrounding Joe’s Gym, where community members worry about its future and the legacy it represents.

Catch all these stories and more in this week’s issue!

Local stories, news, obituaries, jobs, notices and events in Pincher Creek and Crowsnest Pass in the Feb. 19, 2025, issue of Shootin’ the Breeze.

The post News and events: Pincher Creek & Crowsnest Pass | Feb. 19, 2025 appeared first on Shootin' the Breeze.

Pat King, a key organizer of the 2022 convoy protest in downtown Ottawa, got a three-month conditional sentence on Wednesday.

Custodial and maintenance workers at the Calgary Board of Education (CBE) and the Calgary Catholic School District (CCSD) will be serving a 72-hour strike notice on Thursday, according to the union representing the group.

Jung-Suk Ryu says the NaAC bought a full-page advertisement in Tuesday's print edition of the Calgary Herald to try and get the city to fund renovations that would allow the group to finally move into the former Scouts Canada building beside Memorial Drive in West Hillhurst.

NAIT's Build Her Up: Skilled Trades Conference on March 6 is part of the polytechnic's work to address labour shortages and the tiny fraction that women make up in the skilled trades workforce.

"This is important because not a lot of women were given this opportunity — I don't even think this idea was put in their heads," Nicole Mahoney, the associate dean of the school of manufacturing and automation at NAIT, told Taproot. "There are many skilled trade jobs out there that can be done by anyone, and women should do them because they pay great and they give them a lot of financial security, independence, and freedom. The ability to work with your hands, in my opinion, is amazing."

Mahoney cited NAIT-sourced statistics that suggest Canadian women make up just 5% of workers in the most in-demand skilled trades. The college also shared data from the Canadian Apprenticeship Forum that predicts Alberta needs 26,000 new journeypersons and 51,000 new apprentices in the top 15 Red Seal trades by 2026 to meet industry demand (the Red Seal Program sets national standards for skilled trades).

A spokesperson for Women Building Futures, a non-profit from Edmonton that trains and supports women and gender-diverse people in trades, told Taproot that "Canada is expected to need 225,000 additional journeypersons over the next five years" and that "nearly 112,000 certified workers (are) expected to retire over the same period."

Those numbers are waking people up to the need for more women in trades, Mahoney said. "I think there's more advertising towards women because the need is so high, and we have to look at different routes, different groups of people than what we've traditionally looked at."

Build Her Up is a cap-off for the Women Building and Leading Canada's Future program at NAIT. The program was funded with $2.6 million by the Canadian Apprenticeship Strategy: Women in Skilled Trades Initiative and $36,000 from the Government of Alberta. It works to add more women to the Red Seal skilled trades before 2027 by providing financial support, hosting networking and conference events, and providing equity, diversity, and inclusion training for NAIT staff and trades employers. Funding for the program runs out in March.

Mahoney, who is the event chair and the co-chair of NAIT's Women in Skilled Trades committee, led a team that took feedback to build the Build Her Up event. "We sat down and we met with a group of industry women," she said. "We asked them: 'What would you like to see? What support do you wish that you would have had? What information would you like to have known? From there, we put a call out for presenters. We curated a list of sessions that help grab the women looking to get into the trades, the women apprentices currently in the trade, the women journeypeople in the trades, and industry."

The event is open to workers, aspiring workers, employers, and industry leaders. It includes sessions on soft skills, neurodivergence, diversity in the trades, and more. There are also panel discussions about why diversity, and allyship, are important in the trades. Plus, there are exhibitors and networking opportunities, including a ticketed reception at Ernest's Dining Room.

Morgan Bosch, an all-terrain crane operator, will speak during a session on building sisterhood. NAIT profiled Bosch and her social media efforts to bring together women in trades. She will share her experiences on the job, of amassing 41,000 followers for trades content on TikTok, and of building the YEG - Blue Collar Women Meet Up group on Facebook, which has around 1,300 members who swap stories and attend gatherings.

"Every single time we leave a meetup," Bosch said in a NAIT article, "my heart is so full."

Mahoney will also bring lived experience as a trades worker to Build Her Up. She worked for more than 10 years as a journeyperson ironworker before joining NAIT in 2014. Mahoney saw firsthand the dearth of women in the trades during her tenure, and shared some experiences in a NAIT article about sexism, sexual harassment, and sexual violence in the trades in 2018. Now, she said, the workplace culture of the trades is gradually changing.

"Things are getting better," she said. "It's not a light switch. You can't turn it on and off. It is like a dimmer switch and it is improving constantly."

Mahoney said ways to improve workplace culture include keeping policies for employees up to date, training employees on what is and isn't acceptable workplace behaviour, offering mentorship, and cultivating an environment where employees feel safe to speak up.

Adding more grants for students completing apprenticeships could also encourage more women to join the trades, Mahoney said. She cited the 2023 elimination of the federal Apprenticeship Incentive Grant for Women as a step in the wrong direction. A positive change from policymakers, she said, is a 2022 update to a provincial act governing apprenticeships that allows students to self-sponsor for apprenticeships rather than rely on an employer to do so.

"I have a passion for apprenticeship, and a lot of (students) don't know where to start and don't know what trade to pick," Mahoney said. "When I talk to people, they want to be the big five: Welder, automotive, plumber, electrician, carpenter … but there are things like refrigeration, air conditioning, mechanic, glazers, instrumentation technologies, machinist, millwrights, and so many other options."

NAIT's outreach to women even includes high schoolers. The Jill of All Trades program hosts girls in Grade 10 to Grade 12 to learn about career opportunities and participate in hands-on workshops where they build things.

Looking ahead, Mahoney said she plans to make Build Her Up an annual event. She also has a goal for the percentage of women in the trades. "Ideally, before I retire, I'd like to see women at 10%" she said.

Buy Canadian — that’s the message being pushed across the country. But on the other end of the movement, some small business owners in Calgary who feel the pressure to pivot to Canadian products say that isn’t as easy as it sounds.

Edmonton’s city auditor has made eight recommendations to improve the effectiveness of the city’s paratransit service, saying clients who rely on the service will benefit from the changes.

This week, This is Edmonton looks at some of the proposed changes to the public spaces bylaw. 

The cougar kittens will stay temporarily with the animal care, health and welfare team at the zoo until a permanent home at another facility in Canada is determined.

The two-month GST/HST tax break ended on Saturday. The Canadian government introduced the freeze to alleviate cost-of-living pressures on certain items, including groceries, restaurant meals, books, games, children's toys and clothing. However, the five per cent savings didn’t make much difference for the Albertans we spoke with.

An internationally-celebrated exhibit featuring the work of 18 Indigenous architects from across North America is finally in Edmonton — but its journey has been a challenge because of Covid-19 and a fight over the representation of Indigenous people and art. 

The man accused of murdering Ryden Brogden in Banff had a blood-alcohol level more than twice the legal driving limit at the time of the stabbing, a forensic toxicologist estimated for jurors Tuesday. 

On Feb. 16, widely watched Alberta politics web show The Breakdown posted a brief seven-minute episode, in which host Nate Pike revealed that he had been court ordered to unpublish The Breakdown’s social media feeds, including its YouTube channel, and would be going silent for the foreseeable future.

If you go to The Breakdown’s website, you’re now greeted by this message:

This is the result of a $6-million defamation lawsuit businessman Sam Mraiche launched against Pike and the show for an episode that detailed Mraiche and medical supply company MHCare’s connections with the UCP government, as well as Pike’s social media posts promoting it.

This is a major threat to press freedom that should have all journalists concerned.

In the Oct. 27 Breakdown episode, “The Skybox Network Exposed,” Pike weaved together a cohesive narrative from previously reported information on Mraiche inviting multiple cabinet members to his private box during the Edmonton Oilers’ 2024 playoff run and government contracts his company has received.

The most notorious of these contracts is a $28 million payment MHCare received from Alberta Health Services (AHS) in July 2023, most of which was for its role in importing knock-off children’s Tylenol from Turkey, which clogged patients’ feedings tubes and posed major risks to infants.

Since then, former AHS CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos has alleged that Mraiche and companies connected to him have received more than $614 million in contracts with AHS, which she suspects were awarded at inflated prices, and that an AHS staff member moonlights as an MHCare employee.

According to Pike’s statement of defence, as reported by CTV News, he reached out to Mraiche for comment before publishing his video and a lawyer assured him that Mraiche “was very enthusiastic about freedom of speech.”

Full disclosure: I like Pike, who had me on the show not long ago to discuss my book.

I don’t agree with everything Pike has ever said or tweeted, but his work is, in my view, a net positive for the Alberta media sphere.

Pike, who works as a paramedic by day, doesn’t consider himself a journalist. And while his show consists largely of interviews with experts and politicians, he certainly has done original journalism.

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Last month, Pike revealed the Alberta government spent $116,800 in 2024 on advertising with the Counter Signal, a far-right news site run by Keean Bexte, who got busted working for a white supremacist memorabilia store in 2018, which he obtained through a freedom of information request.

But my view of Pike and his work is entirely besides the point.

A well-connected businessman throwing money around to shut down an independent news show for packaging together pieces of information that have been previously reported by mainstream news outlets sets an extraordinarily dangerous precedent.

If you upset powerful interests, they can launch a lawsuit and compel you to take down your entire body of work without even proving that you’ve done anything wrong.

Beyond silencing The Breakdown, the suit against Pike has the added effect of sending a message to journalists at better-resourced mainstream news outlets that they could be next if they’re not careful.

Mount Royal University political scientist Duane Bratt rightly called Mraiche’s lawsuit against Pike “an infringement on freedom of the press” and a case of “political intimidation.”

In Alberta, which lacks laws prohibiting strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPP), powerful interests can easily initiate lawsuits that, even if they are found baseless, will eat up defendants’ time and resources that could be spent on literally anything else.

Alberta needs anti-SLAPP legislation, like they have in Ontario and British Columbia, ASAP.

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But it’s not just Mraiche, a private citizen, who is attempting to shut Pike up.

According to Mentzelopoulos’s lawsuit against AHS, which has yet to be tested in court, the premier’s former chief of staff, Marshall Smith, tried to get Pike fired from his day job.

As reported by Julia Wong and Jason Markusoff for the CBC:

Mentzelopoulos's lawsuit claims that Marshall Smith called her last summer to advise her that “powerful people” were angry about an AHS paramedic named Nate Pike, whose webcast and social media account The Breakdown has been critical of the Smith government and who has posted often about the Turkish children's medication situation.

“Mentzelopoulos asked Smith if he was trying to tell her that AHS had to fire Mr. Pike,” the lawsuit states.

The premier's aide replied that Pike was “your employee” and “you're going to look very bad” and there would be “consequences.” Mentzelopoulos replied she wouldn't fire Pike, but did urge other AHS leaders to speak to Pike about tweeting while at work.

This would have been before Premier Danielle Smith and Justice Mickey Amery announced their government’s intention to introduce legislation to protect professionals from disciplinary action “based on bad faith complaints from people they have never dealt with professionally,” in Amery’s words.

That sounds a lot like what Marshall Smith (no relation to the premier) allegedly pulled.

Premier Smith, the self-proclaimed “most freedom-loving politician we ever had in this country,” has specifically envisioned Alberta as a “bastion” of press freedom, and not just for conservative and far-right outlets.

She could show these words are more than hollow sloganeering by bringing forward anti-SLAPP legislation, clarify that her upcoming legislation protecting professionals from regulatory discipline applies to government critics, and, if substantiated, apologize to Pike for her former chief of staff’s attempt to get him canned.

Those interested in contributing to Pike’s fundraiser for his legal expenses can do so here.

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An Alberta oil and gas company has been fined $15,000 for failing to report a potentially lethal amount of hydrogen sulphide, or sour gas, had been released into the atmosphere.

For water experts, there’s worry that climate change and shifting U.S. policies could put pressure on long-standing cross-border water agreements.

A council committee's decision to endorse closing several intersections to drivers in Edmonton's west end to accelerate construction of the $2.6-billion Valley Line West LRT is a sign of a changing city, the co-hosts of Episode 295 Speaking Municipally said.

"This is just a really big change for Edmonton," said co-host Mack Male. "I can't think of a time when we've done something quite like this."

Coun. Andrew Knack, who introduced a motion to accelerate the LRT project in 2024, told CBC that constituents have said they have felt construction pain for several years now. The future line is slated for completion in 2028. Knack also said that many have suggested that hurrying construction would be akin to ripping off a bandage. One thing worth considering in the process, Knack said, is the closure of the busy Wellington Bridge at the end of 2025.

In August, city council voted against creating a compensation program that would have provided roughly $2,500 for individual businesses affected by the future LRT line as a form of compensation. Male said the recent decision to close whole intersections may have landed better if council had endorsed that idea back in August. That said, on Episode 273, Male opined that $2,500 wouldn't offer much reprieve, anyway.

The Feb. 14 episode of Taproot's civic affairs podcast covered the City of Leduc's recent decision to annex land from Leduc County, the public spaces bylaw that a council committee endorsed sending to council, and the ongoing friction at the Edmonton Police Commission. It also featured the final segment with the creators of Edmonton Food Faves We Crave. Plus, Taproot's managing editor, Tim Querengesser, provided an update from the Taproot newsroom. Speaking Municipally comes out on Fridays. Listening and subscription options are all right here.

This week, council committees will meet to discuss an audit of the Dedicated Accessible Transit Service, emergency management in 2024, and travel expenses.

There is an audit committee meeting scheduled for Feb. 18, an emergency advisory committee meeting scheduled at 9:30am on Feb. 19, a non-regular city council meeting scheduled for 1:30pm on Feb. 19, and a council services committee meeting scheduled for Feb. 21.

Here are key items on this week's agenda:

• The city auditor recommends that the Dedicated Accessible Transit Service update and use guidelines for assessing who is eligible to use the service. An audit found that DATS employees do not directly refer to the existing guidelines, which have not been updated since 2018, when making eligibility decisions. The audit also found there are weaknesses in password security and information retention practices, and that DATS does not have sufficient data validation controls in place. City administration accepts the recommendations laid out in the audit report, which is scheduled to be presented to council's audit committee on Feb. 18.
• The office of emergency management said 2024 was a "challenging" year marked by 28 major events over 183 days, including nearly 50 days in which there were two emergency activations, according to a report that is scheduled to be presented to council's emergency advisory committee on Feb. 19. The city registered about 2,900 evacuees during the Jasper wildfire and 1,800 during the Fort McMurray wildfire. The office is in the early stages of developing a wildfire strategy to mitigate Edmonton's wildfire risk, the report said.
• City administration has started the search for a new city auditor through a competitive process. Staff will issue a request for proposals by Feb. 20, council's audit committee will review proposals in April, and the new auditor will be appointed in July.
• Coun. Anne Stevenson is set to introduce a motion asking for a cap on accommodation and travel expenses that are covered by council's common budget. If passed, each councillor would have $250 per night for accommodation and could only use economy class flights, with the option for councillors to supplement through their office's budget or through their personal budget.
• Council is scheduled to ratify the interim chief of police and receive an intergovernmental update at a private meeting on Feb. 19.

Meetings stream live on YouTube on the Chamber channel and River Valley Room channel.

A new University of Calgary study shows that while hospitalizations for respiratory illnesses among Alberta children surged when pandemic-related measures were lifted, there has since been a return to more typical levels.

Officials in Fort McMurray say that a partnership between a number of social agencies that deal with homelessness has allowed it to reduce the number of people living rough.

Planning for a long-term camp for hundreds of construction workers near Jasper, Alta., is underway. The town is rebuilding after a major wildfire destroyed one-third of structures in July. For the next several years, work crews coming in from all over the country will be able to book accommodation at the camp, but there are still concerns to be addressed before its planned opening this spring. The CBC’s Acton Clarkin reports.

Canada advanced to face the United States in the final of the 4 Nations Face-Off after beating Finland 5-3 on Monday in Boston.

Eight unique hunting licences issued by the Alberta government have sold for the equivalent of $350,000 Cdn at an auction in Utah.

Kayla Skrlik defeated Selena Sturmay 6-5 in a key matchup of Alberta-based rinks on Monday at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Thunder Bay, Ont.

At Alberta Native News, I wrote about objections Indigenous Edmontonians raised at a Feb. 10 Community and Public Services Committee meeting to the city’s proposed Public Spaces Bylaw, which imposes fines for sleeping outside, using drugs in public and panhandling.

Reporter Meredith Kerr from Lakeland Today, which covers Bonnyville, Lac La Biche, St. Paul and Elk Point, did a local followup to my Progress Report stories on contract nursing in Alberta.

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A provincial inspection of the Alberta village of Andrew has concluded now that the village council and CAO have satisfied a series of directives ordered by the municipal affairs minister.