Is This For Real?

We ended up taking a bit of an unexpected pause due to the dynamics around police criticism given the officer deaths in March. In this episode we discuss how the officer deaths were politicized to further consolidate power and resources for police as an institution, and examine how institutional failures of police may have even led to these officer deaths..

Oumar had a with Hailey Yasmeen + Mae of the Asilu Collective, a grassroots abolitionist organization working towards policing-free schools in Ontario. Oumar talked with them about their approach to activism and education, a more holistic definition of abolition, and collaborating with other community groups to work around the system rather than in direct opposition.

Useful Links

Article about the police officer deaths in March

Edmonton police say more people interested in joining force after deaths of officers

Sohi calls Alberta adding police, crisis workers on transit a 'significant investment'

Alberta government pushing to add 100 more police officers between Calgary and Edmonton

EPS expands HELP, PACT teams and opens Integrated Care Centre

City leaders will consider UCP request to transfer transit authority to Edmonton police

No charges for Edmonton police constable who kicked Indigenous teen in the head

Questions over video of Edmonton police arrest showing knee near driver's neck

Alberta Sheriffs and Edmonton police execute nearly 3,000 arrests: province

Asilu Collective Website

Ottawa Students Speak Out: Cops Out of Our Schools! Report

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We’re unraveling the current situation with policing downtown, where the province has deployed 12 sheriffs to the already heavily policed Chinatown area and self-identifying “liberal” politicians are more openly pro-police than ever.

We also got to talk with an anonymous worker in the nonprofit sector, who shared some thought-provoking insights about the ways that organizations are set up to fail and why he will ultimately be leaving the sector.

Useful Links

What got funded — and what didn't — in Edmonton city council's budget debate

Public Safety and Community Response Task Force 

Sheriffs deployed to Downtown Edmonton in latest effort to improve safety: UCP, police

Councillor Anne Stevenson is grateful for more police

Edmonton’s Actions on Downtown and Transit Safety (Mayor Amarjeet Sohi’s Blog)

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We’re diving into some ways that our system of governance tries to control or eliminate threats to their power. From a deliberately inaccessible public civic engagement process amid budget deliberations, to local pundits endlessly pushing for a return to the status quo when we never left in the first place. Oumar interviewed Calgary community organizer Taylor McNallie about the relentless attacks she’s faced from police and the media’s ignorance.

The theme of this episode is our society’s comfort with silent racism and covert discrimination. We’re diving into the fourth police budget increase of the year so far, the police DNA phenotyping scandal, Alberta's new premier, and the announcement that the provincial province will be providing $187M towards homelessness and addiction supports. Oumar also got to interview Nicholas Marcus Thompson of the Black Class Action lawsuit against the government of Canada, a landmark case that was recently elevated to the United Nations after the government tried to dismiss it.

Edmonton’s city council recently committed to funding the Chinatown Healthy Streets Operation Centre, a $15M hub meant to deploy additional officers into Chinatown. The vote passed overwhelmingly, with a number of councillors expressing valid opposition but voting in favour anyway.

We had a chance to interview Edmonton city councillor Michael Janz about the decision, hear about his “insider-outsider” theory of change, and question whether meaningful progress can be achieved from within the structure of city council.

We're turning our focus to the devastation inflation that we've all be facing throughout this year. We're taking a look at a new study from the University of Calgary that outlines why inflation hits low-income households especially hard, record profits that companies like Loblaws are making during this time, and some incredibly cringe advice that the media is giving to consumers.

We also have some on the ground reporting from the Pope's visit to Edmonton. We discuss the clearing of homeless encampments from the area surrounding the Sacred Heart church, the problematic messaging embedded into the Pope's activities here, and whether or not meaningful change can ever even be achieved through symbolic gestures.

We interviewed Ashlynn Chand about some great reporting she did on Amazon’s union-busting at the Nisku warehouse. We discuss our government’s alignment with corporate interests at the expense of workers and how politicians co-opt working class struggles. And we even detail some recent victories in the labour movement in Alberta.

Oumar and Nicholas discuss the recent school shooting in Texas and its relevance to Edmonton’s school resource officer program. We also discuss the violence and challenges in Chinatown, as well as the tendency from politicians and the community to support further enforcement of the same system that causes those challenges.

Canadian media is terrible when it comes to holding powerful institutions accountable and challenging the status quo. In this episode we’re talking about the media’s failure of students criminalized by the School Resource Officer Program, and examples of how both independent and traditional media can be shaped by toxic work environments and politics of recognition.

Black History Month has always been more or less a joke, but it was especially terrible this year. We’re looking back on this especially unfortunate February, from revelations that the Edmonton Police Service owns a plane (!) and is gearing up to purchase yet another, to the Calgary Police killing of community member Latjor Tuel. We also brought back Tom Engel to the show for a great interview about the Police Act, an important piece of legislation that we should all be focusing on ahead of the next provincial election.