At 2 a.m., the Alberta legislature passed a bill that will force 51,000 teachers back to work, impose a four-year contract and use the notwithstanding clause to stave off a legal challenge and suspend teacher bargaining at the local level. It includes fines for Ts and the ATA if they defy it. #AbLeg

SCOOP Alberta's Ministry of Mental Health and Addiction is quietly shelving a personal data-harvesting app developed through sole-sourced contracts starting in 2021. The move coincides with reported scrutiny of ministry spending by the Auditor General. 1/🧵 drugdatadecoded.ca/province-to-...

New: The Alberta government is reversing course on changes to its expense disclosure policy. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

New: The Alberta government is reversing course on changes to its expense disclosure policy. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

SCOOP: Alberta taxpayers paid almost $20K for Premier Danielle Smith to speak alongside Ben Shapiro at a PragerU fundraiser in March, according to travel expense disclosures. www.theprogressreport.ca/premier-prag...

I happened to notice that the Alberta govt quietly changed its expense report disclosure policy on Aug. 1, hours before a long weekend. The changes were significant — receipts no longer had to be publicly disclosed, and 8 years of expenses had been 'undisclosed.' www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

I happened to notice that the Alberta govt quietly changed its expense report disclosure policy on Aug. 1, hours before a long weekend. The changes were significant — receipts no longer had to be publicly disclosed, and 8 years of expenses had been 'undisclosed.' www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

G7 fortress summit keeps protesters—and reality—at a safe distance www.readtheorchard.org/p/g7-fortres...

From 2022: my profile of Stephen Carter for @sprawlcalgary.bsky.social www.sprawlcalgary.com/the-strategi...

New from me - Edmonton police officers got paid nearly $4m last year for private contract work. Those gigs are arranged through the EPS extra duty program, where clients can hire uniformed cops outside of their regular shifts. STORY: www.cbc.ca/1.7526704

NEW: The Liberal's newly acclaimed candidate for Calgary Confederation was involved in the University of Calgary's decision to immediately call the cops on its pro-🇵🇸 encampment. www.readthemaple.com/liberal-star...

NOUVEAU | Radio-Canada a appris que le maire d’Edmonton, Amarjeet Sohi, devrait se présenter sous la bannière du Parti libéral du Canada aux prochaines élections fédérales. Un retour en #polcan pour l'ancien ministre Avec les infos de Laurence Martin. ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/214...

I got Alberta Health documents that show Dynalife was involvent and asked for an extra $70m less than 90 days into a contract to provide lab services across the province. Dynalife's owners asked the government to buy the company, which it did, for nearly $100m. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

I got Alberta Health documents that show Dynalife was involvent and asked for an extra $70m less than 90 days into a contract to provide lab services across the province. Dynalife's owners asked the government to buy the company, which it did, for nearly $100m. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

12: old enough to carry a gun, but too young to choose a pronoun.

An emphatic "Ramadan Mubarak" to all my Muslim homies, especially the ones in Palestine

I crunched 80+ years of U.S. foreign lobbying data. Turns out Alberta has hired more lobbyists than any other province or the federal govt since 2000. STORY: www.cbc.ca/1.7469140

A good day for a reminder that independent media needs your support

SCOOP: Documents show the extent to which UCalgary administration was influenced by pro-Israel framing of the Palestine solidarity movement leading up to its short-lived encampment. open.substack.com/pub/theorcha...

Edmonton pals! The great new Porch Light Books will be stocking signed copies of my nonfiction story collection, No Sleep 'Til Fairbanks. Pre-order by Feb. 23 if you're interested, so we know how many to ship down, and please help spread the word! 💡📚

Provincial governments across Canada are blaming drug users and homeless people for problems they created. Euan Thomson and Zoë Dodd examine how columnists at our biggest papers are helping them. breachmedia.ca/media-politi...

NEW: There’s now a call for Danielle Smith to remove Adriana LaGrange as health min from within her own cabinet. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Stories like this show why investigative journalism and a strong press corps is so vital. @carrietait.bsky.social and @alannasmith.bsky.social are killing it right now.

If you haven't read Kenneyism yet, I highly recommend picking it up. It's a very good read.

SCOOP: I found a document showing Canada's second-largest oil and gas company Cenovus quietly donated to nearly a dozen anti-climate groups. The donations came as Cenovus public portrayed itself as a 'net-zero' leader. www.desmog.com/2025/01/30/c... @desmog.bsky.social

Morgan Modjeski is a prairie journalist with incredible integrity who is being relentlessly, personally targeted by the Winnipeg Police for his ethical work with community sources. This is a crucial challenge to be aware of regarding journalistic freedom in Canada. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Edmonton has two trauma centres. Surgeons say patient outcomes would improve by combining them into one. They've written letters. A 2019 AHS report recommended the same thing. But there's no sign that it's being considered. New from me: www.cbc.ca/1.7442793

Surgeons continue to advocate consolidating Edmonton's two trauma centres, saying it would improve patient outcomes, save money, by @taylorlambert.ca www.cbc.ca/news/canada/... via @cbcnews.ca

Edmonton has two trauma centres. Surgeons say patient outcomes would improve by combining them into one. They've written letters. A 2019 AHS report recommended the same thing. But there's no sign that it's being considered. New from me: www.cbc.ca/1.7442793

Great reporting by @laurby.bsky.social

Participation in Safer For All, a documentary about police violence and accountability, "is a problem for EPS leadership." edmontonjournal.com/news/local-n...

One of the darkest, but less reported, aspects of Trump’s anti-trans order this week IMO is that he directed the DOJ to remove protections for trans prisoners from Prison Rape Elimination Act guidelines. Story at @theappeal.org today from @byadamrhodes.bsky.social: theappeal.org/trump-execut...

It really hurts my feelings when I go out of town for an extended amount of time and come home to find my houseplants have been doing better without me.

The orthopedic surgery disruption at the RAH that began six months ago has not been fully resolved. I learned that AHS rejected a $240K proposal to resume surgeries because they wanted a 'revenue neutral' solution. Doctors estimate 1,000+ patients have been affected. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

The orthopedic surgery disruption at the RAH that began six months ago has not been fully resolved. I learned that AHS rejected a $240K proposal to resume surgeries because they wanted a 'revenue neutral' solution. Doctors estimate 1,000+ patients have been affected. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Journalist @duncankinney.bsky.social was charged with mischief for allegedly spraypainting two monuments dedicated to Nazis and their collaborators—a charge he says police have used to surveil and silence him. Kinney sits down with Desmond Cole to discuss his case. breachmedia.ca/police-spied...

Are you a freelancer? The Canadian Freelance Union has just announced that we have secured an Employee Assistance Plan for our members. It's probably the first time in Canada that non-traditional workers are covered under such a service. Curious? Sign up here: www.canadianfreelanceunion.ca

Hello new followers! I'm an investigative and longform journalist in Edmonton, I've written books and won awards and all that crap. But I am on medical leave at the moment and have nothing of substance to contribute, so here's an old photo of my late dog (RIP) fighting a T. Rex.

Seeing old Twitter friends join Bluesky

I wrote about a curious trend - considerably more police misconduct complaints get appealed from Edmonton than Calgary, despite similar total numbers of annual complaints. That's been true for more than a decade, which is as far back as I was able to find data. STORY: www.cbc.ca/1.7382151

Quote-tweets, for example, contribute to so much abusive behaviour and enable a culture where people spend all day mobbing and harassing random individuals This stuff is literally what Marshall McLuhan was talking about when he said the "medium is the message"

Today we celebrate the one year anniversary of one of the greatest pieces of short fiction of all time.

Twitter

New from me: The number of people experiencing homelessness in Edmonton has surged to nearly 5,000 — an increase of nearly 2k in the past year. This comes after #yeg set a new record for the no. of frostbite amputations last winter — more than half for unhoused patients STORY: www.cbc.ca/1.7368114

New from me: The number of people experiencing homelessness in Edmonton has surged to nearly 5,000 — an increase of nearly 2k in the past year. This comes after #yeg set a new record for the no. of frostbite amputations last winter — more than half for unhoused patients STORY: www.cbc.ca/1.7368114

New from me: I got data showing that Edmonton set a new record for frostbite amputations last winter. But Calgary's stats were down despite similar winter temps. Potential reasons for divergence: encampment evictions in #yeg, and more aggressive frostbite treatment in #yyc STORY: cbc.ca/1.7358413

Here's a starter pack of all the Canadian journalists I'm currently following on BlueSky. I'm sure I've missed many. Let me know of any others and I'll add them! 📰🤓 go.bsky.app/KF3HUUX

Just started one! #yeg #Edmonton #FollowFriday go.bsky.app/8552VCx