Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Image: Wikimedia Commons/Jeffery J. Nichols

Leduc No. 1 and Alberta's unluckiest lucky day

| February 14, 2017

February 13 is the 70th anniversary of the day Alberta simultaneously won the lottery and started to watch everything go to hell in a handcart. February 13...Alberta's unluckiest lucky day.

In other words, 70 years ago, with memories of the Great Depression and the Second World War still very fresh in the minds of the province's population of about 800,000 souls, Leduc No. 1, a few miles south of Edmonton, struck oil and the whole world changed.

Cars didn't have seat belts back in 1947, so no one thought to say: "Fasten your seat belts!" But by gosh, they should've!

Was pastor encouraged by right-wing allies to say intemperate things that could cost his private schools?

David J. Climenhaga

| September 6, 2016

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Who will Rev. Brian Coldwell blame if the Alberta government cuts off funding to two private Christian schools he administers for his open and aggressive defiance of a new law requiring all provincially funded schools to permit students to form gay-straight alliances if they wish?

It's time for a national postal bank in both Canada and the United States

David J. Climenhaga

| May 24, 2016

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We now live in the 21st century, a digital age, and it's time to recognize access to fairly priced banking service as a human right.

A decent life, after all, is all but impossible without a bank account. Access to banking services has rightly been called a passport to the modern economy.

Tories' Senate gambit shows Harper still runs the party and the party still holds Parliament in contempt

David J. Climenhaga

| January 29, 2016

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The Conservative Opposition's threat to use its majority in the unelected Senate to thwart the Trudeau government's plan to repeal two anti-labour laws passed when Stephen Harper was still prime minister is a very telling indication of that party's true commitment to the principles of democracy.

Alberta NDP defies voters by continuing to govern as if it won the election that put it in power: political scientist

David J. Climenhaga

| January 7, 2016

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It seems some Albertans, particularly those on the political right, continue to have difficulty getting the hang of this democracy thing!

Stephen Harper's terror travel ban is subversive and unconstitutional...but very clever

David J. Climenhaga

| August 10, 2015

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The Conservative Party's terror-travel ban proposal is vintage Stephen Harper -- subversive, unconstitutional and likely to have unintended consequences, but clever and highly motivating to the conservative base.

Why stop with just one religion? Shouldn't Ottawa certify clerics for all religions?

David J. Climenhaga

| July 10, 2015

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A Senate committee wants the federal government to "explore options" for the training and certification of imams, the National Post reports.

It's all part of a "wide-ranging set of recommendations aimed at confronting the threat of terrorism," don'tcha know? So saith the National Post, the word of the Lord (of Crossharbour).

Reflexive Toryism runs deep in Alberta -- too deep to just 'rescind'

David J. Climenhaga

| April 15, 2015

Alberta roundup: Press conferences, photo ops, on-line surveys, not to mention a body in the back of a pickup truck!

David J. Climenhaga

| February 5, 2015

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Is that just a whiff of panic I smell in the air? Or just garden-variety manipulation?

Could be a bit of both, I guess …

Yesterday morning, Vickie Kaminski, CEO of the lumbering Alberta Health Services public health care agency, unexpectedly called a news conference in Edmonton to announce "cost-containment measures," as instructed by the Ministry of Health on December 22, no less. (Her point, not mine. So why today?)

Supreme Court ruling on Saskatchewan public service labour law has huge implications for Alberta

David J. Climenhaga

| February 4, 2015

The Supreme Court of Canada's ruling last Friday that Saskatchewan's "essential services" law is unconstitutional because it interferes with the Charter-protected right of public sector workers to bargain collectively and strike if necessary spells big trouble for Alberta.

Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

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