Alberta Politics: Judge gives green light to ‘anti-Alberta energy campaigns’ inquiry – a ruling the UCP may come to regret

At the end of a terrible week, there was a smidgen of solace for Jason Kenney and his United Conservative Party. Yesterday, Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Karen Horner rejected Ecojustice Canada Society’s arguments the Kenney Government’s so-called “Public Inquiry into Anti-Alberta Energy Campaigns” was just a politicized attempt

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Alberta Politics: Judge hopes to rule on Ecojustice effort to shut down energy campaigns inquiry before May 31 – why that shouldn’t be a problem

We’re all just going to have to wait to find out how the legal effort by Ecojustice Canada Society to shut down Alberta’s so-called “Public Inquiry into Anti-Alberta Energy Campaigns” turns out. After hearing arguments for two days last week from lawyers for Ecojustice, the province, inquiry Commissioner Steve Allan,

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Alberta Politics: Latest leak shows AHS modelling forecasts Intensive Care Units packed with COVID-19 patients by mid-December

In the first unauthorized information leak of December, Alberta’s NDP Opposition revealed yesterday Alberta Health Services case modelling projects about 775 Albertans will be in hospital with COVID-19 in just two weeks. More than 160 of them will be in intensive care units, further straining the overstressed provincial health system’s

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Alberta Politics: UCP plan to lay off 11,000 public sector health workers sparks wildcat walkouts at 45 Alberta health facilities

Infuriated at the Kenney Government’s determination to lay off 11,000 public sector health care workers and privatize their jobs, members of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees walked off the job in a province-wide wildcat strike yesterday morning. Last night, the Alberta Labour Relations Board ruled the work stoppage to

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Alberta Politics: It’s not up to the premier’s staff to decide who’s a journalist — except when it is

Responding yesterday to criticism for letting Alberta Premier Jason Kenney take a question from a reporter for a controversial right-wing news site during Tuesday’s virtual COVID-19 update, Press Secretary Christine Myatt tweeted defensively that “I don’t think anybody wants the government deciding who is or is not a journalist.” Taken

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Alberta Politics: Docs fight Alberta pay cuts in court, seeking $250 million, while battling COVID-19 on the front lines of health care

Yesterday morning, Christine Molnar, president of the Alberta Medical Association, announced that the province’s doctors are launching a constitutional challenge and seeking $250 million in compensation from the United Conservative Party Government for the way it tore up their contract two months ago. Yesterday afternoon, Health Minister Tyler Shandro showed

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Alberta Politics: Progress Alberta wins injunction against Kenney Government, which tried to ban progressive news site from budget lockup

Progress Alberta has been granted an emergency injunction by a judge of the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench ordering the Alberta Government to permit the news site’s representative to attend the provincial pre-budget lockup in Edmonton tomorrow. The Edmonton-based progressive news and advocacy organization sought the emergency injunction after it

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Alberta Politics: UCP Government, with no apparent short-term Plan B, seeks leave to appeal injunction suspending Bill 9

Unsurprisingly, the United Conservative Party Government has filed notice of appeal on the temporary injunction granted by the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench that halted application of Bill 9, playing havoc with Premier Jason Kenney’s strategy for putting off a crisis with the province’s public sector unions until after the

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Alberta Politics: National Energy Board ruling on Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion leaves everyone deep in their message boxes

Common sense would suggest the recommendation of the National Energy Board yesterday that Ottawa approve the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project despite significant risks to the environment is a small but significant step toward eventual completion of the controversial multi-billion-dollar megaproject. But as was already evident in the immediate reaction

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Alberta Politics: Effort by religious schools to halt enforcement of Alberta’s GSA protection law tossed out by Medicine Hat judge

An effort by the so-called Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms to get a court injunction to halt enforcement of the Alberta law that prevents schools from informing parents when students join gay-straight alliances fell short in a written ruling of the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench in Medicine Hat yesterday.

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Alberta Politics: Group making incendiary ‘ideological sex clubs’ claim about Gay-Straight Alliances has history of backing social conservative causes

As was widely reported yesterday, a judge of the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench will begin hearing arguments in Medicine Hat today in a legal effort by a social conservative group to upend the Alberta law that prevents schools from informing parents when students join a gay-straight alliance. The claim

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