Sorry, we’re closed … Well, OK, just three more things

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith poked the top of her head out of the hole she’d dug for herself yesterday and announced her government has momentarily “paused” the book ban she insists isn’t a book ban long enough to rewrite it to say it’s only about images and that literary classics can stay.

Unlike Japan, Canada doesn’t have Living National Treasures in law, but we have living national treasures just the same, and when one of them mocks a government for an obvious bonehead play, even the boneheads have to pay attention.

I speak, of course, of living national treasure Margaret Atwood’s intervention in Ms. Smith’s book-ban brouhaha, seeing as what is probably the author’s most famous work of fiction, The Handmaid’s Tale, met the criteria to be banished from school libraries by the Government policy intended to placate the would-be theocrats of the United Conservative Party’s base. 

When Ms. Atwood speaks, the world listens. When she writes a little satire about our Wild Rose book banners and publishes it on social media, even the BBC and The New York Times perk up and pay attention. So must our home-grown authoritarians – if only reluctantly. 

Ms. Smith and the UCP say that they didn’t really mean what they said when Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides issued a Ministerial Order to school boards to ban any book containing “explicit sexual content” by Oct. 25, and that they were no longer to loan materials “containing non-explicit sexual content” to students in Grade 9 and below. 

They insist, moreover, that the province’s school boards should have understood that they were really saying one thing when they pretended to be saying another, and should have gone along with their unexpressed policy, which they now claim was just getting rid of picture books containing racy material.

They’re particularly infuriated by the Edmonton Public School Board since its staff drafted the list of books to be banned under the UCP criteria that soon found its way into the hands of pretty well everyone in Alberta. This included a number of books legitimately described as classics – Ms. Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale, George Orwell’s 1984 andF. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, for example. Plus some that certainly cannot – Ms. Smith’s favourite fairy tale, for example, Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. 

Ms. Smith can insist that school boards should have known what Dr. Nicolaides meant when he said something different, but most folks rightly agree that the government owns this one. 

“I will be revising the order immediately to ensure that our classic literary works remain in school libraries, while books with graphic pornographic images, such as those depicted below, do not end up in the hands of children,” Dr. Nicolaides said in a tweet, apparently turning the Alberta government into a distributor of porn in the process.

Ms. Smith was crankier, tweeting, “I’m going to be more explicit than usual so there is no misunderstanding this policy: 1. Get graphic pornographic images out of school libraries. 2. Leave the classics on the shelves. 3. We all know the difference between the items in 1 and 2. Let’s not play any more games in implementing this policy for our kids.”

So just what is that what this new, revised Ministerial Order going to say? Will it say something entirely different, too, that the premier may or may not mean? I guess we’ll find out soon … although probably not in a couple of hours, as the premier promised. 

I hate to break it to the UCP, but defining any book published more than a couple of years ago between hard covers as a classic is going to cause further difficulties for Ms. Smith and her merry band of book banners. 

One has to wonder, does this open the school library door to, say, Fanny Hill, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, and the Decameron, which every schoolboy in the 1960s claimed to have read – and had not because that was before the Internet.

Of course, everyone understands that the books the UCP actually wanted to ban were those with 2SLGBTQ+ themes. Everyone also understands that when literary vigilantes allied with the UCP went hunting for books to ban, Dr. Nicolaides could have solved the problem with a phone call to the schools where they were found, and a memo about the four specific titles to other schools.

But – oh, no! – the UCP couldn’t resist the temptation create a wedge, and now they’re paying the price. 

Long may they squirm.

JCCF President John Carpay disbarred by Alberta Law Society

John Carpay, president of the so-called Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms and a prominent social conservative with ties to the UCP Government, has been disbarred by the Law Society of Alberta.

In a statement published yesterday, the Law Society said its Hearing Committee had ordered Mr. Carpay disbarred effective immediately. At the same time, the society, which regulates the conduct of members of the legal profession, published a notice that Jay Cameron, who like Mr. Carpay had been employed as a lawyer by the JCCF, had also been disbarred effective immediately. 

Mr. Carpay was required to pay costs of $7,457.50 to the Law Society; Mr. Cameron to pay costs of $5,270.63. 

The blistering report by the Hearing Committee into Messrs. Carpay and Cameron’s role hiring a private eye to shadow a Manitoba judge concluded that “the gravity of this misconduct cannot be underestimated,” and that “we have concluded that there is no disciplinary measure short of disbarment that can achieve the ‘most fundamental’ goal of maintaining the reputation of the profession.”

What Labour Day tells us about Edmonton’s mayoral race

For anyone who hasn’t been paying attention, a new Leger poll shows a close mayoral race in Edmonton, with long-time councillor Andrew Knack at 12 per cent ahead of conservative Tim Cartmell with 10 per cent. Mr. Cartmell was previously identified by local media as the front-runner. 

Meanwhile, according to the survey, former councillor Michael Walters, whose last foray into politics was in an ill-fated effort to resurrect Progressive Conservatives under the Alberta Party banner, posted seven-per-cent support. 

He in turn is followed closely by Rahim Jaffer, a former Harper-era Conservative best known for, shall we say, his less-than-serious approach to public resources.

The Edmonton Journal’s story on the poll quoted Mr. Knack’s competitors explaining at length why his lead isn’t really a lead. The Walters campaign, for example, suggested that contrary to the way most people understand how numbers work, their candidate’s seven-per-cent showing means “momentum is on our side.”

So how did Mr. Knack take the lead from the rest of the field? His performance on Labour Day in a city full of public sector employees may give a hint. 

After receiving an endorsement from the Amalgamated Transit Union, Mr. Knack delivered his own Labour Day message. “My commitment is clear,” he said, “as mayor, Edmonton’s public services will stay public. I won’t privatize them … because when services stay public, everyone benefits.”

Later, he stopped at the Edmonton and District Labour Council’s Labour Day BBQ to serve food to the hundreds who turn out every year, then completed a 42-kilometre trek across Edmonton talking with voters. 

Mr. Cartmell, by contrast, appears to have taken a break and said nothing at all about Labour Day. For his part, Mr. Walters, the most likely beneficiary of Mr. Cartmell’s sinking support, marked the occasion by talking about himself. His favourite food is sushi and his mom’s fried chicken, he said in a video that sounded like some kind of corporate ice-breaker. He has a cute dog too, but apparently no thoughts about labour or Labour Day. 

As a councillor back in 2018, though, he told the Edmonton Journal’s David Staples that “it’s time to study the ever rising salaries and benefits” of city employees. He also said the city should fully privatize waste management. In 2023, he implied there was a conspiracy between city councillors and the transit union to oppose an idea he backed.

Mr. Walters isn’t in favour of austerity for all public servants, though. He recently argued the mayor should get a $77,000 raise to match the city manager’s $300,000 annual salary.

Sounds like a good fit for voters looking for a UCP-friendly mayor!

OK, I’m outta here! DJC