Just learned thereβs an Edmonton-area cat rescue that has a senior kitty mascot named Grandpa Garth who hangs out with all the kittens and we must protect him at all costs!
I don't want to pile on here, but living 30 minutes south of Edmonton and being really into the after work drinks lifestyle? Yeah, that's going to be absolutely horrible.
Personal news: we got married! Devyn (wife) is the greatest! People came from all over and were very lovely! And yes some of these were taken in a Plus 15.
Edmonton personality trait: person who refuses to see first run movies anywhere besides the city centre mall landmark because theyβre irrationally invested in its survival
Starting to think it's a bad sign that our telephone network has basically been surrendered to scammers. I'm consistently getting three calls a day from people mirroring my phone number, threatening me with arrest.
City hasn't gotten back to me, but looks like this happens with waste-to-energy plants. From a similar incident in New Jersey: "The pink color ... is a rare occurrence that can happen when a load of trash is combusted that contains amounts of iodine"
From the inbox: 400 lawyers sign letter supporting Indigenous cultural competency requirement for Alberta lawyers.
Comes days after 50 lawyers signed a petition asking the Law Society to repeal the rule that brought in such education.
I love Edmontonβs river valley, in part, because of weird stuff like this. It has no markings, emits a fetid odor, and is generally dread-inducing. Cool!
Still shaking after hearing this. Janice was a titan. A generous colleague and a mentor who you absolutely hated to get scooped by. She broke so many stories & fought to make sure our institutions are transparent. A huge loss for her family and this city.
News: Alberta courts will keep mandatory masking rules after the province dropped almost all COVID-related health measures. The three chief justices say this is because of the "unique position of the courts," which mandate appearances by "vulnerable segments of the population."
Court attendance is often compulsory, even for vulnerable segments of the population. Consequently, Alberta's Courts are maintaining access restrictions, mandatory face masking, social distancing, courtroom capacity limits and vaccination policies:
#ABQB
Weeks after an election that saw him lose his seat by 25 votes, Tyler Shandro is back before the law society today for a hearing on his conduct towards members of the public when he was health minister. Here's where things left off. I'll tweet highlights.
NEWS: Multiple sources tell me the Law Society of Alberta special meeting has voted AGAINT repealing a rule used to require lawyers undergo Indigenous education.
BREAKING: Albertaβs highest court has unanimously dismissed the case of Annette Lewis, a terminally ill transplant patient seeking to be re-added to the wait list despite her refusal to take a COVID shot. More to come.
News: charges in another "hate-motivated" crime in Edmonton. EPS have charged a 32-year-old woman with assault with a weapon following an incident Tuesday at Southgate LRT. Complainant in the case is a Black woman wearing a hijab.
#yeg
one of my favorite sounds ever is the sound of a crisp new newspaper being read over breakfast for an hour or soβ¦ The popping out of it, the folding, the scribbling on the crosswordβ¦ I hope it never goes out of fashion in our digital world. It is too romantic. ποΈβ₯οΈ
This morning, while sitting in court, I realized I am wearing two different shoes. If you are a size seven and we attended a social occasion together recently, please get in touch.
As of this month, Iβve lived in Canada for ten years. I came to this country a small American child, now I can kind of play hockey and am marrying a Canadian. Cool!
News: climate protester Casey Hatherly (who goes by the first name Ever) was briefly in Edmonton court today after being arrested for crashing the Junos stage topless. Here she is talking about why she did what she did (some brief language in here)
News: the Alberta human rights tribunal has ordered Edmonton police to pay more than $80k to two black men pepper sprayed & told they were lucky they hadnβt been shot after trying to report a crime in 2017. HRT found the menβs treatment was discriminatory.
Just in: disturbing release from EPS. After a standoff, police searched a taxi cab and a home in SE Edmonton and found high-powered rifles with silencers and EPS/other first responder uniforms. Also turned up an improvised explosive device.
New from me: 2 Black men who tried to report a crime to Edmonton police β but instead ended up pepper sprayed, handcuffed and told they were lucky they hadnβt been shot β were victims of racial discrimination, the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal has found.
Breaking: Judge Robert Shaigec has dismissed Pastor James Coates' Charter application in its entirety. βThe argument that James Coates was forced to either forsake his conscience or secure his liberty has been answered β¦ religious freedoms are subject to the rule of law.β
.
@Dave_Eby
slams
@Bell
for cutting local news today. Calls the company a "corporate vampire" - sucking up news outlets for profit and shutting them down.
Wants Ottawa to prevent this in the future.
New from me: last year, a man calling himself Mac appeared on a βcarnivoreβ YouTube channel, thanking viewers for raising ~$63k to help him & his wife pay for cattle feed
Mac, it turns out, is Don MacIntyre, an ex-Alberta MLA convicted of child sex abuse
Not a good night for Mike Nickel's endorsees, either. Of the 6 who got the nod, not one won.
Nakota Isga βDavid Olivier 2nd
AnirniqβAli Haymour 4th
TastawiyiniwakβJon Dziadyk 2nd
DeneβTricia Velthuizen 2nd
O-dayβminβTony Caterina 5th
PapastewβTarcy Schindelka 6th
Breaking: the RCMP Integrated National Security Enforcement Team has charged an Alberta man who was posting extremist content online and had a cache of guns and explosives. They believe Kelvin Benjamin Maure was a a "threat to critical infrastructure, the police and the public."
The RCMP, interestingly, was "strongly opposed," for public perception reasons.
"It would create a greater divide within the area that is unnecessary and frankly display the holes in the justice system.β
I don't recall seeing this sort of thing in past parole decisions.
RCMP dash-cam footage shows officer tackling chief during arrest. RCMP statement from 6 days ago: βMr. Adam was placed under arrest & resisted. They were trying to effect an arrest & there was enough resistance that the members did use additional force.β
New from me: in the past year, Edmonton has seen a spate of physical & verbal attacks against Muslim women. Mayor Amarjeet Sohi says addressing hate-based violence is his top priority.
A close look at the attacks reveals a really complicated picture.
An
#ABQB
judge awarded $60,000 in damages to Dr. Farhan Chak, ruling he succeeded in his defamation claim against former Sun Media TV host Ezra Levant and the defendants failed to make out a justification defence. Read the full decision at:
#albertacourts
Classic Edmonton moment: 1. trying to turn east on 61 Ave. 2. realizing you canβt turn east on 61 Ave. because of the sinkhole 3. being forced to turn around at McDonaldβs Island 4. getting McDonaldβs
This I did not know: "Alberta now has the dubious distinction of having the largest workplace COVID-19 outbreak in North America, stemming from the Cargill meat-packing plant in High River."
Hey guys, win or lose we canβt lose sight of the real impact of this raptors team: the generation of 28 year old dudes theyβve inspired to maybe try playing rec basketball sometime
UPDATED: Edmonton police officer who kicked Indigenous teenβs head wonβt be charged despite scathing ASIRT decision. Pacey Dumas's lawyer, a former EPS in-house counsel, is calling it a "cover up."
New: Edmonton police are facing a $400+k lawsuit from an Indigenous youth who claims an officer kicked him in the head during an arrest. Pacey Dumas has spent 2021 with a hole in his skull. MDs removed a section to relieve pressure on his swelling brain.
Wow, this letter. "Since your election, you have spent more physical time managing your business in Texas than being physically present in our Region."
News: Pacey Dumas, the Indigenous man who had to have a section of skull removed after being kicked in the head by an EPS officer, has begun the process of launching a private prosecution after the Alberta Crown declined to try the case.
#yeg
Quite the quote from
@RuralMA
prez on Alberta's move to close small town victim services agencies in favour of regional hubs. "We just continue to be exhausted by the movement of this government to want to go down this path. It makes no sense.β
New from me: Albert Bandura, perhaps the most famous academic to ever come out of Alberta, has died at 95. A 2002 study found he was the fourth most-cited psychologist EVER, one spot behind Freud.
New from me: I wrote 4,000 words on the GraceLife Church controversy, how we got here, and why you need to look to Southern California to fully understand what's happening here. The story is in print this weekend.
#COVID19AB
#ableg
β’ CPS officer tips over a man handcuffed to a wheelchair
β’ Steps on his foot, kicks him in the face, jokes about it
β’ Won't have a criminal record after a judge granted conditional discharge. Judge noted officer was "going through a difficult divorce."
God, more sad media news. The Whitehorse Star β whose motto (Illegitmus non carborundum β donβt let the bastards grind you down) is the best in journalism β is closing.
After 124 years, weβre calling it an era
It is with heavy hearts that today, we announce the impending closure of the Whitehorse Star, a trusted source of news and information in our community for 124 years
UPDATED: An Edmonton police constable who fatally shot an unarmed man will not face criminal charges despite Albertaβs police watchdog concluding there were grounds to believe the officer committed a βculpable homicide.β
NEWS: Edmonton public schools trustee
@CJohner
has resigned over comments she made yesterday about refugee children and violence, during a debate about school resource officers. From
@EPSBNews
:
Exclusive: A retired Edmonton police officer accused of falsifying arrest reports and warrant documentation allegedly had $80,000 cash in his work locker at the time of his initial arrest, court documents obtained by Postmedia state.
This week Poundmakerβs Lodge Treatment Centre hosted a gathering for survivors of the Edmonton Indian Residential School, which once stood on its grounds. George Muldoe, 79, showed reporters where he was ordered to dig a grave in 1958. Was really tough hearing his stories.
Quite the quote from the Smith ethics commish report. Politicians involving themselves in prosecutions "is the 1st step toward the type of judicial system often found in a non-democratic or pseudo-democratic country where members of & friends of those in power are shielded..."
The use of "criminal organization" is interesting. Obviously we have too little info at that point to figure out what that means β e.g. was this an organization that existed before, or something more ad hoc?