A rally held at the Alberta legislature last weekend was to protest COVID public health orders, but images and footage circulated of protestors carrying lit tiki torches through the streets of Edmonton. The torches are a symbol of white supremacy used by the Nazis, Ku Klux Klan, and more recently at a deadly rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. Then this week, news came out about another attack on a Muslim woman in Edmonton. These messages and actions of hate have no place in our city, province or country. It has led to calls that provincial leaders speak out to denounce these racist acts. Seeon Smith is a long-time advocate for multicultural tolerance and understanding. He joins The Loop to talk about how the recent rally goes deeper than white supremacy. CBC is currently running a pop-up bureau in Red Deer with reporter Heather Marcoux covering stories in the community. She looks at the need for greater overdose prevention support in the central Alberta city. Plus, why four Somali-Canadian sisters started their own publishing company, and Edmonton students share what Blackness means to them.

(Students featured from J.D. Bracco School are: Khalid Mohammed Ali, Maliyah Kok, Mitchell Emmanuel, Dominnik Despres, John Tamakloe, Lamara Frazer, Jermaine Clarke, Zion Valani, Ibrahim Ali, Joaquin Harriott, Destiny Leacock, Redwan Yusuf, and Ange Louke.)