The Progress Report

Progress Report host Duncan Kinney appears on the very good podcast 49th Parahell to talk about the NBA wildcat strike and what workers can learn from it, why Chrystia Freeland's Nazi collaborator grandfather matters in 2020, the Conservative Party of Canada's new leader Erin O'Toole and where the conservative movement in Canada is going. 

We speak with Inuk writer, professor and researcher Norma Dunning about her ultimately successful struggle to have the Edmonton CFL team change its racist and insulting team name. We also discuss Norma's powerful writing on Edmonton's actual historical relationship with the Inuit.

Further reading:

• Edmonton’s historic relationship with the Inuit is one of death, loneliness and despair

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We continue our conversation with Laura Kruse on conspiracy theories and Alberta. We dive into Laura's story for the Progress Report blog, McKinsey, 🍞📈, the UCP’s incoming evisceration of Alberta’s post-secondary system, and our favourite conspiracy theories.

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We kick off the inaugural edition of the Red String, a monthly column from Laura Kruse on conspiracy theories and Alberta, with a bit of theory and history on conspiracy theories in Canada. From Freemasons to aliens to Q and everything in between. Also, please read Laura's story on one of our favourite conspiracy theories that isn't a conspiracy theory titled McKinsey, 🍞📈, and the UCP’s incoming evisceration of Alberta’s post-secondary system.

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

Further reading:

• McKinsey, 🍞📈, and the UCP’s incoming evisceration of Alberta’s post-secondary system
• William Lyon McKenzie and Freemasonry
• NYMag: All Conspiracy Theories Are Connected 

Our guest Abdul Malik makes the case for why the UCP's new union busting bill is actually good. Plus Duncan follows up on his story about the Ukrainian Nazi collaborator war criminal statue by going down the Ukrainian Nazi collaborator rabbit hole. 

Listen and subscribe on Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts or just subscribe to the RSS feed

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

Further reading:

• Opinion: Alberta labour needs the UCP’s union busting bill
• Ukrainian Youth Unity Complex denies that statue they have of a Nazi collaborator war criminal is a Nazi collaborator war criminal
• What does a worker look like?
• How a network of Ukrainian ultra-nationalists penetrated Canada’s Conservative Party to lobby for military conflict
• Long-Distance Nationalism: Ukrainian Monuments and Historical Memory in Multicultural Canada
• INCO imported ex-Nazis, RCMP report says
• War Criminality: A Blank Spot in the Collective Memory of the Ukrainian Diaspora
• Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations
• The Jakarta Method book review

The UCP have dramatically changed the rules around municipal elections in Alberta making it easier for conservatives to win and for big money to sway elections. We dissect the rule changes and the upcoming municipal horse races in Edmonton and Calgary with Romy Garrido. 

We discuss the the organizing and struggle to end police brutality in Calgary and rural Alberta with comedian, public speaker and organizer Adora Nwofor. 

What does society look like when community safety isn't handled by armed cops authorized to kill people? In part two of our conversation on disarming, defunding and dismantling the police with Reakash Walters and Molly Swain, we discuss the abolitionist position.

Edmonton and Calgary spend nine times more on the police than they spend on housing the homeless or social programs. Combined the two cities spend $750 million a year on cops. We talk with Reakash Walters and Molly Swain about how to divest from police and invest in the community. 

The UCP are trying to snatch away financial, social and education benefits from 2100 former foster kids. It's incredibly cruel and totally needless and A.C. and her lawyer Avnish Nanda have taken the government to court and won to keep these benefits – for now. We talk about this case with Nanda and Jenn Prosser an organizer and campaigner who grew up in foster care and kinship care during the aftermath of Klein's cuts.