Chief McFee of the Edmonton Police Service answered the Progress Report's questions (kind of) on defunding the police, secret armoured vehicles, school resource officers and more. We break down his answers with Reakash Walters and Molly Swain. 

The B117 variant of COVID-19 is hyper infectious, currently rampaging through the U.K. and Ireland and is already here in Canada. It's only a matter of time before it gets to Alberta. We talk to Dr. Gosia Gasperowicz about the super strain and what Alberta needs to do to stop it. 

Shannon Phillips, the NDP MLA for Lethbridge West, breaks down Alohagate with us. Producer Jim Storrie joins host Duncan Kinney to wrap up the pod and gets some things off his chest about this scandal.

Jeremy Appel, the author of our recent investigative piece on the "Alberta Model" approach to the opioid crisis, joins the crew over at the Alberta Advantage crew alongside Garth Mullins, the host of Crackdown. They discuss Jeremy's piece as well as the wider sociological and ideological issues around the Alberta government's mishandling of the opioid poisoning crisis that has led to record amounts of death and destruction. 

If you like this podcast and you want to support it go to https://www.theprogressreport.ca/patrons and become a monthly patron!

Links:

• The Alberta Model: Who benefits from the Alberta government’s shift away from harm reduction to abstinence-only recovery
• Crackdown
• Alberta Advantage

Content creator king Abdul Malik joins us to talk about what is to be done about the lack of enforcement at COVID-19 superspreader rallies, Kenney's bizarre Xmas message, prominent Alberta columnists engaging in centrist fanfic and the little matter of the government of Alberta giving the NHL $4 million for a "unique partnership."

That headline is not hyperbole, a Calgary Police officer sued to try and stop the documentary No Visible Trauma from being screened. Thankfully the filmmakers won and we have Marc Serpa Francouer and Robinder Uppal on to talk about their case as well as their documentary that examines several cases of police brutality and explores just how broken of an institution the Calgary Police Service really is. 

Sandra Azocar, the executive director of Friends of Medicare, joins us to analyze and breakdown Jason Kenney's new COVID restrictions as well as a recently passed bill that allows private, for-profit plasma farming operations to be set up in Alberta. 

If you like this podcast and you want to support it go to https://www.theprogressreport.ca/patrons and become a monthly patron!

Links:

• What Is the Blood of a Poor Person Worth?
• A push in Alberta for “pay for plasma” distracts from bigger questions
• The Twisted Business of Donating Plasma
• Pay-for-plasma lobbyists showing up in lobbying registry
• With passing of Bill 204, UCP ideology reigns over science & evidence
• Blood Plasma and Poverty: Where Do Plasma Donation Centers Locate?
• Why Thousands of Low-Income Americans 'Donate' Their Blood Plasma to For-Profit Centers

University of Calgary law professor Lorian Hardcastle joins us to talk about her controversial piece on Dr. Hinshaw and why Hinshaw needs to exercise her powers to stop the death and destruction that COVID is wreaking. We also talk about what the government of Alberta needs to do get this disaster under control 

If you like this podcast and you want to support it go to https://www.theprogressreport.ca/patrons and become a monthly patron!

Links:

• Politicians are failing. Canada’s chief medical officers need to step in.
• Former Alberta chief medical officer of health says job involves walking political tightrope

Dave Cournoyer of Daveberta fame joins us to discuss Alberta's multiple overlapping crises. We talk COVID-19, Jason Kenney's $1.7 billion dollar whoopsie, conservative connected law firms making bank and how the smart money is on Joe Biden cancelling the Keystone XL pipeline. 

If you like this podcast and you want to support it go to https://www.theprogressreport.ca/patrons and become a monthly patron!

Links:

• Law firms with conservative connections doing big business under UCP government
• Kenney bet big on Trump and KXL – but Biden won
• Daveberta

We speak with Andre Goulet of the Harbinger Media Network about his plans to knock Ben Shapiro and Pod Save America off the Canadian political podcast charts. We also discuss Canadaland, the future of the CBC and what's next for the Progress Report.