Danielle Smith Plans to Stick Taxpayers with Fossil Fuel Risks

Alberta premier says she’s for free enterprise — except when she’s not

Premier Danielle Smith at a black-tie dinner at the Ranchmen’s Club in Calgary, where she boasted that sweeps of Edmonton homeless camps had made the left’s heads 'explode.' 

Photo via Alberta government.

According to the Council of Europe, “de-risking” means “the phenomenon of financial institutions terminating or restricting business relationships with clients or categories of clients to avoid, rather than manage, risk.”

But when Alberta Premier Danielle Smith uses the term, as she has been doing frequently lately, she obviously has something quite different in mind.

We’re going to have to wait a little longer to discover exactly what she’s planning, but it’s pretty clear that “de-risking,” Alberta style, is likely to involve providing public subsidies to either the electricity generation industry or the natural-gas extraction industry or both to overcome reluctance by bankers to invest in fossil fuels.

For example, Saturday on the free 45-minute advertisement that Global News provides Smith in the guise of a radio program called Your Province. Your Premier, she delivered a windy lecture on how you can’t develop wind and solar power without having an identical amount of natural-gas-powered electricity generation as backup.

Now, some experts might tell you the premier’s version of the facts is not precisely factual, but it’s the version she is peddling with her trademark mix of confidence, anecdotes that may or may not have actually happened and claims about technology that may or may not be true, with the blame for any problems always placed squarely on the Trudeau government.

To give Smith her due, she is very good at this. This is especially so on radio, where she long worked as a right-wing talk show host. She sounds very convincing if you don’t carefully parse the tales she tells.

So Saturday she described someone she talked to (unidentified, naturally) bringing forward “a perfect project” for a natural-gas electricity plant.

She continued, in tones implying she was letting her listeners in on a secret, that her contact “went to three different banks, and the banks said, ‘No, because of the federal uncertainty that you might shut this in, it might be stranded. We’re not prepared to fund that. But if it was a solar or a wind project, we would.’”

Did this really happen? Did it happen just as Smith described? It’s impossible to say.

“So that’s the problem that we’re facing,” she continued. “If I have to step in and de-risk those kinds of projects, so that they get built, so that we do have reliable power, we’re going to have to do that.”

“I don’t wanna do it! I’d rather solve this dispute that we have with the federal government so that they understand natural gas is an important transition fuel,” she went on.

After all, as she’d said in the lead-up to this yarn, which she also cited as a reason she “had to invoke” the Sovereignty Act last fall, “we believe in the market. We do!”

Indeed, it is true. The UCP does believe in the market. Except, of course, when it doesn’t.

Smith said much the same thing on Feb. 15 at that now-notorious black-tie dinner at the Ranchmen’s Club in Calgary where she bragged about homeless encampment rousts in Edmonton and boasted that the “left has their head explode almost every other day” as a result, to the cheers and chuckles of her well-heeled hosts.

In the said in Ottawa last fall. “This fabrication is not designed to inform, it is designed to inflame. But while factcheckers play whack-a-mole with misinformation and insults around climate change, the cost of inaction keeps rising.”


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Needless to say, this hasn’t stopped Smith. “They’re just not going to be investing in those projects,” she told the sympathetic Ranchmen’s crowd. “So don’t be surprised if we have to step in to de-risk this market. I don’t want to do it, I’m a free enterpriser.”

So you’ve heard it from the lips of the premier: Don’t be surprised if she steps in, Jason Kenney style, to “de-risk” natural gas development.

One way or another, though, you can be pretty confident Alberta taxpayers are going to end up having to pay the freight while the UCP tries to pick economic winners and losers.

Maybe it’ll cost as much as it did when Kenney, her UCP premier predecessor, gave away $1.5 billion for that pipeline to nowhere the last time Donald Trump was running for president. Maybe it won’t.

Meantime, though, as Smith explained on the radio this weekend, the rest of us are just going to have to live with “a little bit of belt-tightening.”

“I just didn’t want to run a deficit,” she explained.

David J. Climenhaga is an award-winning journalist, author, post-secondary teacher, poet and trade union communicator. He blogs at AlbertaPolitics.ca. Follow him on X at @djclimenhaga.

ALBERTA

First Nations, Métis settlements join forces for deal backed by Indigenous Opportunities Corporation

PETRO POLITRICKS

The Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corporation (AIOC) has expanded its reach into northern Alberta with oil and gas infrastructure assets.

The newly-formed Wapiscanis Waseskwan Nipiy (WWN) Limited Partnership comprises nine First Nations and three Métis settlements that are participating for the first time in a transaction backed by AIOC.

The $150 million loan guarantee, which is AIOC’s second largest commitment in its seven deals to date, was announced Dec. 13. It will allow WWN to acquire an 85 per cent non-operated working interest in Clearwater Infrastructure Limited Partnership for a purchase price of $146.2 million.

Clearwater is a partnership between WWN and Tamarack Valley Energy Ltd. Tamarack owns an interest in midstream assets, such as strategic oil batteries, gas process facilities and key in-field pipelines located in Nipisi, West Marten Hills, Marten Hills and Perryvale in Alberta.

According to law firm MLT Aitkens, which is representing WWN, this is the first time an AIOC transaction has been with an exploration and production company and the first time an AIOC transaction has been involved in the acquisition of a majority interest in infrastructure assets.

Tamarack says it will transfer $172 million of “certain Clearwater midstream assets” to the Clearwater partnership. Under the terms of the agreements, Tamarack has made a 16-year take-or-pay (TOP) commitment for average volumes of 29,000 barrels of oil per day.  TOP is a provision in a purchase contract that guarantees the seller a minimum portion of the agreed-on payment if the buyer does not follow through with buying the full amount.

The nine First Nations to form the partnership are Driftpile Cree, Peerless Trout, Kapawe’no, Sawridge, Sucker Creek, Swan River, Whitefish Lake 459, Loon River and Duncan’s, along with the Métis settlements of East Prairie, Peavine and Gift Lake.

Sucker Creek and Duncan’s First Nations were also included in a second AIOC deal announced in December. They joined with Sturgeon Lake and Horse Lake First Nations and Aseniwuch Winewak Nation of Canada to form the Niyanin Nations LP.

Niyanin Nations received a loan guarantee of about $20.5 million to partner as investors with NuVista Energy Ltd. in a 15-megawatt cogeneration unit at the Wembley Gas Plant in the County of Grande Prairie. The Niyanin and NuVista partnership will own a majority interest in the cogeneration project, which will generate electricity and useable heat.

Chana Martineau, CEO for AIOC, would not disclose the projected revenues for either deal, saying only that the “revenue needs to be meaningful for the communities.”

She also would not disclose whether the two new partnerships had the Indigenous nations sharing equally in the revenue.

With AIOC providing more than $680 million in loan guarantees directly impacting 42 Indigenous groups, Martineau says projected revenues for total projects are “north of $30 million” annually. However, she cautioned that there were a number of factors that go into projections.

“I’m thrilled for these new nations to join the AIOC family of supported communities. These ones (were) very special to me, especially after the wildfires in the spring in this region. To be able to support two deals in this sector is very, very important,” said Martineau.

Many of the communities that are part of the two deals declared local states of emergency during the spring wildfires and were impacted by evacuations, loss of homes and structures, and electricity.

That AIOC announced two loan guarantee deals within days of each other in December was coincidental, says Martineau, as negotiations can take anywhere from six months to a full year.

“We’ve got more deals in the funnel,” she added, but wouldn’t disclose how many deals or in what sectors. “These are similar to mergers and acquisitions type transactions (and) sometimes they fall apart at the last minute.”

Martineau, who joined the board in November 2021 before becoming CEO in July 2022, wouldn’t say how many potential deals have fallen apart, only that AIOC has been “pretty fortunate” to have committed partners on both sides of the table.

What helps the process, she adds, is that AIOC is involved from the beginning and able to “give our views about the credit worthiness of the transaction.”

As for money Indigenous nations may have lost on deals that didn’t come to fruition, Martineau notes that AIOC provides capacity grants for things like legal support, due diligence work and tax structuring so Indigenous nations can participate without a lot of upfront cash.

In 2023, three deals were closed. That’s the most in a single year since the AIOC was formed in 2019 to support Indigenous participation in natural resource projects. The Crown corporation was an election promise made by former United Conservative Party premier Jason Kenney.

Martineau says it took time to set up the AIOC infrastructure, including developing policies, procedures, and finance functions.

In February 2022, AIOC’s mandate was expanded to include projects and related infrastructure in the agricultural, transportation and telecommunications sectors. However, none of the projects supported to date include those new sectors.

Martineau says she is asking partners to be patient.

“When you're looking at investing in new sectors, you need to learn the sectors. You need to understand the corporate partners, you need to understand what the opportunities are, what the risks are… because (with) each deal, we're breaking new ground here. These are new types of partnerships,” she said.

“We need to look at and see ‘how do we do this in a way that works for all three parties—the corporate partner, the Indigenous partners and the government of Alberta loan guarantee’. It takes some, I'll call it corporate creativity, to come to the table in a way that makes sense for all three parties. It's not a cookie cutter approach.”

But more than time is needed, says Martineau. Personnel is also required, especially as AIOC’s loan guarantee capacity of $1 billion was doubled earlier this year and will rise to $3 billion as of 2024-2025.

“We've asked the government for some more resources. We don't know if that'll get approved,” said Martineau, noting that the 15 full-time employees AIOC currently has “will be just fully deployed coming up here in the next two months.”

The government’s new fiscal year with a new budget begins April 1.

Presently AIOC has a posting for a director of talent management, who will work on recruitment strategies. As well, experts have been contracted for short-term service.

“We can contract experts to help us, but we have a very small budget where we are very mindful of taxpayer dollars and so we try to do this as efficiently as we can. We've been measured in our growth,” said Martineau.

Martineau anticipates green energy development will come onto AIOC’s radar once the province lifts the moratorium imposed last August on approvals of projects in the sector. The Alberta Utilities Commission is expected to make recommendations in March on how to move forward.

Once more Martineau wouldn’t say if there are any existing applications for renewable energy projects on the books.

“We are looking to broaden our impact in in all ways, so different types of industries even and different types of energy projects… We have a lot of latitude.... We have sectors, but we have a broad reach across those sectors and so we'd like to help expand our scope. We are building out our team and our capacity in order to do that,” she said.

“We're supporting the industries that Indigenous communities are looking to invest in to the best that we can.”

Windspeaker.com

By Shari Narine, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Windspeaker.com, Windspeaker.com

SF;SPECULATIVE FICTION

In 2024, Alberta NDP decides who it is without Rachel Notley as leader

OPINION BY ANONYMOUSE

CBC
Sun, December 17, 2023 

Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley waves as she concedes the election to the United Conservatives last May. She's stuck around as leader — again — despite the loss, but party insiders widely expect she'll step aside within months. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press - image credit)

Since at least her days as premier, NDP Leader Rachel Notley has worn the same wristwatch. No luxury wrist bling — it's a digital number, though not as smart as an Apple Watch either.

Notley instead relies on the simplicity of a Garmin Forerunner 35 with a silicon wristband. Big digital time display, and it can sync with her phone's texts with her husband and her music player.

Notley's trusty old running watch, which she sported on 2023 election night.

Notley's trusty old running watch, which she sported on 2023 election night. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press)

Most importantly, it serves her near-daily running habit. Tracks distance, pace, heart rate along with the kilometres of her morning routine.

At some point next year, likely in the first few months, Notley will announce that she's tapping the button on her watch's upper right corner. The stop button.

She'll declare an end to this ultra-marathon she's endured as leader of Alberta's New Democrats. She will step aside, having lifted them from fourth-party status in the legislature to one-term government and now a second consecutive term back in the opposition benches, across nearly 10 years in the spotlight.

Then, it's race time of another sort, a months-long jaunt to replace her.

The contestants have already been limbering up. And yes, to extend this tortured metaphor just one bit further, there does not appear to be a front-runner, rather three candidates at the front of the pack.

In addition to renewal, it also means the progressive party gets to be preoccupied for much of 2024 in the sort of leadership intrigue that has repeatedly preoccupied its political rivals, from Alison Redford to Jim Prentice to Brian Jean (catches breath) to Jason Kenney to Danielle Smith.

With Smith seemingly solid (for now) in her United Conservative leadership, it's the other side's turn to figure itself out. What is the Alberta NDP without Rachel Notley in charge?

The long (and not-yet-started) goodbye

Let's be clear — Notley has not announced any sort of departure yet. In a year-end interview that will be released later this month, she reiterated to my CBC colleague Janet French that she's not saying anything until she's ready to.

"As I've said before and I'll continue to say today, I'm going to take the time necessary to consider my future and consider all the various factors in that and I'll let people know once I've reached a conclusion," Notley said.

That's the official answer. Unofficially, it's widely understood in NDP ranks that Notley wanted to help guide her 38-member opposition caucus, half of whom are rookie MLAs, through the post-election process and their first legislature sitting this fall.

Many of them had been imagining (and/or bargaining for) which cabinet posts they'd get after the victory over Smith that never happened, so she had to temper their frustrations and assign all 38 an opposition critic's post. She has claimed full responsibility for her party's second consecutive loss, but the marked improvement over winning 24 seats in 2019 helped prevent New Democrats from demanding she exit promptly.

Many in the party owe her a debt of gratitude for lifting a perennial Edmonton rump party overwhelmingly dependent on union force into a competitive party with a broader progressive-centrist coalition that not only dominates the capital city, but is also strong in Calgary, and in May won the most votes in both major cities.

NDP leader Rachel Notley makes an announcement in Calgary on Tuesday, March 19, 2019. The Alberta election has been called for April 16.

Notley campaigning as the sitting premier in 2019. Despite two straight election losses, New Democrats credit her for expanding the party beyond its progressive Edmonton base. (Dave Chidley/The Canadian Press)

It's hard to find anybody in the party who expects Notley, who turns 60 next April, to stay on indefinitely and lead the party into a fourth straight election. A 1-for-3 electoral record and two straight defeats is subpar for any ex-premier, but better than any Alberta NDP leader before her could have imagined.

To give the next leader ample time to build a profile before the next provincial election in 2027, most NDPers expect an early 2024 or spring announcement from Notley, followed by a leadership race that extends through summer and likely fall.

And when she makes that long-awaited announcement, don't expect it to be a rapid exit. She'll more likely stick around while the party selects her replacement, rather than say goodbye and walk out the door.

She said in the interview that she believes a leader tends to only hand over reins immediately to an interim leader when they're hounded out of office over controversy or unpopularity, like former premier Alison Redford was in 2014.

"Typically that's not a thing that happens, so, I guess we'll see," Notley told CBC News.

Sticking around as opposition leader will allow her party to retain some degree of heat on Premier Smith and the cabinet while so many NDPers are busy in their internal contest.

The three MLAs considered the top suitors for NDP leadership after Notley. From left: Rakhi Pancholi, Sarah Hoffman and Kathleen Ganley

The three MLAs considered the top suitors for the NDP leadership after Notley. From left, Rakhi Pancholi, Sarah Hoffman and Kathleen Ganley. (CBC News/Alberta NDP/Instagram)

There may be several names in the mix for leader, but three current MLAs appear to have the best mix of profile and nascent organization to be in the top tier: Sarah Hoffman, Kathleen Ganley, both former cabinet ministers, and second-term MLA Rakhi Pancholi.

Each would bring a different value proposition to the leadership.

Hoffman, an Edmonton MLA and former health minister, is the NDP lifer in the group, who was a caucus aide in the mid-2000s. She has been Notley's deputy premier and deputy opposition leader, and stands to be the continuity candidate.

While it's expected that Notley won't endorse anybody, quiet murmurs will emerge that Hoffman is her effective favourite, and insiders will look to see what parts of the current leader's own electoral machine get behind the deputy.

But the legion of Notleyites is expansive enough that some will likely back the other main candidates as well.

Ganley, the former justice minister, is a Calgary MLA, and that latter fact will be one of her biggest arguments to voters. With Edmonton smothered in NDP orange the last three elections, many New Democrats want to solidify and expand gains elsewhere — and one Edmontonian or another has led the party continuously for the last four decades, since Grant Notley, Rachel's father, who represented northwest Alberta.

The party's energy critic, Ganley could stress ties to business and a more centrist approach, in hopes of expanding the party's political base.

Pancholi, is a suburban Edmonton MLA who was elected in 2019, the contest Kenney won. Because she didn't serve in Notley's recession-time, one-term government, she'll be able to present herself as more of a break from the past, and the record many Albertans look back on bitterly.

One likely asset in her corner will be close friend and fellow MLA Janis Irwin, who appears to have become the closest thing the Alberta NDP has to a social media sensation, especially popular among youth and the LGBTQ+ community. But will UCPers cast Irwin as a polarizing figure, and try to carve into Pancholi's renewal bid by proxy?

Crowding the race

Those might be the early top contenders, but others will put their name in, out of some combination of wanting the party to promote a broadly representative roster — need one male, at least? — or a desire to raise one's own political profile.

Edmonton MLA David Shepherd is said to be preparing his candidacy, building on the image he burnished as health critic during the pandemic, and new MLAs Jodi Calahoo Stonehouse and Samir Kayande may also kick tires and scrounge together deposit money. (Former environment minister Shannon Phillips, perennially whispered as a contender, is said to not be interested.)

As for outsiders, Alberta Federation of Labour's longtime head Gil McGowan's name bounces around the rumour mill, while former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi endorsed the NDP last election and perennially attracts speculation — though he also tends to detest partisan politics.

Somebody will get to lead Alberta's NDP on a different trajectory, and this diverse array of options could take the opposition in notably different directions.

But this much seems clear: by this time next year, this won't be Rachel Notley's party anymore. Somebody else will lead the charge against the UCP and Danielle Smith — with uncertain levels of success — while Notley will be able to let her running watch tick along for a few extra kilometres every morning.

CANADA

Repression of Palestinian Solidarity on Campuses Must End

By Independent Jewish Voices

November 12, 2023
Source: Socialist Project

Organizer Sara Kishawi holds a sign at the "Rally for Palestine" at Vancouver Island University on Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023 organized by the Muslim Women's Club. Photos: Mick Sweetman, CHLY 101.7FM, Local Journalism Initiative.

Following the deadly Hamas attacks, Israel has engaged in non-stop bombing in the last weeks on the 2.3 million people living in the Gaza strip. We are witnessing civilian Palestinian casualties in the thousands. Meanwhile, Israel has cut off electricity, water, humanitarian aid, and internet and phone service to the people of Gaza. These restrictions on vital utilities are considered war crimes. People have lost entire families and Palestinians and allies all over the world are watching the news in grief and rage.

As politicians like Justin Trudeau continue to pledge their support to Israel, more and more people are mobilising to show our governments that the people of Canada want a ceasefire now. Rallies have taken place from coast to coast, in large cities like Toronto, and Vancouver, smaller cities like Halifax, and across university campuses. Even high school students in Toronto are organising walk-outs to show solidarity with the Palestinian people.


Solidarity Groups on Campus

Speaking up for Palestinian human rights in Canada has often come with a cost, particularly within institutions of higher learning. In 2022, Independent Jewish Voices released a report documenting the repression of Palestinian solidarity that students and faculty are facing on campuses across Canada. Now, during the latest round of Israeli brutality against Gaza, the climate at universities has only grown more suppressive and punitive.

Student groups at McGill, University of British Columbia, University of Toronto, Toronto Metropolitan University, and York University have held rallies and released statements showing their support for the people of Palestine and calling for an end to the ongoing genocide in Gaza. In response, university administrations have condemned their students and threatened to decertify student unions.

Universities are meant to be places where young people learn and explore new ideas, and begin engaging in public discourse. It is therefore inappropriate for school administrators to threaten to intervene in and crush these students’ academic careers because of their political beliefs. If the University administration disagrees with a statement, it is fully within the right of the administration to publicly express its strong disapproval and disavowal of the positions therein – as has already been done. Similarly, if a student body disagrees with the actions of their union representatives, they may remove these student leaders from power through existing union mechanisms such as elections. For the university administration to aggressively interfere with these students’ academic careers, however, sets a precedent for an unjust and dangerous overreach.
Free Speech

Universities have a special obligation to protect free speech and diverse views on their campuses. Executives and administrators need not agree with all sentiments and statements that their students and faculty make. Indeed, this is the cornerstone of academic freedom enshrined in university protocols such as faculty tenure. While some may disagree with what is said, the right to speak up for Palestinian human, civil and political rights on campus is sacrosanct. The punitive precedent that the administration is setting will harm all equity-deserving groups at universities, including Jewish students who support Palestinian rights.

We call on these schools to cease their punitive response to students, staff, and faculty who speak up for Palestine. •

Wave of Suppression Targets Palestinian-Canadian Workers

BY JEREMY APPEL

NOVEMBER 13, 2023Facebook

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Supporters of Palestine rally on Oct. 24 in Toronto during Israel’s attack on Gaza. (Flickr/Boris Terzic)

In the wake of the brutal Oct. 7 surprise Hamas attack on southern Israel and Israel’s merciless bombing and invasion of Gaza, Palestinian-Canadians have been under attack from their employers, academic institutions, law enforcement and the country’s op-ed pages.

There have been far too many examples over the past month of Palestinian-Canadians facing repercussions simply for speaking out about the root causes of 10/7 and advocating for an end to what Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights organizations agree is an apartheid regime between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea.

Any social media posting, rally appearance or expression of solidarity is scrutinized for its most uncharitable interpretation to depict Palestinian-Canadians as an active threat to the safety of Jewish-Canadians.

In Calgary, Palestinian activist Wesam Khaled was charged with a hate crime for leading a chant of From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free, which police described as an “offensive antisemitic comment” without elaboration.

As a condition of his bail, he’s not allowed to attend any pro-Palestinian protests.

This is the most recent and glaring example of the suppression of the right of Palestinian-Canadians to simply exist, but it’s been happening since 10/7 out in the open, with those who are quickest to proclaim their support for free speech without any consequences actively encouraging the censorship of Palestinian perspectives.

On Oct. 8, Air Canada pilot Mostafa Ezzo attended a pro-Palestinian rally in Montreal. These rallies were smeared by politicians across the political spectrum as “pro-Hamas,” as if nobody knew that Israel’s response to 10/7 would be deliberately disproportionate and that there might be cause to express support for Palestinians who were about to be buried in rubble.

Two days later, the X account Stopantisemitism, which mainly targets those who post pro-Palestinian sentiment on social media, posted a photo of Ezzo wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh in his pilot uniform.

“NO JEW would feel safe flying with this antisemite,” the anonymous account wrote, managing to be both anti-Palestinian and antisemitic in the assumption that all Jewish people feel threatened by displays of Palestinian nationalism.

In a second tweet, the account showed three other posts from Ezzo’s Instagram stories:

1. A flyer for the Oct. 8 rally with the caption, “Fuck you Israel, burn in hell.”

2. A photo of him at a rally with a sign reading, “Isr*el, Hitler is proud of you.”

3. A photo of him at another rally with a sign saying, “Keep the world clean,” with an image of someone putting an Israeli flag in a trashcan.

Were these posts inflammatory? Sure. Did they express hatred for the State of Israel? Of course. Did they express hatred for Jewish people? Unless one thinks he was complimenting Israel by comparing it to Hitler, the answer is no.

Toronto Sun columnist Joe “Nightscrawler” Warmington was the first to report that Ezzo had been “grounded” by Air Canada on Oct. 10, citing Ezzo “wearing pro-Palestinian colours while in uniform” and a “shocking number of social posts” — that number being three — “containing profane commentary about Israel.”

Air Canada spokesperson Peter Fitzpatrick, unsurprisingly, condemned Ezzo, saying his “opinions and publications on social media do not represent Air Canada’s views in any way.”

“We firmly denounce violence in all forms,” read an Oct. 10 X post from the airline, although there’s no indication that Ezzo endorsed any sort of violence in any of those posts.

Most disturbingly, Ezzo’s union, which has a legal obligation to represent its members in any grievance filed against an employer, made a statement virtually identical to Air Canada management, calling into question its ability to represent Ezzo fairly.

“We condemn all violence and hatred, and any promotion thereof. It is our firm expectation that all of our members abide by this principle and our professional code of ethics,” reads the statement to the Sun from Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) Canada.

I reached out to ALPA Canada to inquire whether they had spoken to Ezzo before denouncing him and how they square their denunciation with their duty to fair representation. In response, an unidentified ALPA spokesperson sent the identical statement it sent to the Sun, which answered neither question.

An Oct. 11 post on the Vancouver Is Awesome blog, headlined, “’He belongs in jail’: Air Canada pilot fired after making hateful anti-Israel posts,” compiled replies from Vancouver residents to Air Canada’s post distancing itself from Ezzo, including embedded tweets, such as the one in the article’s headline.

One which was hyperlinked, rather than embedded, was described by writer Elana Shepert as expressing “fear of violence against Jews.”

Here’s what it said: “I’m about to get on an Air Canada flight … I’d hate for us to get flown into a building or something.”

Thus nakedly Islamophobic rhetoric is recast as a legitimate concern about “violence against Jews.”

Two Palestinian journalists have been fired by mainstream news outlets for advocating for Palestinians as Israeli bombs rain down on Gaza.

The expectation that journalists remain neutral, unbiased and objective as their people are being killed is a weapon used to beat racialized journalists over the head, as Pacinthe Mattar wrote much more eloquently in an August 2020 piece in The Walrus.

As of writing, 39 journalists have been killed in Israel, Gaza and Lebanon since 10/7 — 34 Palestinians and one Lebanese killed by Israel and four Israelis killed by Hamas — making the past month the deadliest on record since the Committee to Protect Journalists began tracking data on journalist deaths in 1992. According to Reports without Borders, two more Palestinian journalists have been killed, bringing the total to 41.

On Oct. 25, Al Jazeera reporter Wael al-Dahdouh’s wife, son, daughter and grandson were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Nuseirat refugee camp, where they had sought shelter after Israeli forces ordered them to evacuate their home in northern Gaza on Oct. 13. Al-Dahdoug learned they were killed as he was reporting from Gaza City, where he stayed behind to cover Israeli airstrikes.

Earlier that day, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani, whose government funds Al Jazeera, to “turn down the volume” of its Gaza coverage.

Israel is preventing Palestinian journalists from telling their own stories to the world and mainstream Canadian media has proved a willing partner to that end.

Palestinian-Canadian Global News journalist Zahraa Al-Akhrass, who’s based in Milton, Ont., was fired while on maternity leave for social media posts expressing her perspective on Israel’s attack on Gaza, which Israeli-born and educated Holocaust and genocide studies scholar Raz Segal has called a “textbook case of genocide unfolding in front of our eyes.”.

“I was told the problem is with me expressing my beliefs, my opposition [to] Israel’s genocide of my people,” she said in an Oct. 29 Instagram video. “Global was literally asking me to look at these horrific images, this genocide and detach myself from my own identity, my own people. Is this ethical or moral, humane or diverse or inclusive?”

Al-Akhrass was the only Palestinian person in her newsroom, which ought to have been an asset for a news organization with a stated commitment to diversity.

Yet a workplace investigator requested a meeting with her to discuss a lack of “balance” in her posts. She was never told which specific posts were in question, but told to delete all of the ones about Israel and Gaza.

In response, Al-Akhrass sent her colleague an image of a dead Palestinian child, telling her that this is her people’s daily lived reality. Al-Akhrass was then further berated for sharing a “disturbing” image without warning.

“Nobody in my workplace would even acknowledge my pain,” Al-Akhrass said in the Instagram video.

She added that her union told her that, despite the fact that this was her lived reality, Al-Akhrass has no business sharing it with other employees.

Global journalists are part of Unifor M-1. Unifor national representative Liz Marzari told The Orchard in an email that a grievance has been filed on Al-Akhrass’s behalf.

In a statement to Hamilton, Ont., news site inthehammer.com, Global News spokesperson Rishma Govani implicitly accused Al-Akhrass of supporting antisemitic violence.

“Commentary by our employees expressing or amplifying violence or discrimination against any group is not condoned and is a violation of our company policies,” said Govani, who also emphasized that Global journalists are obligated to “remain fair and unbiased.”

In a Nov. 2 video update, Al-Akhrass said that Global offered her money, despite the company’s position that she was fired for cause, meaning she isn’t entitled to severance, under the condition that she refrain from speaking publicly about her firing, which she rejected.

“If a company believed strongly that an employee is inciting violence, why would they pay them money?” she asked. Good question.

So where could she be accused of advocating violence?

In one Oct. 13 tweet, Al-Akhrass said that while many in the West valorize Israeli soldiers, Palestinians regard them as “brutal occupiers who are hungry for our blood,” which simply presents the perspective of most Palestinians. A news organization dedicated to such buzzwords as balance, fairness and diversity might be interested in that perspective.

In another tweet, Al-Akhrass calls the labeling of Hamas as a “terrorist” organization “because they refuse to submit to your occupation,” a “racist narrative.”

Famed Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said — a staunch critic of Palestinian violence against Israeli civilians — shared Al-Akhrass’s view on the way the word terrorist is weaponized to remove any discussion of context from discussions of violence.

He said in 1984 radio interview with historian Studs Terkel:

Terrorism is a word without history because the terrorist just does it for the sheer delight in killing. I mean this is the caricature we’ve built up. Now the result of that is that language has lost its meaning. I mean we cannot distinguish between an enemy with a reason to kill, with a reason to fight, with a reason to exist. He’s just a terrorist.

For this expression of nuance, Said was given the moniker Professor of Terror in a 1989 cover story for the neocon rag Commentary. Some things never change.

CTV News reporter Yara Jamal was fired four days after speaking at an Oct. 22 Palestine solidarity march she co-organized in Halifax.

Documenting Antisemitism, another anonymous X account that appears to exist solely to target people expressing support for Palestine for harassment, picked out this line from her speech: “Jews can continue to exist, the Zionist ideology cannot … the state, no, cannot.”

Despite making a clear distinction between the Jewish ethnicity and faith on the one hand, and the political ideology of Zionism on the other, Jamal was deemed antisemitic and fired.

Again, the Toronto Sun’s Warmington was first to the news, comparing Jamal’s remarks to saying, “Muslims can continue to exist, the Islamic ideology cannot.” A more honest comparison would be if she had said, “Muslims can continue to exist, but Wahabist ideology cannot” — but that would have made Jamal’s remarks sound sensible.

Warmington then quoted B’nai Brith CEO, and two-time failed federal Conservative candidate, Michael Mostyn, who called Zionism an “essential component of the Jewish faith,” just as a Saudi theocrat would call Wahhabism a key component of the Islamic faith.

“When members of the media expose their prejudices and biases publicly, something they should have been trained professionally not to do, they have lost their ability to be perceived as objective disseminators of the news,” Mostyn, a semi-frequent National Post columnist, added.

Journalists, like everyone else, are citizens and have every right to participate in civic life. Had Jamal reported on the rally she organized, there would have been a breach of journalistic ethics, but she didn’t.

By contrast, CityNews crime reporter Fil Martino, who volunteers for the York Regional Police while covering them, has not only never been disciplined for it, but the fact is proudly posted on her CityNews bio.

CTV Atlantic journalists are represented by Unifor M-21. The local didn’t respond to an inquiry about whether they are pursuing a grievance on Jamal’s behalf.

Pro-Israel media watchdog Honest Reporting Canada, an outfit so extreme it encourages journalists to refer to the occupied West Bank by its biblical name, Judea and Samaria, and whose executive director denies the extensively documented existence of extremist Jewish settlers, boasted of having gotten al-Akhrass and Jamal fired.

“Let this be a reminder to Canada’s journalists, should you engage in antisemitism and partisan anti-Israel advocacy, whether on social media or in your personal lives, we will hold you accountable,” wrote the group’s executive director, Mike Fegelman.

Meanwhile, in Canada’s op-ed pages, Martin Regg Cohn, Andrew Coyne, Robyn Urback, Rosie DiManno, Barbara Kay, Konrad Yakabuski and their ideological ilk are free to to regurgitate whatever Israeli government talking points they like, with rare rejoinder.

Nora Fathalipour, a Toronto-area lawyer, is offering pro bono legal services to those who have been reprimanded or disciplined for supporting Palestine.

Fathalipour told The Orchard that she’s received hundreds of calls from Canada and the United States since she announced her intention to provide her services on LinkedIn two weeks ago.

“I think I reached my capacity after two days,” Fathalipour said, adding that she’s connecting those she cannot help with lawyers who can.

Those who have approached her for assistance, Fathalipour noted, are drawn from “all across every industry you can imagine.”

“I was surprised to find that in industries that don’t have anything to do with politics, or are even very public facing, people have been losing their jobs — things like the food industry, hairdressing and cultural institutions,” she said.

The legal profession hasn’t been immune from this wave of repression, with particularly disturbing implications, given the key role lawyers play in defending citizens from governmental and corporate overreach.

Fathalipour was one of nearly 700 lawyers who signed an open letter addressing a “growing chorus of statements from lawyers, law firms and law schools that are conflating expressions of solidarity with Palestinians and criticism of the State of Israel as antisemitic and conduct unworthy of learning or practicing law.”

These statements have included vows to blacklist anyone who expresses support for Palestine, attempts to get pro-Palestine lawyers fired from their firms, and advocacy for the expulsion of law students who express positions they disagree with.

“No Canadian should ever be discriminated against in the workplace because of his or her political beliefs or political activities,” employment lawyers Howard Levitt and Kathryn Marshall wrote in the Financial Post in January.

That was in response to the Ontario College of Psychologists ordering crackpot psychologist and right-wing influencer Jordan Peterson to take a mandatory social media training course or face suspension of his (long-unused) psychologist license.

But, when it comes to Israel, suddenly employers don’t just have a right, but a moral obligation, to discriminate against employees based on their political views.

“No-one has the right to ‘free speech’ in workplace political discourse and, if it is going to alienate any worker, it should not be permitted by the employer,” Levitt wrote in an Oct. 20 Financial Post article.

A week later, Levitt advocated workers who criticize Israel on social media or attend a pro-Palestine rally, both which he disingenuously frames as supporting Hamas, “be terminated for cause.”

If the worker sues for wrongful dismissal, Levitt promised, “I will personally represent the employer pro bono.”

Fathalipour said she would agree with Levitt that the two cases are different.

Peterson’s social media ravings, which include insinuating a critic of overpopulation should commit suicide, deliberately misgendering trans people and insisting overweight people are “not beautiful,” are, Fathalipour said, at the very least arguable instances of professional misconduct.

“The cases that I’ve been seeing haven’t been about threats or unprofessional speech, or anything like that,” she said.

“It really has been people just talking about what’s going on in Palestine. And expressing their emotions, about how distraught they are seeing what’s happening.”

This piece first appeared in The Orchard.

Jeremy Appel is an independent Edmonton-based journalist and author of the forthcoming book, Kenneyism: Jason Kenney’s Pursuit of Power (Dundurn Press, 2024). Follow him on Twitter @JeremyAppel1025, or email him at appel.jeremy@gmail.com

Smith announced Wednesday sweeping changes to dismantle Alberta Health Services

"It almost seems like change purely for the sake of change."

EDMONTON — Premier Danielle Smith says Alberta's provincewide health provider has lost its way, grown too big and become unaccountable, and that a massive reorganization can no longer wait.

Smith announced Wednesday sweeping changes to dismantle Alberta Health Services, reducing it to one of four new service delivery organizations, all reporting directly to Health Minister Adriana LaGrange.

"This isn't change for the sake of change," Smith said Wednesday at a news conference near the legislature.

"The current Alberta health-care system is one that has forgotten who should be at the centre of its existence — patients and the health-care experts who look after them."

She said some improvements have been made on finding family doctors and reducing wait times for care and surgeries, but added it's not enough and her government needs the legislative tools to make changes.

"The current health system in our province limits government's ability to provide systemwide oversight," she said.

"It also limits our ability to set priorities and require accountability for meeting them."

The transformation is to take up to two years, and while Smith says front-line health jobs will be protected, "you're going to see a process of streamlining in the management layers.

Alberta Health Services, or AHS, was created 15 years ago, amalgamating disparate health regions into one superboard tasked with centralizing decision-making, patient care and procurement.

Its annual operating budget is about $17 billion. It has 112,000 direct employees with thousands more working in labs, as physicians, and in community care facilities.

Under the proposed new system, Alberta will still have an integrated provincewide health system but with its fundamental structure and decision-making drastically altered.

AHS currently acts as an arm's-length body, with its own governing board, making decisions to implement policies set by LaGrange's Health Ministry.

Under the changes, all decisions will be squarely in the purview of LaGrange and the new oversight body she will chair, named the Integration Council.

AHS is currently subdivided into five geographic regions. The new model erases the geographic regions and creates four new subgroups organized not by geography, but by service delivery.

There will be a new acute care organization, responsible for running hospitals and, for the time being, lab and ambulance services.

AHS will become a service delivery provider answering to that organization.

Alongside the new acute care organization would be a primary care organization, with a mandate to find a family doctor for every Albertan.

There would be a continuing-care organization to oversee and run those facilities.

The fourth agency, a mental health and addiction organization, would work directly with the Mental Health and Addiction Ministry to further the broader goal of a recovery-oriented system.

All groups report to LaGrange or, in the case of the fourth group, to Mental Health and Addiction Minister Dan Williams.

Input and ideas are to be sought from 12 regional committees and one Indigenous advisory panel.

Smith said the rationale for the new model is to focus on the ultimate goal of reducing long wait times and overcrowding in emergency rooms.

Smith said ensuring Albertans get better and faster access to community care, to a family doctor, and to mental health and addiction treatment means they won't have to resort to the emergency room to get help.

"All roads lead to the emergency room," she said.

The details of the overhaul were leaked earlier this week by the Opposition NDP.

NDP Leader Rachel Notley said the reorganization represents full politicization of health care concentrated in Smith's office.

She said it will bring chaos, because the four new groups will inevitably intersect and overlap.

Notley said the move also opens the door to further health privatization. The leaked cabinet briefing notes said the United Conservative Party government will look at selling off AHS continuing-care subsidiaries CapitalCare Group and Carewest.

During question period Wednesday, Smith said that information is out of date and they have since received advice that CapitalCare and Carewest should remain with the province.

“Every decision that we make is going to be under the auspices of a publicly funded health-care system,” Smith said.

“There'll be no privatizing.”

Health policy analyst Lorian Hardcastle said it's not clear how transforming the system into four service-delivery areas improves patient care.

Hardcastle said the whole point of having AHS was so patients could move smoothly between primary care to acute care to continuing care.

"This system that is being implemented will not facilitate this," said Hardcastle, an assistant professor at the University of Calgary specializing in health law and policy.

"What it's going to do is put the services back into silos, and it's not clear how this won't impede that smooth facilitation of patients and how we won't see patients fall through the cracks.

"It almost seems like change purely for the sake of change."

Dr. Paul Parks, president of the Alberta Medical Association, said, "While the details and impacts are unclear, what is clear is that physician engagement in each of these new organizations will be critical.

"The AMA will advocate for our voice at the decision-making tables."

The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees called the plan short-sighted, disruptive and damaging.

"Nothing in these reforms addresses the short-staffing crisis and it might even drive more workers away from the front lines and hinder attracting new workers," said AUPE president Guy Smith.

"The government's plan will only take things from bad to worse."

Heather Smith, president of the United Nurses of Alberta, said the changes fail to address urgent problems like wait-lists, surgery delays and ambulance bottlenecks.

"We have severe deficits in terms of people and capacity in our health-care system," she said, adding none of that was because of the structure of AHS.

"They've made the wrong diagnosis and absolutely prescribed the wrong treatment."

The premier's announcement ends simmering tensions between the province and AHS that exploded in full view during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Former premier Jason Kenney said AHS provided faulty bed numbers that hamstrung his cabinet during the crisis. Danielle Smith sharply criticized AHS for not providing adequate beds during COVID-19, as well as for mask and gathering rules she said exacerbated social woes and led to staff shortages at AHS.

In the last two years, the UCP government has replaced AHS president Dr. Verna Yiu, replaced chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw and fired the AHS board.

LaGrange announced Wednesday that a new AHS board is to be chaired by former Alberta cabinet minister Lyle Oberg. It is tasked with winding down AHS operations and transitioning to its new mandate.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2023.

— With files from Colette Derworiz in Calgary

Dean Bennett, The Canadian Press

David Staples: Big plans mean zilch if Danielle Smith fails to deliver on promise of better health care

Opinion by David Staples, Edmonton Journal • 1d

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith outlines how the province plans to refocus the health care system during a news conference in Edmonton on Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2023.
© Provided by Edmonton Journal

Premier Danielle Smith can have all the big plans in the world but they will mean zilch if she fails to deliver on the promise of better health care.

At the news conference announcing major changes in the operation of Alberta’s health care system, Smith and Health Minister Adriana LaGrange did all they could to convince anxious Albertans worried about a hidden UCP agenda of privatization, job cuts and budget cuts and user pay to swallow a gargantuan chill pill.

“I want to be clear about what this plan isn’t and what it is not,” said Smith. “I made a public health care guarantee to Albertans that means no one will ever pay out of pocket for a visit to a doctor or for hospital services, and that is not changing. These reforms have nothing to do with privatization. They are also not about cuts. Alberta’s government will continue to grow the health care workforce.”

But what about the twin elephants in the room of any serious health care reform — rising costs and poor preventive medicine?

Our individual health and the system itself are threatened by ballooning costs of ever more numerous and expensive treatments and also by our lack of activity and diet of unhealthy processed foods, which can lead us to get major illnesses such as cancer, diabetes, stroke and heart attacks earlier in life.

Smith’s plan is focused first on the obvious crisis, how to lessen the tidal wave of patients overwhelming emergency rooms. But one key health care leader, Dr. Susan Prendergast, who has a Ph.D. in nursing and is president of the Nurse Practitioners Association of Alberta, said that in solving the emergency room crisis concerns over our collective deteriorating health will also be addressed.

Close to one million Albertans don’t have a primary care provider, which forces people to flood into emergency rooms, Prendergast told me in an interview.

But Prendergast said Smith’s government is bringing in a major fix, permitting nurse practitioners like her to open clinics on their own and independently provide primary care. A nurse practitioner is a registered nurse with years of field experience and a master’s degree in primary care who can essentially take on the role of family doctor.

There are 853 nurse practitioners registered in the province but they’ve only been allowed to be physician’s aids up until now, Prendergast said. Alberta is the last province to allow nurse practitioners to do what family doctors do.

“There’s an entire workforce that hasn’t been utilized up until now,” Prendergast said, adding the plan is to have 300 to 500 nurse practitioner clinics open in three years, each practitioner serving about 1,000 patients.

Prendergast praised Smith and LaGrange with pushing ahead the nurse practitioner program after years of political inaction. Prendergast said 96 per cent of nurse practitioners are women, and pointedly noted it helped having two women in power to approve the change. “It was a priority for (Smith) and she made sure we are where we are.”

Nurse practitioners are looking for equal pay for doing equal work of family physicians, but there will be one crucial difference. Nurse practitioners won’t be paid on the fee-for-service model, but will get a salary. This will allow them to spend more time with each patient and dig in and make changes to prevent poor health down the road, Prendergast said.

“The system of fee-for-service doesn’t allow primary caregivers to do that. It’s short, brief appointments. When you provide a funding model to a primary care provider that allows for flexibility in the time spent with the patient, they spend the time on lifestyle management. That is one thing nurse practitioners do extremely well. Every single appointment we’re talking about diet, exercise, smoking, alcohol use, drug use.”

It’s staggering when you deal with patients who have never been asked about their sleep patterns or how much and what kind of exercise they do. “They’ve been told they have high cholesterol but they’re given no support around addressing it, except a medication. And that’s unacceptable.”

The current model is also expensive for taxpayers as patients come in with multiple serious conditions. “It’s great to say that people should stay home (for home care) but the reality is they’re too sick to stay home. We’ve got to take a more preventive approach, otherwise nothing will improve.”

Again, the only thing that matters with Smith’s plan is better results. We shall see.

But the nurse practitioner part of the overall plan looks like it will work, helping us all get better so we delay getting woefully sick. It represents a crucial step in the right direction.

dstaples@postmedia.com

New bill would halt ethics investigations of politicians during Alberta election campaigns

Story by Paige Parsons • CBC

Alberta's ethics commissioner will suspend investigations into provincial politicians during future election periods if proposed legislation becomes law.

A bill tabled by Justice Minister Mickey Amery Thursday proposes updating several pieces of justice legislation, including a change that would suspend investigations by the ethics commissioner during the period leading up to a general election.

"Voters are entitled to proceed during an election without undue influence. These amendments help eliminate some of those influences," Amery said.

Amery said he doesn't believe the change will result in important information being kept back from voters because he says there are other mechanisms to keep governments accountable to the public.

The minister said the proposed change was prompted by a recommendation from Alberta ethics commissioner Marguerite Trussler, who pointed to similar Ontario legislation that sees investigations paused from when the writs are issued for a general election until the polls close and the votes are counted.



Alberta Ethics Commissioner Marguerite Trussler made a reccomendation that ethics investigations be suspended during election periods. (Alberta Legislature)© Provided by cbc.ca

Trussler recommended that the legislative assembly consider the change in her May 2023 report in which she found that Premier Danielle Smith had contravened the Conflicts of Interest Act during interactions with the minister of justice in relation to criminal charges faced by Calgary street preacher Artur Pawlowski.

"Not having such a provision puts the Ethics Commissioner and the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly in an extremely difficult position with respect to the timing and release of any report," Trussler wrote.

Her report was released on May 18, just 11 days before Alberta held its general election when Smith and the United Conservative Party went on to recapture a majority government.

Trussler's findings followed an investigation that began on March 31 after a member of the public asked if there were ongoing investigations into whether Smith pressured cabinet members or employees of the government in relation to the Coutts border blockade.

The complaint followed a January CBC news story about the premier's office contacting Crown prosecutors by email about COVID-related prosecutions.

Trussler wrote that she found no evidence of emails, and CBC has since updated its reporting.

'Doesn't add up'

The proposal to suspend ethics investigations during elections is puzzling, says University of British Columbia political scientist Max Cameron.

"It looks like the premier has got herself into trouble around conflict of interest and the solution is, well, we're not going to have conflict of interest investigations during an election," Cameron said.

"It just doesn't sort of seem to add up."

Cameron said he also thinks it's odd that the commissioner herself made the recommendation at the end of a report where an investigation during an election period ended up finding that a conflict of interest occurred.

He said that while it's important for ethics commissioners to be politically sensitive, they ought to be able to use discretion about whether or not it makes sense to proceed with an investigation or to release a report.

"You know elections are short, right? If you don't want to release a report in the middle of an election, you hold off on doing that. I just don't get that. It just seems, to me, very strange," Cameron said.

Earlier this week, a legislative committee voted to replace both Trussler and the province's chief electoral officer, Glen Resler. The standing committee on legislative officers voted to establish selection committees to replace each position.

Both non-partisan positions have contracts that expire in May 2024, and Amery said Thursday that Trussler is welcome to apply for the job again.