Lawyers for the Edmonton police and the city of Edmonton on one side and the Coalition for Justice and Human Rights on the other reached a deal last night that lightly taps the brakes on pre-Christmas sweeps to bust up eight homeless encampments in the city’s downtown core.
Some Christmas clearances are expected to go ahead, though, possibly as early as Thursday.
But Court of King’s Bench Justice Kent Davidson granted an interim injunction based on the agreement that places a few conditions on the police – among them a degree of due process in the form of 48 hours’ notice if a camp is about to be broken up, assurances there are enough shelter spaces for camp residents before a roust proceeds, and no camp closings in extreme cold weather.
The interim injunction is to remain in force until Jan. 11, when the advocacy for the unhoused coalition is scheduled to be back in court seeking a permanent injunction against encampment removals until a court can hear its lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the city’s policies for closing down the tent encampments.
After the deal was reached, Edmonton lawyer Avnish Nanda thanked those who spoke out public against the mass-clearance campaign. “The thousands of you who sent emails to elected officials, made calls, and shared concerns online have shifted the narrative and parameters on how the City approaches the unhoused,” he said in a tweet yesterday evening.
“Emergency injunctions are not easy things to bring forward, and even harder to obtain,” he said in related tweets. “While the decision we received today wasn’t what we fully asked for, it’s a step forward in recognizing the rights and dignity of the unhoused and propels us on the path towards our main injunction hearing on January 11, 2024.”
“The Coalition extends its heartfelt gratitude to social agencies, community organizations, outreach workers, and allies who have quickly come together to collaborate and provide tremendous support to the unhoused community over the weekend,” the group said on social media, urging supporters to continue to press the Edmonton Police Service and City Council to end mass displacements.
Meanwhile, the same day, the United Conservative Party was announcing plans to introduce new regulations that will make a response to the housing crisis in Alberta just a little bit harder.
It takes a certain amount of brass to present such policies as a way “to remove barriers to attainable and affordable housing,” but that is what the United Conservative Party Government, which surely knows no shame, did in announcing that changes will be made by cabinet to the province’s city charter regulations.
Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver claimed in a press release that the changes “will help limit the potential for cost increases to new housing.”
In reality, two of the three changes are obviously intended to increase the profitability of the province’s powerful sprawl cabal, the development companies who maximize their profits by emphasizing building expensive suburban single-family houses and dump the costs of sprawling development on municipalities and their taxpayers.
By reducing the ability of municipalities to charge developers for part of the cost of servicing new areas, the first of the three changes, the government will ensure more money goes into the pockets of developers and must be paid by municipalities and their taxpayers.
Similarly, eliminating inclusionary housing provisions that let municipalities require developers to fund affordable housing when building more profitable types of housing, will enhance developer profits at the expense of affordability. Mr. McIver’s release, however, claims it will “help limit the potential for cost increases to new housing.”
On the contrary, said Ward papastew City Councillor Michhael Janz, “the UCP are just worried about their wealthy donors, not the public interest.”
Neither of these policies were magic bullets that could solve the housing crisis, Mr. Janz, noted, but it’s “totally tone deaf” to remove them in the midst of a national housing crisis the symptoms of which are obvious in the streets of downtown Edmonton.
The third change, ending the ability of municipalities to make bylaws about energy efficiency and heat retention, will “ensure there is one uniform building code standard across Alberta,” the government said in its press release.
That may be so, but the motivation is obviously quite different. As long as the UCP is in power, no Alberta municipality will be permitted to do anything that might put a brake on the oil and gas industry!
Seriously, can you imagine what might happen to fossil gas sales if municipalities required home builders to install heat pumps instead of gas furnaces?
Reports cast light on premier’s apparent interference in AHS
Despite the repeated claims of UCP politicians and spokespersons that Alberta Health Services does its own hiring and firing, recent news stories have cast light on just how deep into AHS operations the government is prepared to reach.
Yesterday morning, The Globe and Mail reported how an AHS vice-president quit his job in June to protest the way Premier Danielle Smith appeared to personally overrule a decision by then AHS Administrator John Cowell to allow former Chief Medical Officer of Health Deena Hinshaw to be hired by the agency’s Indigenous Wellness Core.
Dr. Hinshaw had been fired as CMOH five weeks after Ms. Smith, a frequent critic of measures to control the spread of COVID-19 during the pandemic, was sworn in as premier.
Yesterday afternoon, Ms. Smith insisted to reporters at a news conference that Dr. Cowell made the call, which seems pretty unlikely since just days before he’d approved the decision to hire Dr. Hinshaw.
Both the Globe and the CBC revealed yesterday that Alberta Ethics Commissioner Marguerite Trussler quietly opened an inquiry into the premier’s apparent interference in the matter months ago.
“The situation around Hinshaw’s second firing raises many important questions about public administration,” Mount Royal University political scientist Duane Bratt observed yesterday on social media. “This goes well beyond Hinshaw the person and are about the principles of a democracy.”
“Do we want a situation where the Premier has a veto over all hiring/firing in the public sector?” asked professor Bratt in a series of tweets. “Not just at the top (which are explicitly political appointments), but throughout the system. Hinshaw’s second firing was from a part-time position, multiple rungs from the top.”
He suggested the premier’s interference amounted to “essentially, blackballing someone from working in their field in the province of Alberta?”
The Smith Government’s standing committee on legislative officers decided in November that Ms. Trussler, who last May found that Ms. Smith broke Legislature ethics rules, will not have her term renewed. Her current contract expires in May 2024.
The UCP are as heartless as you can get in a provincial government. Where are these homeless people supposed to go to? If the UCP provided proper support for the less fortunate, like they do with their rich corporate friends, this wouldn’t be an issue. The UCP will only blame someone else, because it’s all they are good at, when something they are doing goes wrong.
Dr. Deena Hinshaw was thrown under the bus by the UCP. It’s another classic example of them blaming someone else when something they did went wrong. Yes, the UCP has done so many wrong things, and it has cost us in financial terms, with all of their very pricey shenanigans, that cost us billions of dollars, and in a personal sense, with matters pertaining to record setting Covid-19 case numbers that were in this province, and the second largest E-Coli outbreak in Canada’s history, at those daycares. In addition, we’ve also seen higher power prices, insurance costs that spiked, and environmental degradation.
I am sure the UCP are intent on getting private for profit healthcare in Alberta. It’s what they seem to want to accomplish, by the way they are handling the public healthcare system in Alberta. More and more people are getting sick in Alberta, with respiratory conditions, the flu, and Covid-19, and this is once again overwhelming the hospitals. By putting strain on the public healthcare system in Alberta, it becomes weakened, and therefore the justification to privatize it happens.
I really wonder if there is anyone who voted for the UCP who now regrets doing so? If these people would have listened to people who said the UCP were no good, instead of calling them nasty names (I remember reading about one person who opposed the UCP being called a communist in a newspaper column forum), we would not be in this terrible mess. I remember how bad Ralph Klein was. Personally, I believe Danielle Smith is out doing him, while Peter Lougheed is spinning in his grave.
This is how it’s going to be for the rest of the UCP’s term in office. Inhumanity is baked right into this government. Showing their disdain for the unhoused on the day of this court injunction in Edmonton with regulations that guarantee housing for the un-wealthy will not get one bit more affordable is peak arrogance. How about another smug smirk for the cameras, Ms. Smith?
Now we have a better idea of what will happen if the Smith government gets its own police force. Police will not serve the people of the community. They’ll be an enforcement arm of government against the people. Haven’t we seen this before in world history, specifically 100 years ago?
As for limiting the power of municipalities to do anything about renewable energy and climate change, how long will it be before Smith oversees new rules fining individuals for putting solar panels on their own rooftops? Maybe she’ll order the destruction of the existing ones and retroactive fines for those who installed them, too. I’ve said before I wouldn’t put it past her. Freedom!
We all know that Ric McIver can fire any city council that is not to his liking. Just ask Chestermere.
Meanwhile, the water crisis is ignored. We’re at stage four drought on a scale of five. Word has it that water reservoirs in the south are precariously close to empty and that municipalities could be forced to truck in water as early as next month. Nothing will be done by the province. Thoughts and prayers, folks, or is that a Deena Hinshaw line?
Also yesterday, I learned from Danielle Smith that Doha is located in Dubai. Who knew?! It takes a special kind of stupid to take an entourage on an international trade mission, signing deals, when you don’t know where you are or were or who you signed those deals with. Hey, maybe we should model Alberta after Qatar. Qatar doesn’t have homelessness, or something.
https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/qatar/#:~:text=Discrimination%3A%20The%20constitution%20asserts%20equality,%2C%20child%20custody%2C%20and%20inheritance.
In conclusion, my lesson for today: if Alberta had access to tidewater, Alberta would be clubbing baby seals.
Regarding your police force comment Abs: that ship sailed for all police forces a very long time ago.
The province of Alberta has been an oil state since oil was discovered. Alberta is a democracy in name only, conservative governments have been in power for over 40 years, not unlike many authoritarian oil states around the world. One result of this is that much of the population has become smug regarding anything related to the public trust: education, health care, the poor, and so on. Still there are people willing to stand up for those who are less fortunate, unfortunately they are in the minority. However, without their work, living would be much more difficult. For example, in American states where Republicans have ruled for years abject poverty is normal, remember Michael Moore’s films about Flint Michigan where he shone light about Michigan government corruption? Nothing has much changed. People suffer when those in government are happily anti-government and know and do nothing about governance for the people. Cruelty, fanaticism, bigotry, ignorance, corruption, intolerance is the underpinning of decisions made by conservatives, successfully duping the public into thinking they are doing the right thing for people.
Currently, humans around the world are in an existential crisis. Those who can are feathering their nests thinking that they will be exempt from economic, political, social, and human rights collapse, but no one is exempt from our collective future: a world in which far-right groups take control and shape the world into one of unimaginable horror.
The UCP of Alberta is an example of the above mentioned, a group of people who will stop at nothing to hammer those who stand in their way, ergo the less fortunate. Expect those are not heterosexual, artistic, thoughtful, caring, women, children to be increasingly pressured as we deplete the world’s resources – already we have millions of refugees submitting in camps and this number will increase. Also, expect the notion of seniors to be changed whereby the idea of a senior does not exist, save those who are living through aging. Expect pensions, benefits, medical services, the CBC, all social programs to become a thing of the past. The world will be place for the most wealthy and yes everyone else will suffer and yes many millions if not billions will die. In the most horrific scenario, the entire homeless population in Alberta would just somehow disappear as a result of UCP backroom dealing and extreme violence and illegal persecution, most Albertans would just shrug their shoulders asking “What is on sale, or how about those Oilers, or how is the weather?” In the near future meaning months, extremism will intensify unabated, and humanity will sleepwalk into starvation, disease, drought, environmental disaster, complete and utter global madness.
Sadly, the people of Alberta have spoken and see themselves in the Kleins and Smiths of the world. They feel vindicated, and their self-righteousness, murderous cruelty will become increasingly normalized. Gangs, thugs, the convoy groups, fanatics of all shape are taking over the world – Putin, Smith, Urban, Carlson (and the many presstitues in the media), Poilievre (have you seen the poles lately? The fact that people are turning to the conservatives is an indication of the movement toward embracing the agenda of Donald Trump – support for Putin et al and the end of the world as it currently exists)), a list that keeps growing, ever more powerful, ever more unstoppable. Should you find yourself persecuted, know that you are someone who stands against the warm global hug of the rise of histrionic, misanthropic, demagogues.
Serve our friends and beggar the poor? That’s the UCP brand! China can erect 500 temporary hospitals in weeks? We can’t be bothered to create housing for our most vulnerable? Gotta keep the dividends flowing offshore! https://youtu.be/oBlLbNVBKCc?t=3
For all the evils that have befallen the social media platform formerly known as Twitter — including its rebranding to ‘X’ — one has to acknowledge that from time to time, it serves a useful purpose.
Case in point: the G&M story on this affair, which was paywalled & so unreadable by anyone who chooses not to contribute to the “paper’s” revenue base. Some other intrepid denizen of the ‘X’ space posted a screen shot of the entire article, allowing anyone to read it & judge for themselves.
As for the matter at hand, Daniellezebub tried to claim she did not direct AHS to unhire Dr Hinshaw, despite Dr Manns’ assertions that in fact she did. One of them has to be lying — anyone want to take bets on which of them it is?
Jerry: To be pedantic about this, if Dr. Manns is right, then Ms. Smith is definitely lying. But if Ms. Smith is telling the truth, Dr. Manns is not necessarily lying. Most likely, in those circumstances, he has merely reached a mistaken inference based on the phone call of which he heard only one side. On the balance of probabilities, though, it’s most likely that Ms. Smith is lying, which in and of itself an unremarkable occurrence. On the topic of providing links to Globe and Mail stories, I am trying not to do that where an un-paywalled alternative exists. DJC
Ric McIver is the worst kind of opportunist political hack. IOW, the perfect useful idiot for David Parker and his TBA cult government. Ric has demonstrated he is a very weak person.
Dr. Hinshaw might consider the path taken by another public health doctor dumped by Alberta tories: David Swann became a highly effective MLA (2004-2019) despite representing, and later leading, the moribund AB Libs.
Wikipedia summarizes thus: …In 2002, the Alberta Society of Health Officers passed a resolution calling for real government action on climate change and reductions to air pollution. Swann supported this resolution, and the government fired him from his position with Palliser Health within days. This led to widespread condemnation of the Alberta Environment Minister, Lorne Taylor, who had influenced Health Chairman Len Mitzel to terminate him. Under intense public pressure, the Palliser Board was forced to offer Swann his job back. He declined, instead making humanitarian trips to Iraq, then returning to Alberta to run in the 2004 provincial election….
Thanks for the history lesson. It is true that as bad as Smith may seem, government bullying has been a hallmark of Alberta conservatives for as long as I’ve lived in the province. We just have episodic memories in Alberta…which translates as essentially no memories to speak of.
Wish some intrepid reporter would do some research on how many qualified medical personnel Alberta Tories have dismissed…..because Swann is not alone. I seem to remember a prominent heart surgeon run out of the province around 2010…
The horror of their long reign in this province is how successful their bullying has been, and how few of us remember most of the instances.
I’m not sure about heart surgeons, but one doctor around that time wondered why Fort Chipewyan, north of Fort MacMurray, had an astonishing number of rare cancers. The doctor, John O’Connor (if I remember rightly), asked the Alberta Medical Association (I think) to investigate–and was promptly bullied into silence. He left for the Maritimes shortly after.
(Hysterical footnote: my memory is imperfect. What follows may be inaccurate. Feel free to check and correct my account.)
There was an investigation, sort of, but it concluded there wasn’t any unusual concentration of rare cancers in the Fort Chip area. Doctors who were not part of the review promptly pointed out flaws in the methods, e.g. nobody went there to actually examine patients.
Naturally there was no apology ever issued to Dr. O’Connor. Nor do I believe there’s ever been a follow-up study.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-whistleblower-fort-chipewyan-john-o-connor-1.5943389 DJC
Thanks DJC. It’s good to know that some good has come out of Dr. O’Connor’s courage and willingness to speak truth to power.
Potentially, I can see this chaos weaponized into a coup against Queen Danielle.
David Parker, in a bizarre fit of altruism and Christian charity, makes the case that Smith is “incompetent” and pledges to remove her from the Premier’s Office. Who will be the favoured successor? Anyone who favours Parker. I suspect the rift maybe the result of funding (public) not finding its way to TBA and Parker. All the War Room money sitting there just waiting to be used.
It’s only a matter of time.
For those of us who try to stay tuned, the UCP under Smith is doing exactly what right wing governments do. Vote for them and this is what you can expect. Join their cabal and this is likely what you want…….everyone having to kowtow to the government and do what some king, or queen, pin demands.
It’s not democracy. But since when was a petro state democratic? Sure its Christmas, but not for Dina Henshaw, after her best efforts to serve the Public under Kenney, and not for the homeless in Edmonton, under threat of eviction and told to be happy McIver is preparing a bill to make it easier for his development buddies to build for the well off…….and be supplemented by the municipal tax dollars of the rest of us.
Way to go Conservative Albertans….you are building the future the 10% want.
Today there is a letter dated Dec 18 and signed by Trussler saying she investigated Cowell and concluded proper process was followed on the evidence she had, and that she did not investigate the Premier.
https://nitter.net/cspotweet/status/1737173695976927268#m
Circuitous wording, and why is Cowell no longer under the Conflict of Interest Act? Did Smith/UCP change the terms of his position?
The office of the Ethics Commissioner has strict limits and a narrow scope for what can and cannot be investigated. This, of course, is by design.
It’s why we’ll need a LOT of judicial inquiries if we’re ever to learn who REALLY makes decisions in the Smith mis-government.
This CBC article has more details from a phone call with Trussler; she was just investigating in narrow limits for conflict of interest for Cowell.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-ethics-commissioner-ends-investigation-into-dr-deena-hinshaw-s-dismissal-from-indigenous-health-job-1.7064017
If Danielle Smith didn’t order Dr. Hinshaw fired out of sheer petty-minded spite, then Rob Anderson did. That’s true for BOTH incidents. In my opinion, Hinshaw would have been justified to sue for wrongful dismissal–BOTH times.
Kudos to Ric McIver, for a masterclass in the use of Con-Speak. Or, as per George Orwell, a combination of doublethink and Newspeak. When we need to build affordable housing—see section on homeless camps, above—when we need to make buildings more and more energy-efficient—see comments on municipal bylaws, above—then it is that the UCP alleged government earns a “Dinosaur of the Day” award by making both goals that much harder.
Ralph Klein made a name for himself at a Toronto meeting, Chamber of Commerce or some such, way back in the pre-Covid days. He “joked” that the world was being warmed up by dinosaur farts. That got a big laugh from the CEOs. Well, the joke’s on Alberta now. The dinosaurs doing the most farting are in the Legislature.
To paraphrase the wonderful Texas political columnist, the late great Molly Ivins;
“As they say around the Legislature, if you can’t drink their whiskey, screw their women, take their money, and vote against ’em anyway, you don’t belong in office”.
UCP cruelty is a feature, not a bug.
DJC, I think you’re being a little wishy-washy here saying that Dr. Manns quit “…to protest the way Premier Danielle Smith appeared to personally overrule a decision by then AHS Administrator John Cowell…” According to the G&M article Dr. Manns didn’t say “appeared” he flat out accused the Premier of directing Mr. Cowell to un-hire Dr. Hinshaw. The G&M article says Dr. Cowell publicly “stated that the Premier is firm that there can be no hiring of Dr. Hinshaw.” Maybe you’re afraid of being sued but I’d say Danielle Smith stands accused of directly intervening in mid-level AHS decisions, also “essentially, blackballing someone from working in their field in the province of Alberta..” although I would replace essentially with exactly. If Danielle doesn’t successfully sue Dr. Manns (she won’t) then it’s confirmed.
Then in today’s CBC article (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-ethics-commissioner-ends-investigation-into-dr-deena-hinshaw-s-dismissal-from-indigenous-health-job-1.7064017) the AB ethics commissioner all but says the dismissal was ordered by Danielle Smith or maybe Adriana LaGrange, it’s ludicrous to suggest someone below Mr. Cowell could/would reverse his hiring decision. It’s clear Dr. Hinshaw is being blackballed and I’ll be surprised if she doesn’t successfully sue, it seriously impacts her career.
MIckey: Wishy-washy? Moi? I was trained in cautious old-timely newspaper ways. Sometimes it shines through. You’re right, though, Dr. Manns was pretty definite. I am pretty sure the commissioner is not pointing at Ms. LaGrange. The evidence most strongly points to Ms. Smith. Like you, I have been waiting for the other shoe to drop, when we learn that Dr. Hinshaw has engaged legal counsel. DJC
Re exactly who hired, then fired, Deena Hinshaw, there’s a bit more information in this CBC article:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-ethics-commissioner-ends-investigation-into-dr-deena-hinshaw-s-dismissal-from-indigenous-health-job-1.7064017
About all Marguerite Trussler was able, or allowed, to say was that John Cowell didn’t decide to fire Dr. Hinshaw. Exactly what the “proper process” was, Trussler’s letter does not say.
Given the extremely narrow scope of the Ethics Commissioner’s duties, there was never any hope Trussler would reveal the truth—even if she happened to learn it. And, “…given the evidence in the investigation of Dr. Cowell, I did not pursue an investigation of the Premier.”
You bet she didn’t. Trussler told CBC, “[Smith] wouldn’t have a private interest, she would only have a political interest, and people don’t understand the distinction.”
“Only” a political interest? Not bloody likely. Smith has made it very clear she had a PERSONAL interest in punishing Deena Hinshaw and AHS generally for daring to tell her and her fellow bozos to wear masks and stay six feet apart in public spaces.
Does every rural redneck and right-wing religious fruitcake in this province have a psychotic hatred of authority? Did everybody who likes Pierre Poilievre—or worse, Max Bernier—have a mean daddy? What is WRONG with these people that they can’t see simple rules like these, tested and proven over 100 years ago, could have kept them and their loved ones, not totally safe, but a lot safer than “you can’t tell me what to do!”
The irony with Hinshaw’s firing is she abdicated her responsibilities and pretended she had no authority, perhaps mistakenly thinking she would keep her job. It would appear she ended up trading her dignity for a fat bonus and no doubt she received a wonderful golden handshake. As the saying goes, you aren’t selling out as long as you get enough money.
Agree 100% with this. Absolutely zero sympathy from me towards Hinshaw.
Two things strike me in these Government moves.
First, it seems that the UCP attacks any Federal measure to improve Canada’s fortunes (including plastics are not toxic and that Electric Vehicles are a constitutional matter just today), yet at the same time reserves the right to prevent Municipal governments taking measures that they see as needed in their areas, if the UCP decides they don’t like them. Which is ridiculous! One size does not fit all, and what might be good in Lethbridge might not be feasible in Banff or Fort McMurray!
Second, it seems that the narrow confines of ‘Ethics’ in Alberta do not consider revenge as a ‘private interest’, and in any case it doesn’t matter as the Premier cannot be investigated if a conflict of interest is deemed to be “political”. This gives the UCP carte blanche, because what does a politician do that they cannot claim to be in the ‘political interest’?