States with legal medical marijuana have seen a drop in workplace deaths
Andy Kiersz
Apr. 20, 2019

A recent study suggests that states that adopt medical marijuana laws see a decline in workplace fatalities among young adult workers.

The study's authors suggest this could happen because young adults in those states use marijuana instead of more dangerous drugs like alcohol and opioids.

The widespread adoption of medical marijuana laws may be having an unexpected effect: making workplaces safer.

Several states have adopted medical marijuana laws in the last several years. A recent study seems to suggest that states with such laws saw a subsequent drop in the number of workplace fatalitiesamong young adult workers.

The study, by economists Mark Anderson of Montana State University, Daniel Rees of the University of Colorado, and Erdal Tekin of American University in the October 2018 issue of the International Journal of Drug Policy, looked at how fatal workplace injuries changed after states adopted medical marijuana laws.

The biggest result that they found was a 19.5% decrease in fatal work injuries among 25- to 44-year-old workers in states that adopted medical marijuana laws, after controlling for various demographic and economic factors. While the analysis found a smaller reduction in fatalities for older and younger workers (and for the entire pool of workers overall), after the adoption of medical marijuana, those results fell below the standard of statistical significance.

The authors suggested that a possible reason for the decline in fatal work injuries for young adult workers could be a result of medical marijuana use as a substitute for more dangerous drugs like alcohol and opioids. They wrote, "because the use of alcohol at work is associated with a substantial increase in the risk of injury, and because non-habitual opioid use slows reflexes and impairs cognitive functioning, the enactment of MMLs [medical marijuana laws] could, in theory, make workplaces safer."

The researchers used rates of fatal work injuries in each state and DC between 1992 and 2015 from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries program, which produces yearly figures on the total number of people who die in the course of doing their jobs in the US.

Anderson and his peers looked at how workplace death rates changed after states adopted medical marijuana laws, while also comparing states that legalized medical marijuana to states that did not.

They used a statistical technique called difference in differences, which, assuming certain conditions hold, allows researchers to detect the effects of a specific action — in this case, a state passing a medical marijuana law — while controlling for both other factors specific to each state and for overall national trends in fatal work injuries over time.

The idea that legalizing medical marijuana could reduce workplace fatalities because workers are substituting marijuana for more dangerous drugs would be consistent with other research on drug use in the US. A recent study from Quest Diagnostics showed that marijuana use among US workers has increased in the last several years, but that drug tests for opioids have declined dramatically from their 2015 peak.

Anderson and his colleagues note that there are some limitations and caveats. They note that the Bureau of Labor Statistics data on workplace fatalities is only given at a state-by-state level, so by using that data set, it's impossible to know the exact circumstances of any particular individual incident.

Another complication, as with just about any social science study, is that correlation does not always mean causation. While they saw a drop in workplace fatality rates in states that legalized medical marijuana, there could be some other mechanism not directly related to the change in drug policy that caused that decline.

CRIMINAL CAPITALISM BIG PHARMA OPIOID PUSHERS

Rochester Drug Cooperative fined $20 million in first US criminal case against a major drug distributor over opioids

Jonathan Stempel, Nate Raymond,
Reuters

Laurence Doud III, former CEO of Rochester Drug Co-Operative, exits the Manhattan Federal Courthouse in New York, April 23, 2019. Brendan McDermid/Reuters


The US filed its first criminal charges against a major drug distributor and company executives over their alleged roles in fueling the nation's opioid epidemic by putting profits ahead of patients' safety.

Rochester Drug Co-operative, one of the 10 largest US drug distributors, agreed to pay a $20 million fine and enter a five-year deferred prosecution agreement to resolve the charges.

Two former RDC executives were also charged, including Laurence Doud, who had been its CEO for more than 25 years.
Doud was accused of conspiring to distribute illegal narcotics and conspiring to defraud the US.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The US government on Tuesday filed its first criminal charges against a major drug distributor and company executives over their alleged roles in fueling the nation's opioid epidemic by putting profits ahead of patients' safety.

Rochester Drug Co-operative, one of the 10 largest US drug distributors, agreed to pay a $20 million fine and enter a five-year deferred prosecution agreement to resolve charges it turned a blind eye to thousands of suspicious orders for opioids.

"We made mistakes," RDC spokesman Jeff Eller said in a statement. "We accept responsibility for those mistakes."


Two former RDC executives were also charged, including Laurence Doud, who had been its chief executive for more than 25 years. He was accused of conspiring to distribute illegal narcotics, and conspiring to defraud the United States.

Doud, 75, of New Smyrna, Florida, pleaded not guilty at an afternoon hearing in Manhattan federal court and was released on $500,000 bail.

His lawyer, Derrelle Janey, said Doud "is not the culprit here. We intend to fully defend against these charges."

Former compliance chief William Pietruszewski, 53, of Oak Ridge, New Jersey, separately pleaded guilty to three criminal counts and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.


The case marks a new US effort to curtail the growing number of people addicted to opioids, including oxycodone and other prescription painkillers.

Opioids, including prescription painkillers and heroin, played a role in a record 47,600 US overdose deaths in 2017, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"This country is in the midst of a prescription drug abuse epidemic," US Attorney Geoffrey Berman said at a Manhattan news conference. "This epidemic has been driven by greed. As alleged, Doud cared more about profits than the laws intended to protect human life."

OxyContin pills. Associated Press
'Red flags' allegedly ignored

Hundreds of lawsuits by state and local governments accuse drugmakers such as Purdue Pharma of deceptively marketing opioids, and distributors such as AmerisourceBergen Corp, Cardinal Health Inc and McKesson Corp of ignoring that they were being diverted for improper uses.


These defendants, as well as RDC, were among those named last month in a lawsuit by New York Attorney General Letitia James alleging widespread fraud.

In Tuesday's settlement, RDC admitted to violating narcotics laws from January 2012 to March 2017 by distributing oxycodone, fentanyl and other controlled substances to pharmacy customers despite internal "red flags" that they would be used improperly.

Berman said the red flags included dramatic increases in order sizes, pharmacy customers paying in cash and prescriptions filled by doctors under investigation by law enforcement or on an RDC "watch list."

Prosecutors said RDC identified about 8,300 potentially suspicious "orders of interest," including for oxycodone, from 2012 to 2016, but reported just four to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.


Berman said this lax oversight enabled RDC to boost sales of oxycodone tablets more than 800 percent and fentanyl dosages roughly 2,000 percent over that period, while Doud's pay more than doubled, to more than $1.5 million.

"RDC was, in Doud's own words, the knight in shining armor for pharmacies that had been cut off by other distributors," Berman said.

The deferred prosecution agreement allows RDC to keep operating, subject to three years of independent compliance monitoring, and avoid prosecution if it complies with the terms.

Doud led RDC from September 1991 through April 2017, according to court papers.


He faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison on the drug conspiracy charge. His next hearing is scheduled for May 8.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York and Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Richard Chang, Tom Brown and Cynthia Osterman)

A FIRST PERSON ACCOUNT OF THE 

GERMAN REVOLUTION OF 1919

PRIMARY DOCUMENTS PUBLISHED 1922

https://archive.org/details/germanrevolution00str/page/4

CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE

 I. GERMAN SOCIALISM IN THE WORLD WAR 7 The Causes of Voting the War Credits — The Nationalist Policy of the Majority — The Struggle against the War Policy of the Party Majority.

 II. THE FALL OF THE OLD REGIME - - 37 The Military Collapse—The Portents of the Revolution—The Naval Rebellion — The 9th November. 

III. THE BEGINNING OF INTERNECINE STRIFE 68 The Proletariat in the Seat of Power — Conflicting Conceptions of the Revolutionary Tasks—Early Inter-revolutionary Struggles—The Independents Leave the Government. 

IV. THE FIRST PHASE OF THE CIVIL WAR - I05 The Left Prepares for Action—The Crushing of Spartacist—The Murder of Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg. 

V. BLOODY WEEKS IN BERLIN AND MUNICH I31 Growing Resentment among the Working Class—The March Massacres in Berlin — The Munich Soviet Republic. 

VI. THE DIFFICULTIES OF HOME POLITICS AND FOREIGN POLICY - - - 167 The Yoke of the Entente Peace—The New Constitution—Financial Policy and Socialization. vi 

VII. THE REVOLUTIONIZING OF THE PROLETARIAN MASSES - - - - ig6 Dictatorship or Democracy—The Soviet System—The Struggle for the Works Councils. 

VIII. THE CRISIS IN THE REPUBLIC - - 217 The Massacre before the Reichstag—The Kapp Putsch—Rocks Ahead. 

IX. TWO YEARS LATER - - - - 246 Fresh Socialist Disagreements—Two Years of Compromise—Reparations and Taxes. 

X. THE LATEST PHASE - - - - 289 The Economic Disintegration—The Strengthening of Reaction—German Finances and the Reparation Problem.

SOCIALISATION IN THEORY AN PRACTICE 

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 

The author of this book occupies a peculiar position in the German Socialist movement. As a representative of the Independent Social Democratic Party, he was appointed Finance Minister in the Prussian Revolutionary Government, which came into existence in November 1918. Subsequently, he was alienated from the Independent Socialists by reason of their fanaticism, and the partiality they exhibited towards Bolshevist doctrines. On the other hand, Herr Strobel was unable to sympathise with the wartime policy of the German Majority Socialists, and found much to condemn in their methods of handling the internal troubles which broke out in Germany soon after the Revolution. 
This Revolution had brought political power to German Socialism, with a suddenness and completeness which took many Social Democrats by surprise, and this fact largely accounts for their moral inadequacy and practical unreadiness when confronted with the problem of Socialisation. 
Herr Strobel's candid temperament and detachment enabled him to write the most satisfactory and in- formative account of the German Revolution, as a whole, that has yet been published, and the same qualities were even more necessary in the writing of Sozialisierung-Ihre Wege und Voraussetzungen, of which an English translation is now submitted to the public with the title Socialisation in Theory and Practice. 
As the Socialist Parties in Western Europe approach nearer to the goal of political power, the question of Socialisation will be forced more and more into the arena of political contention. The British Labour Party, which has made significant progress within recent months, draws its inspiration from the economic doctrines of Socialism. 
Alike to friend and opponent of Socialist developments, it is of urgent importance to be conscious of the full meaning and the various social implications of a policy directed to the socialisation of vital industries. The Russian experiment in the application of Communistic principles has passed through strange vicissitudes during the past four years, and the section devoted to this subject by Herr Strobel emphasises the salient features of Communist policy, and describes the social and economic consequences which have flowed from it. 
The political and economic history of Germany during the two years which followed the Armistice, comprising a protracted civil war and violent political agitations all clustering round the question of the economic transformation of society, has not received from the members of the British Labour Movement a quarter of the attention that has been bestowed upon the Russian experiment. Yet the experiences of industrial Germany are more relevant to the immediate aspirations of British Socialism than the dissimilar economic structure of Russia. Herr Strobel has described the scope and the con- sequences of the recent experiments in Socialisation undertaken in three European countries, and has related the practical details of these endeavours to the general principles of Socialism.

https://archive.org/details/socialisationint00struoft/page/6

CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER. PAGE 

I. THE OBJECT: SOCIALISATION i What does Socialism aim at ? ... ... ... i 

The Absence of a Socialisation Scheme ... ... 6 

The Necessity of Socialisation 17

 Socialism and Increased Production 25

 II. COMMUNISTIC SETTLEMENTS 52

III. THE BOLSHEVIST EXPERIMENT 66 The Social Formation of Russia 66

 Socialisation by Compulsion 75 

The Economic Organisation of Bolshevism ... 85 

The Resort to Despotism ... ... ... ... 93

 Industrial Unions as Administrative Organs ... 101

 The Organisation of Distribution 109

 Communism and the Peasant 117 

Financial Policy ... ... ... ... ... 127 

The Upshot of Bolshevism ... ... ... 137 

IV. THE EPISODE OF THE HUNGARIAN DICTATORSHIP ... 149

 V. THE SOCIALISATION PROBLEM AFTER THE NOVEMBER REVOLUTION 170 

VI. THE ECONOMIC SCHEME OF WISSELL AND MOLLEN- DORFF 190 

VII. THE SOCIALISATION OF THE MINES 209 The Control of the Mines by Joint Management 209 

Owners' Profits and Workers' Wages 218

The Influence of Workers' and Consumers' Representatives ... ... ... ... ... 226 

Socialisation on Horizontal Lines 234 

The Function of the Employer 241

 Socialisation and Personal Initiative ... ... 248 

The Proposals of the Socialisation Commission... 255

 The Present Position of the Socialisation Question 264 

VIII. HORTEN'S SOCIALISATION SCHEME 273 

IX. GUILD SOCIALISM 297

 X. THE PATH TO SOCIALISATION 316

HAGBARD CELINE HAD A SUBMARINE

An American bitcoin trader built a floating house off Thailand's coast in an attempt to gain independence. Authorities destroyed his home and he now faces the death penalty.

EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY 

POLITIKAL TAROT

1969-2019 LGBTQ IN CANADA

CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENT 

Global Warming Is Making The Arctic Fall Apart

André Blair — April 23, 2019






It is no secret that global warming is slowly destroying our planet, despite the fact that many choose to refuse the truth, A recent scientific survey brings even more evidence and it focuses on the impact of global warming in the Arctic.


Everything is affected, from the climate to the landscape. Coastal erosion is accelerated by the rising glacial melt. Tundra is also affected and its growing seasons have shifted. And these are just a couple of things from the list. Researchers are very concerned and claim that the Arctic is in a state they have never seen before.


“Combined with unusual storm systems, you can get these off-the-charts changes in the Bering Sea. Last year, with no sea ice and no pool of deep, cold water, pollock were found in the north Bering Sea where they don’t usually go. The question was if they will spawn in the new location or not, and it doesn’t seem that they did. When this happens two years in a row, it becomes really important. The Bering Sea is now in a state we’ve never seen before,” explained co-author Jim Overland from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Global Warming Is Making The Arctic Fall Apart


While these changes will have long term effects on our planet they also affect the indigenous communities in the Arctic right now.


“Almost all of the changes described in the paper, including warming air temperatures, thawing permafrost, retreating sea ice, increased river discharge, and changes in the arrival of migratory species have direct impacts on the residents of Arctic communities, particularly those near the coast,” explained Andy Mahoney from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.


In the Arctic live many” indigenous peoples, recent transplants, hunters and herders, and city dwellers,” which are directly affected by these changes.

Canada unveils LGBTQ loonie — but some gay rights advocates are not impressed

By Katie Dangerfield National Online Journalist, Breaking News Global News

Canada unveiled its new commemorative loonie Tuesday, paying tribute to the 50-year anniversary of the decriminalization of homosexuality across the country.

But the coin is also drawing controversy.

READ MORE: LGBTQ Canadians disproportionately affected by violence according to StatCan survey

Some LGBTQ activists and historians are calling into question the message behind the loonie, saying it mistakenly suggests equality has been reached and that it was done so largely by the Canadian government — specifically by former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau.

In 1967, then-justice minister Trudeau began calling for reforms to decriminalize homosexuality in Canada’s Criminal Code, which passed two years later.

“There were many gains gained by the gay community before this, but this coin gives all the credit to Pierre Trudeau and 1969. It should be about our community, not the federal government,” York University historian Tom Hooper said.

WATCH: Tracking the history of LGBTQ rights in Canada

The Royal Canadian Mint “could have consulted people who have knowledge of this history, but they didn’t,” Hooper said, adding that he hopes the agency will do so in the future.

Finance Minister Bill Morneau unveiled the loonie in Toronto, saying: “The equality coin encourages all of us to build a better, more inclusive Canada because like the coin itself, the more equality we have in Canada, the richer we all are.”

The coin, which starts circulating Tuesday, combines the words “Equality-Égalité” with the work of Vancouver-based artist Joe Average.


View image on Twitter



Bill Morneau
✔@Bill_Morneau

Hey Canada, keep your eyes peeled for the new Equality $1 coin. This is an opportunity for us all to reflect on the years of progress towards equality for LGBTQ2 Canadians, and importantly, to think about the work still to do.


Protesters were also at the event, arguing that LGBTQ people continued to face criminalization over the decades that followed the legal changes in 1969.

“There are people here who are protesting here,” Morneau said. “There is still more work we need to do. We are not at the end of this path.”

The Anti-69 Network was one of the groups silently protesting, challenging the “mythology that the 1969 Criminal Code reform decriminalized homosexuality.”





Protesters at an event unveiling the new LGBTQ2 loonie in Toronto on Tuesday, April 23, 2019.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Tijana Martin

“Despite the important gains won by our movements and organizing, equality has still not been established in 2019,” the network stated.

“The continuing struggles are against the blood donation bans, HIV and sex worker criminalization, anti-black racism, which impacts many in our communities, racist and heterosexist and anti-trans policing, the continuing criminalization of consensual homosexual activities, the treatment of LGBTQ2S+ refugees and much more.”
What did the 1969 amendment do?

From confederation in 1867, homosexuality was punishable under Canada’s criminal law.

In 1967, Trudeau proposed amendments to decriminalize homosexuality in Canada’s Criminal Code.
“I think the view we take here is that there’s no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation,” Trudeau famously said.
In 1969, the amendments passed into the Criminal Code, decriminalizing homosexuality in Canada.

READ MORE: Petition to ban conversion therapy across Canada gains steam, survivor says it’s ‘long overdue’

The clause stated: “(1) Sections 147 and 149 do not apply to any act committed in private between (a) a husband and his wife or (b) any two persons, each of whom is 21 years or more of age, both of whom consent to the commission of the act. (2) For the purposes of subsection (1), (a) an act shall be deemed not to have been committed in private if it is committed in a public place or if more than two persons take part or are present.”

But Hooper argued this act didn’t repeal the law, it only reformed it.

“A lot of people think a law was removed. It wasn’t. Gay sex was still illegal after 1969,” he said. “It only allowed people to have sex in their bedroom, but everywhere else it was a crime, including in a car or in a gay bathhouse.”

He added that the changes also did not apply to many other people in the community, such as lesbians, the trans community and two-spirit people.

WATCH: LGBTQ advocates cheer NDP bill banning conversion therapy

After 1969, he said the gay community was still repressed and had to fight for equal rights in Canada. For example, cohabiting same-sex couples could not claim tax benefits, homosexuality was seen as a mental illness and gay marriage was illegal.

“We are prevented from donating blood still to this day,” he said.

There were also many bathhouse raids in the 1980s, which marked a turning point for the gay community as many protests that followed advocated the end of police violence against LGBTQ people.




Toronto Bathhouse raids, Feb. 5, 1981.Frank Lennon/Toronto Star via Getty Images





Gay rights supporters march on Dundas Street in Toronto on their way to 52 Division police station from Queen’s Park. Originally published on Feb. 21, 1981.Tibor Kolley / The Globe and Mail
‘A lot more still needs to be done’

Liberal MP Rob Oliphant, who was at the loonie’s unveiling, spoke about the controversy surrounding the coin.

“I was 13 years (old) when (Pierre) Trudeau issued those words and I was proud. It did not make me equal, but it gave me a fighting chance,” he said.

“I knew I was different, but just those words gave me a fighting chance and a sense I could have meaning. I wasn’t equal at that point and I’m not sure if I am yet equal, but this coin recognizes the journey. This coin is a small token of a huge effort that has happened and made Canada a better place,” Oliphant said.

READ MORE: B.C. Christian university loses Supreme Court battle over LGBTQ case

The MP argued the equality coin also acts as a “beacon” to the rest of the world, where homosexuality is punishable by death.

Gay rights activist Rev. Brent Hawkes, who was also at the event, said he does not want to back away from celebrating 1969.

“It was not perfect and a lot more needs to be done, and we’re still working on that, but in 1969, this government passed a bill that said certain laws can no longer exist to criminalize gays and lesbians. That is significant,” he argued. “While it’s not perfect, we should not diminish this part of it.”

Hooper said as a historian, he hoped more LBGTQ activists were represented in the new coin.

He gave the example of the first national gay and lesbian protest held on Parliament Hill in 1971.

“It was against the 1969 reform and called on actual decriminalization of homosexuality. It also called on employment rights and human rights protections. That would represent our community instead of representing Pierre Trudeau,” Hooper said.

— With files from the Canadian Press

Philippines president gives Canada a week to take back tonnes of trash, or he will 'declare war' and send it back himself

Shipping containers filled with Canadian household and electronic garbage has been rotting in a port near Manila for nearly six year

THE CANADIAN PRESS
Updated: April 23, 2019


Filipino environmental activists wear mock container vans filled with garbage to symbolize the 50 containers of waste that were shipped from Canada to the Philippines two years ago, outside the Canadian embassy south of Manila, Philippines on May 7, 2015. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, AARON FAVILA

OTTAWA — The president of the Philippines says if Canada doesn’t take back tonnes of trash within the next week he will “declare war” and ship the containers back himself.

Filipino media outlets are reporting that Rodrigo Duterte made threats Tuesday about dozens of shipping containers filled with Canadian household and electronic garbage that has been rotting in a port near Manila for nearly six years.

More than 100 of the containers were shipped to Manila by a Canadian company in 2013 and 2014, improperly labelled as plastics for recycling.

Customs inspectors discovered they actually contained garbage, including soiled adult diapers and kitchen trash.

Canada has been trying for nearly six years to convince the Philippines to dispose of the garbage there even though a Filipino court ordered the trash returned to Canada in 2016.

Last week a British Columbia lawyer said in a legal brief that Canada is in violation of the international Basel Convention, which forbids developed nations from sending their toxic or hazardous waste to developing nations without informed consent.

Three Philippines policemen convicted of student’s murder, a first for Duterte’s brutal drug war
Aussie nun who angered Duterte forced to leave Philippines

Duterte signals that he’s willing to step down if he has cancer: ‘I will not prolong my agony in this office’

Extremist groups in Alberta detailed in first-of-its-kind report

JONNY WAKEFIELD
Updated: April 23, 2019


Soldiers of Odin take part in a rally against Islam on the anniversary of 9/11 at the Commonwealth Community Recreation Centre on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2018 in Edmonton. GREG SOUTHAM / POSTMEDIA, FILE

Alberta is home to a disproportionate number of extremist movements — including far-right groups and people travelling abroad to join armed groups such as ISIS — according to a new report billed as the first of its kind.

The upcoming study, Extremism and Hate Motivated Violence in Alberta, runs nearly 100 pages and provides a taxonomy of the province’s extremist groups. It includes provincial membership estimates for violent or potentially violent ideological movements, and assessments of whether the groups are growing or shrinking.

The Organization for the Prevention of Violence (OPV), which produced the report, received a $1.2 million grant from the federal government last year as part of a plan to counter hate and violent extremism in Alberta, which has seen a rise in police-reported hate crimes. The report is poised to be made public next month.

The organization also developed an intervention program to steer people away from extremist movements.

OPV executive director John McCoy said he’s unaware of any other studies that identify and quantify extremist groups in Alberta.


“What our research (shows) is that there is a diversity of threats out there related to violent extremism, and there are many different ideologies that can create this problem,” said McCoy, a professor who teaches terrorism studies at the University of Alberta.

“There are a number of ideologies where Alberta is disproportionately represented, in terms of the numbers that we’re producing,” he said.

The report relied on interviews with more than 170 law enforcement members from the RCMP and every municipal police service in Alberta. Researchers also interviewed around 120 people whose communities are impacted by hate and extremism, 50 service providers specializing in violence and at-risk youth, and 21 “formers” — people previously involved with extremist movements or their loved ones.

McCoy said one major conclusion is that individuals on the edges of extremist groups — often radicalized on social media — are the biggest threat.

“The individuals that we’re seeing are really on the margins of extremist movements,” he said.
Al-Qaida, affiliates and splinter groups (AQAS)

The report found Alberta has been home to “both intimate and established networks” tied to al-Qaida and affiliated groups, and “highly isolated cases that are connected with AQAS networks wholly online.”

“Today, the trend is very much towards the latter,” the report says.

From the late 1990s to the mid-2000s, low-level fundraising, money laundering and promotion/propaganda work took place in the province, the report said, supporting foreign fighters in the Middle East, North Africa and Bosnia.

The report cited the case of Faruq Khalil Muhammad ‘Isa, who pleaded guilty to U.S. charges of providing financial support to Tunisian fighters in Iraq who carried out a deadly 2009 suicide attack.

Since 2012, it is estimated that between 30 and 40 people from Alberta travelled overseas to fight for armed groups — a number McCoy said is disproportionate to Alberta’s population. McCoy said the majority of those joined ISIS.

Those fighters include former Edmonton residents Mahad Hirsi, Hamsa Kariye, Heri Kariye and Omar Aden, who are believed to have travelled to Syria in 2013. The four were believed to be part of a network that included up to 14 people spread between Minnesota, Alberta and California. All four fighters were reportedly dead by the end of 2014.

Roughly 20 people are believed to have travelled to Syria and Iraq from Calgary — including 10 or so who shared a loose connection with a now-closed mosque in downtown Calgary.

Now, the primary local concern is people inspired by the movements committing a “homegrown” attack. The report cited a Sept. 30, 2017, vehicle attack on a police officer and pedestrians in Edmonton — still before the courts — saying it mirrored the “playbook” of groups like ISIS. No terrorism charges were laid in that case.

While returning foreign fighters present a threat, those fears have yet to be realized, the report says. Most of those who travelled to fight abroad are dead. About 10 per cent of those who left have returned, the report said, but “no public details were available on their activities.”

The report said the movement’s trajectory in Alberta is “static.”
Anti-authority extremists

Anti-authority extremists cited in the report include Freemen on the Land, who broadly assert that government is illegitimate. The report estimates there are about 150 to 250 Freemen on the Land in Alberta — lower than previous estimates.

The report found that most Freemen come to the ideology after a “negative interaction” with the legal system. The majority of them are non-violent. However, the report found 10 to 15 Alberta Freemen have “demonstrated a behavioural propensity for violence.”

Norman Raddatz — the man who killed Edmonton city police Const. Daniel Woodall and shot another officer in 2015 — expressed Freeman-style sentiments and was investigated for harassing a Jewish family. James Roszko, the man who murdered four RCMP officers in Mayerthorpe in 2005, was also known to have violent anti-government views. Both perpetrators are dead.

The report suggests the Freemen on the Land movement is in decline. However, it says general anti-government extremism is on the rise — evidenced in part by an upswing in death threats against politicians following the 2015 elections of Rachel Notley and Justin Trudeau.
Left-wing extremism

The report’s category on left-wing extremism includes anarchists and Antifa groups. To date, the report found left-wing extremists have not been involved in any major violent incidents in Alberta, nor do researchers believe they present a “significant threat to public safety.”

The researchers found “reciprocal radicalization” was at play in the relationship between right-wing and left-wing extremist groups. Violence by left-wing extremists is “mainly reactionary in confrontation with right-wing groups.”

The OPV estimates there were 20 to 30 people involved in Antifa and anti-racist groups in Calgary, with only a small number who support violence during confrontations with the far right.

The movements are believed to be growing, the report said.
Patriot and Militia Groups

Patriot and militia groups are motivated “primarily by xenophobia and anti-government views,” the report said, adding many members share anti-Islamic sentiments. Some engage in survivalist activities like “prepping” and firearms training. Some take part in ostensible charity activities, as well as “street patrols” that the report says “primarily target visible minority, newcomer and refugee communities — Muslims in particular.”

While there are reports of militia groups taking part in military-style training in rural Alberta, the OPV said those “remain unsubstantiated to date.”

Examples of the groups include the Three Percenters, Sons/Soldiers of Odin, the Canadian Infidels/Clann, True North Patriots and Northern Guard. Many formed in 2015 — driven by the elections of the provincial NDP, the federal Liberals and the economic downturn.

The report stressed that there is no evidence the groups are involved in violence or “would represent a significant threat to public safety or national security.”

“However, there are not-trivial concerns that individuals associated with, or more accurately on the margins of these groups, may carry out ‘lone actor’ or small network violence.”

The report estimates that in 2017, there were 600 to 700 Albertans who considered themselves “members” of patriot and militia groups. Interest fell off in 2018, and their numbers are now estimated at between 300 and 500 active members.

The report says media coverage has played a role in the group’s recruitment.

“Prior to a number of stories, in particular about larger patriot groups in the province in late 2017 and into the summer of 2018, many of these groups were facing a pronounced drop in membership and public interest,” the report says. “Subsequent to these articles being published, there was a noteworthy spike in potential new members, at least in some urban and rural areas of the province.”

Media coverage of the groups should walk a fine line between giving the public an understanding of the groups and “providing a platform or conveying an outsized threat posed by militia and patriot groups.”

The report also says the rise of the Yellow Vest movement has “re-energized areas of activism and engaged a broader set of individuals, some of whom may now gravitate toward more organized patriot or militia groups.”
White supremacy/associated ideologies

White supremacy has a long history in Alberta. In 1930, the Ku Klux Klan had 50 chapters in Alberta with 7,000 to 8,000 members, the report estimates. By the mid-1930s, however, the Klan had been reduced to a few small, largely rural groups.

Organized white supremacist groups were largely dormant in the province until the late 1980s. In 1988, two young KKK members were convicted of a plot to blow up a Jewish community centre in Calgary. During that period, KKK members numbered around 100 in Alberta.

In the intervening years, a number of skinhead, Neo-nazi and “Aryan” groups were active in the province. Particularly violent years fell between 2008 and 2012, with 10 “noteworthy” incidents of violence linked to white supremacists, including assaults on immigrants and visible minorities in Calgary and Edmonton, at least five homicides and “bouts of infighting” between white supremacist groups.

The report says that while a white supremacist group has never carried out an organized terrorist attack in Alberta, they are a threat — especially to visible minority communities.

Now, the primary active groups in Alberta are Blood and Honour, Combat-18, the Christian Identity Movement and a variety of “identitarian” groups. Blood and Honour is believed to have peaked at 60 to 70 members in 2016-17.

The report said that while “traditional” white power groups are in decline, more sanitized “identitarian” and ethno-nationalist movements are attracting new members.

jwakefield@postmedia.com

twitter.com/jonnywakefield

Listen to our Canadian news podcast, 10/3