After nine years as Progress Alberta's executive director and the editor of the Progress Report, Duncan Kinney is moving on to stabler, more raise-a-family-able things. Join us as we reminisce about some of our greatest hits during Duncan's tenure and talk frankly about the issue of 'activist journalism.'

Jeremy and Duncan review the state of the ANDP leadership race, offer their predictions, and tell you how they'd fill out their ballots today.

Canadian Anti-Hate Network writer and research Peter Smith joins host Duncan Kinney to talk about the recent spate of far right protests at all-ages drag reading events and other queer events in Alberta—and the counter-protests that resist them.

Our guest Abdul Malik makes the case for why the UCP's new union busting bill is actually good. Plus Duncan follows up on his story about the Ukrainian Nazi collaborator war criminal statue by going down the Ukrainian Nazi collaborator rabbit hole. 

Listen and subscribe on Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts or just subscribe to the RSS feed

If you like this podcast and you want to support it go to https://www.theprogressreport.ca/patrons and become a monthly patron!

Further reading:

• Opinion: Alberta labour needs the UCP’s union busting bill
• Ukrainian Youth Unity Complex denies that statue they have of a Nazi collaborator war criminal is a Nazi collaborator war criminal
• What does a worker look like?
• How a network of Ukrainian ultra-nationalists penetrated Canada’s Conservative Party to lobby for military conflict
• Long-Distance Nationalism: Ukrainian Monuments and Historical Memory in Multicultural Canada
• INCO imported ex-Nazis, RCMP report says
• War Criminality: A Blank Spot in the Collective Memory of the Ukrainian Diaspora
• Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations
• The Jakarta Method book review

The UCP have dramatically changed the rules around municipal elections in Alberta making it easier for conservatives to win and for big money to sway elections. We dissect the rule changes and the upcoming municipal horse races in Edmonton and Calgary with Romy Garrido. 

We discuss the the organizing and struggle to end police brutality in Calgary and rural Alberta with comedian, public speaker and organizer Adora Nwofor. 

What does society look like when community safety isn't handled by armed cops authorized to kill people? In part two of our conversation on disarming, defunding and dismantling the police with Reakash Walters and Molly Swain, we discuss the abolitionist position.

Edmonton and Calgary spend nine times more on the police than they spend on housing the homeless or social programs. Combined the two cities spend $750 million a year on cops. We talk with Reakash Walters and Molly Swain about how to divest from police and invest in the community. 

The UCP are trying to snatch away financial, social and education benefits from 2100 former foster kids. It's incredibly cruel and totally needless and A.C. and her lawyer Avnish Nanda have taken the government to court and won to keep these benefits – for now. We talk about this case with Nanda and Jenn Prosser an organizer and campaigner who grew up in foster care and kinship care during the aftermath of Klein's cuts. 

We have friend of the pod Jeremy Appel on to talk about how his latest story for the Progress Report, The Manitok Manoeuvre, as well as the Sprawl getting shutout of the media bailout, the Herald caring more about "big beef days" than dead meatpacking workers and the Progress Report's transition to a full-time media organization. Show notes at www.theprogressreport.ca/jeremy_appel_manitok_meatpacking_postmedia_manifesto

Filipinos in Alberta are bearing the brunt of COVID-19 in Alberta as outbreaks in meatpacking plants and continuing care facilities hit our province. Around 60-80% of the workers in the Cargill meatpacking plant, the largest workplace outbreak in Canada, are Filipino. And now they're feeling unfairly blamed because of the government's and even Dr. Deena Hinshaw's statements on the matter. We talk about this and the Healthcare for All campaign with Migrante Alberta director Marco Luciano. Full show notes at www.theprogressreport.ca/filipino_community_and_covid_19

Learn how Alberta's most incompetent pension fund manager, AIMCo, vapourized $4 billion of pensioner's and Heritage Trust Fund money and how they've shovelled more than $1.1 billion towards likely to fail oil and gas companies with more than $3 billion in environmental liabilities. 

Our guest this week is Greg Meeker, former chair of the Alberta Teachers' Retirement Fund, and one of Alberta's most knowledgeable and outspoken commentators on pensions. 

Jason Kenney just committed the biggest mass layoff in Alberta's history in the middle of a pandemic. It's the kind of cruel and contemptible behaviour we've come to expect. To help us process and understand the fallout from the brutal decision to fire 26,000 education workers we have Edmonton Public School Board trustee Bridget Stirling on the pod.

Freelance investigative journalist and former paramedic Brett McKay joins Duncan Kinney to discuss his recent piece in the Breach which makes the convincing case that the increased use precarious paramedics in Alberta is a part of a deliberate strategy to make it easier for the UCP to privatize ambulance service in Alberta.

If you like this podcast please support it! Go to https://www.theprogressreport.ca/patrons and become a monthly patron. Make a one-time donation here. Or e-transfer a donation to info@progressalberta.ca

Links:

• Rise in Alberta’s precarious paramedics a UCP ‘privatization strategy’

The pandemic has only just begun but the folks working overnight to stock shelves and spending exhausting days on their feet dealing with panicky, frazzled customers are absolutely essential workers. They are keeping our society together. And yet the workers at your local Safeway in Alberta have been fighting for a fair contract for months with an employer that wants to roll back wages and cut benefits for these heroes. 

To discuss the issues facing unionized grocery store workers in Alberta during this emergency health crisis we talk with Tom Hesse, president of UFCW 401.

With the global economy in freefall thanks to the one-two punch of coronavirus and an oil price war we explore a very relevant subject in the months and years to come – AIMCo's investments in oil and gas companies that will likely go bankrupt and drop billions of dollars worth of environmental liabilities on the public. 

We have Regan Boychuk of the Alberta Liabilities Disclosure Project on to discuss the subject.

The UCP government tried to stop us from reporting on their no-good, very bad 2020 budget. They called us an advocacy organization and tried to keep us out of the media lockup. But we didn't back down, we took the government to court and won and now Jason Kenney owes us $2000. We talk with Heidi Besuijen, Progress Alberta's lawyer, about the case and Jim and Duncan break down the worst parts of the 2020 budget. 

How did reconciliation die? Arresting peaceful land defenders so a corporation could build a pipeline through unceded Indigenous territory at the end of RCMP-held assault rifles didn’t help but Jason Kenney played his part too. He stoked the flames of petronationalism for political gain and continues to use the time-tested settler tactic of divide and conquer. We get into the specifics of Kenney’s reconciliation strategy with Rob Houle.

For full show notes visit https://www.theprogressreport.ca/reconciliation_is_dead_and_kenney_helped_kill_it

We talk with Scott Schmidt and Jeremy Appel of the Medicine Hat News. We learn how they carved out a space for themselves in the Alberta political discourse as two of the only members of the mainstream media willing to say that THERE! ARE! FOUR! LIGHTS! when it comes to Jason Kenney’s regime. For the full show notes, head to www.theprogressreport.ca/the_news_boys

Everybody's talking about it. It's the latest, best policy idea to come from the left since public healthcare and public education – it's free (and good!) public transit. We don't pay to go to the park, we don't pay to ride elevators, we don't have toll roads – so why do we pay for public transit? We already pay for most of the costs of public transit, "free" transit is just properly funding transit with public money, which we get by taxing the rich. When we eliminate fares for everyone we reduce carbon pollution, traffic and the cost of living not to mention all the positive economic effects and the reconciliation, racial justice and accessibility issues that are addressed with free transit. Can you tell we like the idea? 

We talk with Laura Kruse and Paige Gorsak with Free Transit Edmonton about their exciting new campaign to bring free transit to all. 

If you like this podcast and you want to support it go to https://www.theprogressreport.ca/patrons and become a monthly patron!

Further reading:

• The Amalgamated Transit Union of Canada's support for fare-free transit
• Jacobin: Public transit can be free
• Vox: Kansas City is making its bus system fare-free. Will other cities do the same?
• Free Transit Edmonton

Progress Alberta speaks with the only person to provide even a halfway amount of drama in Alberta during the last federal election – Michael Kalmanovitch. He was the Green candidate for Edmonton-Strathcona who, just days before the federal election, threw his support behind NDP candidate Heather McPherson the only non-Conservative elected to parliament in Alberta. We talk about why he did it, what the Greens can learn from this and what's next for the Green part as Liz May steps down. Also, should Progress Report host Duncan Kinney run for leadership of the Greens? Email him at duncank@progressalberta.ca and let him know.

Listen and subscribe on Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts or just subscribe to the RSS feed

If you like this podcast and you want to support it go to https://www.theprogressreport.ca/patrons and become a monthly patron!

Further reading:

• Green Party kicks out Edmonton Strathcona candidate after he endorses NDP
• Elizabeth May resigns as Green Party leader after 13 years, plans to remain MP
• 2020 Green Party of Canada leadership election
• A Green/NDP merger? It could be a big hit

Jason Kenney’s brutal class warfare on Albertans on behalf of the rich means people want to fight back. And one of the biggest tools working folks have to fight back is the general strike – but it’s not to be undertaken lightly. We talk to Sam Gindin about the lessons learned from the Days of Action in Ontario in the ‘90s fighting Mike Harris and what folks who are considering a general strike today need to to think about.

Documents from the Glenbow Museum Archives show that Imperial Oil, a subsidiary of Exxon, knew about the catastrophic effects of climate change before anyone. Instead of telling the world and transforming their business they suppressed their research, started a climate denial PR war and started building dossiers and surveilling climate activists. We talk to Murtaza Hussain of the Intercept about his story on the Esso cover-up and on Iran and his investigative journalism on the Iran Cables. 

Stanned by Herald columnists, protected by the old boys' club, and allegely able to disintegrate a grown horse with a single strike: on today's pod Duncan and Mav Adecer delve into the wild history of UCP deputy house leader Jason Nixon.

Further reading:

• "Judge bars media from accessing video of UCP MLA Jason Nixon, siding with party lawyers"
• Sundre horse shooting trial adjourned
• Sundre man not guilty of threatening wildlife officer
• Alberta Conservative house leader fired single mother after she complained of sexual harassment
• Wildrose MLA Jason Nixon faces expulsion motion from students’ union

Mav's friend Jim who's getting sued is our very own Producer Jim, and you can donate to his legal defense fund here.

Support the Progress Report by becoming a patron!

Shama Rangwala joins Duncan Kinney to discuss the students of Uleth owning Frances Widdowson, the UCP reaction and the historical context of academic free speech and how it's been weaponized by the right.

If you like this podcast please support it! Go to https://www.theprogressreport.ca/patrons and become a monthly patron. Make a one-time donation here. Or e-transfer a donation to info@progressalberta.ca

Links:

• Pronouncing un-freedom
• Free Speech and the University: A Closer Look at the Chicago Principles
• Controversial academic meets noisy resistance at U of L after school halts planned lecture

While Albertans suffer from brutal austerity corporations in Alberta will collectively pocket $4.7 billion dollars from Kenney’s corporate tax cut - at least that’s what the government of Alberta and the media is telling you. But when you dig into what these companies are telling their shareholders you find something else entirely. To help us sort through this we have Angella Macewen, senior economist with the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

If you like our podcast and want to support it head to https://www.theprogressreport.ca/patrons and become a monthly patron!

Further reading:

• Labour party video on why corporate tax cuts don’t work
• Darren Gee, CEO of Peyo Exploration on climate change 
• Calgary Oil CEO Warns Workers Alberta Could Separate From Canada If Conservatives Lose the Election
• UCP’s Corporate Tax Cuts Could Let Five Companies Alone Reduce Public Revenues $4.3 Billion
• CUPE: The hidden cost of corporate tax cuts
• Spreadsheet – Alberta's Corporate Tax Cut: What they're actually saving

Meet Frank Oliver, the man who tried to block black people from coming to Canada, created modern western Canada by stealing massive amounts of land from Indigenous people and personally profited from the whole thing.

If you like our podcast and want to support it head to https://www.theprogressreport.ca/patrons and become a monthly patron :)

Further reading:

• First Nations Land Surrenders on the Prairies
• Frank Oliver and the Michel Band
• A tax-eating proposition : the history of the Passpasschase Indian Reserve
• Details on land surrenders from the Government of Canada
• No Means No: Erminskin’s Resistance to Land Surrender
• Frank Oliver and infantile Edmonton
• Remains of 28 First Nations people reburied after nearly 50 years in storage
• Order-in-Council P.C. 1911-1324 — the Proposed Ban on Black Immigration to Canada
• Paul First Nation History: Sharphead Band at Wolf Creek
• The Curious Case of the 1908 Enoch Surrender
• The Yards: Canada 150 and some tougher history for Edmonton

Don Cherry is finally off the air. We run through some of his greatest hits Rock‘Em Sock‘Em style but instead of brain damage and sweet goals it's racism, misogyny and climate denial. And to help us process the news of this hockey commentator cut down in his prime we turn to comedian Mav Adecer and writer and hockey dad Tej Swatch.

There's a group of Canadian veterans often overlooked on Remembrance Day--the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion who fought the fascists in the Spanish Civil War. Kaarina Mikalson of the Canada and the Spanish Civil War Project joins us on the pod to tell us the story of Canada's original anti-fascists.

Further reading:

• Canada and the Spanish Civil War
• Quill and Quire: Generals die in bed
• Jim/Jean Watts

Alberta has deliberately designed its economy to be reliant on oil and gas production--which means the international climate change crisis matters here more than almost anywhere else. But you won't hear much on that subject from Alberta's monolithic, corporate media establishment. On this special episode of the Progress Report, taped live at the University of Calgary on November 4th, we interview climate activist and former Oil Sands Advisory Group member Tzeporah Berman to understand the climate debate beyond the narrow perspective and shallow discourse we get here in Alberta.

Outside of the Ukrainian Youth Unity Complex in north Edmonton is a statue of Roman Shukheyvych--a Nazi collaborator who took part in the mass murder of Jews. Local activist Paula Kirman and host Duncan Kinney discuss Shukheyvych’s historical legacy with Per Anders Rudling, an expert on the Ukrainian far right.

The UCP have dropped their first budget and it's the cruel and brutal austerity they promised. Producer Jim steps out from behind the mixing board to join us as we sift through this awful budget to bring you everything you need to know.

The $30 million war room. A $2.5 million public inquiry. And untold amounts of hate and fear whipped up by Jason Kenney. All based on a lie. Climate activists have not sabotaged Alberta’s economy or landlocked Alberta’s oil - in fact Alberta barely rates as a blip on the worldwide global climate activism stage. And it took Sandy Garossino to debunk it. We have her on to discuss her National Observer story and to discuss #elxn43 results. 

If you like our podcast and want to support it head to https://www.theprogressreport.ca/patrons and become a monthly patron!

Further reading:

• Media Matters - Targeting Tides: The Dangers of Beck's Campaign of Fear
• Video: Kenney as abortion conspiracy theorist 
• National Observer: Data-based dismantling of Jason Kenney's foreign-funding conspiracy theory
• Follow @Garossino on Twitter

Greta Thunberg is coming to Alberta. And while she’s been the centrepiece of a massive youth led climate uprising no one does this work alone. There are Greta Thunbergs all over the place and we were lucky enough to speak with a couple of amazing young Alberta based climate activists this week on the podcast.

If you like our podcast and want to support it head to https://www.theprogressreport.ca/patrons and become a monthly patron!

Further reading:

• CBC: Teen climate activist Greta Thunberg of Sweden 'doesn't understand' Alberta, environment minister says
• Daveberta: WAR ROOM ENGAGE! Kenney hires former UCP candidate Tom Olsen to run the Canadian Energy Centre
• Edmonton Youth for Climate Facebook page

When something terrible and racist happens you often see well meaning folks go on about how “This isn’t us,” or “This isn’t Canada.” But when you scratch the surface and dig into the history of Canada you quickly find that’s not the case. In this episode we dig into Alberta’s not-so-secret and extremely problematic past with guest co-host Bashir Mohamed.

Further reading:

• St. Albert Fire and Rescue Chief Suspended For Wearing Blackface At Party In 2016
• Officials apologize after staff member at Alberta Christian school appears in blackface for event
• Twitter thread on how Prince Rupert made his fortune (hint: slavery)
• Cheryl Foggo: My Home Is Over Jordan – Southern Alberta’s Black Pioneers
• Bashir Mohamed’s Twitter thread on Calgary’s little known race riot
• Canadaland: Two Centuries of Blackface in Canada
• Human rights struggles of black Canadians too often overlooked. (CBC story featuring Bashir)
• The Grab-A-Hoe Indians: The Canadian State and the Procurement of Aboriginal Labour for the Southern Alberta Labour Industry 
• 'You had no choice': Indigenous Manitobans shed light on exploitative farm labour program that ran for decades

Paris Marx of the Tech Won't Save Us podcast joins Duncan Kinney to explore Danielle Smith's obsession with cryptocurrency and taking Alberta out of the Canada Pension Plan.

Justin Trudeau sucks, folks. Author Martin Lukacs' recently released book The Trudeau Formula: Seduction and betrayal in an age of discontent, is a fantastically written and well reported exploration of how Justin Trudeau's style of individualized, hyper image-driven, symbolic statecraft is just a fig leaf for maintaining the status quo for Canada's rich and powerful. From Trudeau's complicity in the genocide to Yemen, to the Liberal Party's history of corruption and deep financial connections to corporate Canada, to the details on how Justin's "reconciliation" agenda was derailed by Indigenous folks this book is a must-read for when anyone tries to guilt you into "strategically" voting Liberal because the Conservatives exist. 

Despite what Jason Kenney (and Rachel Notley) say, our neighbors in BC are not our enemies. There has been so much hype and misinformation around the pipeline debate that we reached across the Rockies to dispel some of the myths. Kai Nagata of Dogwood speaks with us about left wing populism, why he's fighting the Trans Mountain pipeline and the political realities on the ground in B.C.

Further reading:

• Dogwood
• EcoJustice throws down the gauntlet; Kenney responds with bravado; stand by legal action in 30 days
• Amnesty International urges Alberta Premier Jason Kenney to abandon ‘Fight Back Strategy’ in Open Letter
• EcoJustice's submission to the commissioner of the Alberta Public Inquiry Into Anti-Energy Campaigns

We’re breaking down organized white supremacy like a beat-em up side scroller – starting with the easiest baddies and moving on to the biggest and scariest villains at the end. We’ve also got a healthy dose of media criticism as we discuss the baffling decision by the Globe and Mail to platform Ezra Levant and the troubling trend of mainstream media getting played like a fiddle by Nazis.

Further reading:

Edmonton police investigating blog posts targeting LGBTQ gym

Patriot Pride Canada Wide 

Why Are So Many White Nationalists 'Virulently Anti-LGBT'?

Lyndsey Shepherd door knocking with Heather Leung

How Ezra Levant’s Globe Op-ed Got Published

Andy Ngo: How a Right-Wing Troll Managed to Manipulate the Mainstream Media

Undercover in Patriot Prayer: Insights From a Vancouver Democrat Who's Been Working Against the Far-Right Group from the Inside

Furries Got an Alt-Right Troll Banned From Their Convention

Resource: Confronting White Nationalism in Schools

Neo-Nazis Are Organizing Secretive Paramilitary Training Across America

Atomwaffen, an American Neo-Nazi Terror Group, Is In Canada

Police Warn that Accused Neo-Nazi Canadian Soldier Could Have Fled to U.S.

Winnipeg Free Press investigation and infiltration of The Base

The War on Everyone: An audiobook by Robert Evans

Ricardo Acuna and Sandra Azocar visit the pod to tell their stories of the CIA-backed coup by brutal Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet--the other 9/11. The one that America did.

Further reading:

CIA still refuses to reveal everything it knows about Pinochet coup in Chile

Canada’s support for the right wing coup in Chile 

Allende’s last words to the people of Chile

Documenting U.S. Role in Democracy’s Fall and Dictator’s Rise in Chile

Declassified American intelligence documents on American involvement in Chilean coup

Chile dictatorship victim toll bumped to 40,018

How the Chilean coup forever changed Canada's refugee policies

The ‘Chicago Boys’ in Chile: Economic Freedom’s Awful TollPinochet forced to mount coup, Klein says

Universities entangled in flap over Klein essay

Review clears Klein of plagiarism allegation

Further reading 

More than 4,300 overdoses reversed at Alberta supervised consumption sites since 2017: Report

Alberta Community Council on HIV: A Community-Based Report on Alberta's Supervised Consumption Services Effectiveness 

The Canadian Association of People who Use Drugs, “This Tent Saves Lives: How to Open an Overdose Prevention Site.” 

Keith Gerein: Restrictive agenda suggests the fix is in for Alberta's panel on safe consumption sites

With guests Bruce Fafard and Saba Mossagizi

In this episode we give you a look at how real union organizing works with two organizers who worked on successful certifications for two different worksites in Calgary. If you don’t know what card check or CLAC means or how to help workers build power you will by the end of the episode.

Further reading: 

Unifor grows in Kenney’s Alberta

YYC security guards win union

On The Line: The Struggle of Alberta’s Packing Plant Workers

Rebel Diaz - Which Side Are You On? Remix ft. Dead Prez and Rakaa Irriscience

Alberta Views: A Questionable Bargain, a magazine feature on CLAC

Faisal Khan Suri was giving his suggestions to the Justice Committee in the House of Commons on how to combat online hate when Conservative MP Michael Cooper confronted him by reading from the Christchurch shooter's deranged manifesto. We explore that moment and its fallout, and share a broader discussion on the ideology and goals behind white supremacist terrorism as well as how to defeat it.

Further reading 

The Guardian: The 'white replacement theory' motivates alt-right killers the world over

Hansard of Justice Committee meeting with Faisal Khan Suri

CBC premiere of Digging in the Dirt - 9/14/19 at 7pm

MP Michael Cooper disparaged 'goat herder cultures' in 2008 law class discussion, lawyers claim

PressProgress: UCP Candidate Complained ‘White Supremacist Terrorists’ Are Treated Unfairly, Leaked Messages Show

Alberta has a doppleganger state down in the US but it's not the one you're thinking of--it's Oklahoma! They've got nearly the same population, same dependence on oil and gas and same reactionary conservative politics we have here in 'Berta.

This week on the pod we've got a real live Okie in the flesh to talk about what can we learn from this near failed state. Also, we accidentally break some news about AIMCO divesting from private prison companies that were making money off of Trump's concentration camps.

More from Abdul Malik of Kino Lefter as he and Duncan chat about photojournalism in Canada. Enjoy!

It’s a team up show with two of Alberta’s best left wing podcasters. Abdul Malik of Kino Lefter is on for a wide ranging chat about the rise of the Christian Right and the culture and films they produce and Kate Jacobson of the Alberta Advantage is on to break down both the terrible Calgary arena deal but also the UCP’s stunning loss in court to the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees. 

Links:

Kino Lefter with Abdul Malik

Alberta Advantage with Kate Jacobson

Euan Thompson of Each + Every joins Duncan Kinney to discuss the incredibly evil "Alberta Model" of addressing the drug poisoning crisis and why it must be destroyed.

Further reading 

Kerry Diotte + racist Twitter search 

Gypsy immigrants should get a job first. Column by Diotte in 1997

The moral cowardice of Canadian media is leaving racism unchallenged

Shama Rangwala guest co-hosts the first episode of the Progress Report with Duncan Kinney. We discuss the Summer of Repeal/Springtime of Renewal and all of the damage done by the Kenney regime in their short few months in office. We also talk about the twin debacles that are Safe City YEG and Slum Town. Also, why does Licia Corbella hate horses so much?

Further reading and listening:

Bell: Drug sites no answer, says Alberta addictions boss

SafeCity YEG

Slum Town

Corbella: Rodeo animals love what they do and wouldn't exist otherwise

Chronicling Alberta's descent into the conservative hellscape. A project of Progress Alberta (progressalberta.ca)

Launching this July!