FAIR DEAL: Edmonton's not asking for a special deal, just a fair deal. Data shows Edmonton is receiving inadequate support compared to Calgary. It is not hyperbole: the ideological policy choices of the UCP and their surrogates have resulted in suffering, unnecessary cruelty, criminalization, amputations, and premature death. Not to mention your higher home and car insurance, policing, security, and other costs.
Meanwhile, another Shigella Outbreak has been re-declared in our most vulnerable community.
Please share the full video here: The Contrast Between Edmonton and Calgary.
Finally, Premier Smith found time to meet with Edmonton's Mayor this past week after being elected leader (half a year ago?) in October. Mayor Sohi compiled an impressive amount of data showing how Edmonton isn't getting a fair deal compared to Calgary. This isn't partisan, it's just fact.
https://medium.com/mayorsohi/edmonton-city-council-requests-provincial-support-for-community-safety-and-well-being-22b5ed142efd
If you hear about or see an encampment in your community, an unhoused person on the LRT, a person with addiction in your alleyway-- make sure to help your neighbours draw a clear line of responsibility between the provincial governments failures surrounding health and social services and the outcomes on your block.
My office is working on compiling tax data to show how we are paying higher property taxes (policing costs for example) as a consequence. Please reach out if you would like to support this exercise.
NEXT STOP: TRANSIT CAMP: What if taking transit was the FIRST CHOICE for your children or neighbours? Do you feel like you even have a choice? Over 300 have RSVP'd to spend Saturday at Transit Camp to dig into building better transit for everyone!
NEW GUEST SPEAKER:
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Shelagh Pizey-Allen, the organizer for the
Toronto-based TTC Riders will be joining us virtually in the afternoon. The work they do is a model for what we can do.
CAKE ALERT:
March 18th is transit operators appreciation day. We will have a cake!
OPTIONAL BACKGROUND READING:
BOOK LAUNCH: This isn't a prohibition advocacy book, but after reading James Wilt's book, I'm only drinking local from now on, and I'm trying to push for more alternatives. Let's talk about alcohol policy, monopolies, corruption, public health, drugs, relaxation, and celebrate working class joy.
Join us at Dewey's billiards and pub on Campus. Doors and billiards at 4:00PM, and then James Wilt will be giving his book talk and Q&A at 6PM. All attendees will receive a take-home "boocha" courtesy of BoochaYEG/my office. Proceeds to the Campus Food Bank.
ROLLIE MILES: Check out the design and share feedback!
Online Public Engagement Meeting - Wednesday, March 15, 2023 6:30 p.m. The project team will discuss the schematic design and answer questions. Registration Link
Online Survey March 15 - March 29, 2023 - Visit the project page for survey link: edmonton.ca/RollieMilesRec
This is the second round of engagement on the planning and design of the project. Last fall, engagement helped determine which of the three options was best suited for the community. This round of engagement serves to confirm the choices made and collect feedback on the design. Following this engagement, the project design will progress with the goal of having the preliminary design completed by the end of summer. The project is currently funded through planning and design (Project Develop and Deliver Model - Checkpoint 3).
For information on the project, visit edmonton.ca/RollieMilesRec
AWAITING JUSTICE: CITYNEWS notes, two weeks later, still no answers. Edmonton Police Brutality caught on video. Officer duty status "under review".
Good on @CityNewsYEG for their persistence. "Two weeks later, it’s still UNCLEAR if there were any injuries, or what charges the man is facing. As for the officer, Edmonton police confirmed Friday, his DUTY STATUS, IS STILL UNDER REVIEW."
ACCOUNTABILITY: Taproot News reported this week that a slightly higher number police officers are leaving their position. This item will be reviewed at City Council this week.
What was interesting is that the Police spokesperson in the taproot story. According to EPS spokesperson Aubrey Zalaski many left, “citing a negative political environment that made the job less enjoyable."
Local Journalists at Progress Alberta looked up Aubrey Zalaski in the Alberta Police Misconduct Database and found three entries on him: In 2007, Zalaski was found to have accosted an individual with no lawful authority to arrest him, and used an excessive amount of force after tasering the man. Zalaski was found and convicted of assault with a weapon. In 2010 Zalaski went on CHED and blamed women for being sexually assaulted for which he later apologized.
Police expert Tom Engel noted that "One of the most significant reasons for this is the coercive effect on morale when good cops see bad cops not held accountable & worse, promoted, as has been the case with @edmontonpolice for decades. Chief Knecht was working on that but things have regressed since he left. This was established in a 2006 report: "The majority of the membership believe in stricter discipline & are disappointed that those who break the rules repeatedly are rarely dealt with appropriately." citing a CBC story about a scathing internal report: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/scathing-report-raises-questions-about-eps-professionalism-1.1401166
OSBA Celebrations Great Thinks Happening around Old Strathcona / Whyte Avenue
Provocations from around the internet...
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What's up with Russell Brand? https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/10/russell-brand-politics-public-figures-responsibility
- Can’t Get You Out of My Head: An Emotional History of the Modern World, the latest series from journalist and BAFTA award-winning filmmaker, Adam Curtis. The series will premiere exclusively on BBC iPlayer on 11 February 2021. Can’t Get You Out of My Head tells the story of how we got to the strange days we are now experiencing. And why both those in power - and we - find it so difficult to move on. The films trace different forces across the world that have led to now, not just in the West, but in China and Russia as well. It covers a wide range - including the strange roots of modern conspiracy theories, the history of China, opium and opiods, the history of Artificial Intelligence, melancholy over the loss of empire and, love and power. And explores whether modern culture, despite its radicalism, is really just part of the new system of power. And the films are told in a different way - they are an emotional history of what went on inside the heads of all kinds of people. Because in the age of the individual - what you felt and what you wanted and what you dreamed of were going to become the driving force across the world. What was forgotten in that age was that much of what we feel is also formed by the society around us. Above all by the power structures. And now those structures are decaying - everywhere - their weakness and uncertainty makes us feel empty and frightened of the future. That is what is paralysing us - and blocking us from imagining different kinds of societies and a better future Can’t Get You Out of My Head is an epic history that shows how and why that happened. How we made this particular world. And that it was not inevitable. Can’t Get You Out of My Head: An Emotional History of the Modern World | BBC
