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What ever happened to defunding the police?
130 Plays3 years ago
Trent Daley and Duncan Kinney discuss the defund the police sized hole in the discourse around our municipal elections, some of the wackier school board trustee candidates out there and the incredibly disturbing Moleman case.
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Transcript
New Podcasts on Harbinger Media Network
00:00:00
Speaker
The Progress Report is a proud member of the Harbinger Media Network, and we've got some big news to announce. Three new podcasts have joined. We've got Anti-Girl Boss with Peniz Cosrow and Tamsin Riddle, we've got Gender Troubles with Emma and Eva, and we've got Take Back the Fight with the always amazing Nora Loretta. Head to harbingermedia.com to get more details on these sweet new podcasts that I can't wait to listen to. Now, on to the show.
Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:00:38
Speaker
Friends and enemies, welcome to The Progress Report. I am your host, Duncan Kinney. We're recording today here in Amiskwichiwa, Skigan, otherwise known as Edmonton, Alberta, here in Treaty Six territory, and we're here on the banks of the Kasis-Kasa'a, Wannasipi, or the North Saskatchewan River. Joining us today to discuss the gaping hole in the discourse around Alberta's municipal elections is Trent Daly. Trent, welcome to the pod. Thanks for having me, Duncan.
00:01:04
Speaker
So Trent, just by way of introduction, is the vice chair of Edmonton's Anti-Racism Advisory Committee and is a volunteer and active member of the National Council of Canadian Muslims. Trent, I assume you're doing just fine considering how things are in Alberta right now. Yeah, you know, not too bad. It's like, I feel like we've been on this roller coaster ride and
00:01:32
Speaker
even if you want to get off and you're saying like, mommy, help me. It's, you know, we're all stuck on it. Yeah. I mean, I am lucky. I don't have anyone who has to go to a hospital or get a cancer surgery or anything in the immediate short term, but yeah, our healthcare system is still blowing up, even though, I mean, that's not the topic of this, uh, this podcast, but, uh, but it is hard to do anything without just kind of like thinking about it as this like creeping dread in the background. Yeah. And I mean, like,
Defunding Police: A Silent Election Issue
00:02:00
Speaker
whether it's some of the other issues you've outlined for us today or the intersections of some of these other problems, they're all being affected by what is government incompetence.
00:02:13
Speaker
Yeah. All right. All right. Let's get off the code. Let's get onto the pod, which, you know, back in 2020, there was an unprecedented kind of international moment, right? Like after George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police, there was this massive street level movement that stood up and made one, you know, very clear demand to defund the police, you know, Black Lives Matter.
00:02:37
Speaker
And just over a year later, here we are in the midst of, you know, municipal elections across Alberta, you know, both Calgary and Edmonton have opened mayoral seats and like, Oh man, Calgary has like 28 people contesting the mayoral elections. Have you seen, have you seen the, like all of the people who are trying to be mayor of Calgary? Yeah, it's like, it's like a collage of people. It's just incredible. And you know, you get, you get such a degree of types of people that someone using it just to, it
00:03:06
Speaker
you know, get in the news and some people that are genuinely thinking they can win. And then there's the types that, how did nobody in their family tell them not to do this? Yeah, there are so many cranks. They're always your cranks, but then there are people who are just like, what are you doing? Like, like there is no better window into the kind of deranged political culture in the city that I grew up in. I grew up in Calgary. Then to read every single mayoral profile that like CTV posted and they're like, here's the profile of every single mayoral candidate. It is,
00:03:34
Speaker
It is not good for your mental health, but it does give a little insight into like why Calgary is the city it is. But, but we're not here to talk about deranged Calgary mayoral candidates. We are here to talk about, you know, something that isn't being talked about.
Police Funding and Accountability in Budgets
00:03:52
Speaker
Trent, have you, have you noticed anything missing from the municipal election discourse in, you know, across Alberta? Across Alberta, but you know, for me, um, most disappointingly,
00:04:04
Speaker
in Edmonton is the lack of discussion on defunding the police, the lack of discussion on holding police accountable, the lack of attention being given to the once banned, the carding procedure, but is still street checks that are disproportionately harming BIPOC people.
00:04:26
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, the question gives it away, but like, I mean, the intro to the question gives it away, but we, as a society, like, you know, the media, the candidates, you know, the regular ass people who are taking part in this municipal election, it has been noticeably absent.
00:04:45
Speaker
from campaigns, from forums, from media coverage, which is wild to me because again, not only did we have this huge international moment in 2020, but the single biggest line item in the municipal budget for Calgary and Edmonton are the police. It's near $400 million a year in both cities.
00:05:09
Speaker
And the very first thing you do after you get elected as a city councilor in this province, especially in the big cities, the very first thing that happens is that you get thrown into this like two to two and a half month budget process where essentially you as a councilor with the help of like, you know, these pointy headed administration folks, you build a budget that is essentially going to decide how the next four years worth of money gets spent.
00:05:35
Speaker
And so for a city like Edmonton or Calgary, if your police budget's around $400 million a year, we're talking about $1.6 billion that's just kind of like per city, that's just like headed out the door that no one is thinking about, that no one is talking about. And it's just absolutely mind blowing to me. Yeah. Like it's been so disheartening to me as someone who's been trying to advocate and push
00:06:05
Speaker
for this issue and especially seeing what's happened to my community and other communities with the attacks on black Muslim women, the parading around solutions to houselessness that don't happen and seeing this ever present reality of police budget yet where's the discussion? It's frightening.
00:06:33
Speaker
Yeah, and here in Edmonton, there was a very clear demand that was made. The city struck this task force, this community safety and wellbeing task force. There was like 13
Ignored Recommendations on Police Budgets
00:06:42
Speaker
or something, very clear recommendations. And the city adopted all 12 of the 13 or all but one. And the one they didn't, the one they pushed off to the next council.
00:06:55
Speaker
was the biggest one, the most important one, which was a funding freeze of the Edmonton Police over the next five years. Their estimate was that over the next five years, if they just froze the funding increases for Edmonton Police and instead redirected that money to health and social supports and housing, that that would be worth $262 million.
00:07:19
Speaker
And that funding freeze, again, is nowhere to be seen in the discourse around the municipal election here at Edmonton. And again, that is a huge chunk of money that could actually do something. And, you know, Don Iveson fucking washed his hands of it, right? He says he didn't want to tie the hands of the next council and the next council has, you know, busy campaigning to get elected and no one is fucking talking about it. Mm hmm.
00:07:47
Speaker
And to me, I mean, I mean, everyone has their own priorities, but to me, this is the only thing that matters. This is, this is, I am a one issue voter and it is, it is the, it is freezing the cops funding and redirecting that money to other things. And you know, we do have to put a tremendous amount of pressure on whoever the new mayor is, on whoever the new council is to actually follow through on this. I agree completely. And you know, it's one of those things that when you're looking at,
00:08:16
Speaker
perspective candidates in their platforms. It's been a void. It's almost been like something that even if people would support it, it's like this taboo topic because nobody wants to talk about cops. They're too afraid of what voters might think in a municipal election where participation is already low. It seems like it's being put off to the side, but it's going to come back. It's going to come back to the council one way or another.
00:08:44
Speaker
Yeah, and I think you've brought something up that's
Candidates' Reluctance on Police Defunding
00:08:47
Speaker
very important. It's been cowardice, right? None of these candidates, whether they identify as quote unquote progressive or not, there's no candidates who are framing themselves as the I will defund the police candidate, which is wild to me.
00:09:02
Speaker
that 15,000 Edmontonians sent a letter to their counselor saying defund the police. There was 10, 15,000 people in the streets for that rally. This is not an unpopular policy, but they definitely don't want to go up against the police. I think homeowners, white homeowners tend to be disproportionately represented in municipal elections. Turnout is low in these things compared to provincial and
00:09:33
Speaker
compared to provincial and federal elections. But maybe one of the reasons why it's so low is that you're not giving anyone a reason to fucking get out and vote. Yeah. And it's demoralizing to communities where they had to be re-traumatized in front of the last iteration of city council. They had to re-traumatize themselves. They had to air their trauma in front of this committee, this council, and then nothing happened.
00:09:57
Speaker
And now it's taboo to talk about. Why did you make those 200 some people go through that? Why did the SRO issue get waved under the rug? It doesn't end at the school board. Yeah, it has not been very encouraging. And again, it gets thrown into their faces right away. They get into budget deliberations like two or three weeks. It starts immediately after they get elected.
00:10:24
Speaker
While it hasn't really dominated the discourse, there is a handy tool that has been built by Taproot Edmonton, just a little local independent media shop. These things are very common during municipal elections is these surveys.
00:10:44
Speaker
And their survey is pretty authoritative. It covers a lot of ground, but it also has three very clear questions about police and police funding. And they got a lot of counselors and mayoral candidates to take this thing. And I think it's worth going through the questions and pulling out some notable answers to this survey. It is a multiple choice test. But Trent, do you have the link in front of you?
00:11:13
Speaker
Yeah, I pulled it up. All right. All right. So the first one that I'm going to do is, um, which statement best captures your beliefs about racism and the Edmonton police service? And answer number a systemic racism is apparent throughout the EPS. That's answer a, and there were surprisingly a decent amount of candidates.
00:11:38
Speaker
who agreed with this and who responded to this question in this fashion, you know, surprising. I mean, it's just an answer to a survey. Like it's not like a huge deal. But is there any names that jumped out at you who answered this question or didn't answer this question? Well, you know, what's disappointing to me is like, like,
00:12:06
Speaker
You know, if you don't want to do the tap roads, the chaperate survey, you know, don't do it. Right. But why would you skip it? Why would you say you don't have a position? Like you should have a position on every damage you on here. You know, like Sheryl Watson, somebody who's going to be mayor doesn't have a position on racism and EPS. Yeah. Absolutely wild. Like the mayor doesn't have a position. Like what the fuck? Like,
00:12:32
Speaker
I don't know what to say to that. And then when you look at who skipped it, we have two incumbent city councilors that skip the question. Why? Why would you skip this?
00:12:43
Speaker
Yeah. Sarah Hamilton and Aaron Paquette were the candidates who skipped it. You know, I was surprised for instance, see like Bev Esslinger, like an absolute, like I didn't, I do not recall hearing a word from Bev Esslinger during the defund the police talk. But there she is, Gabrielle Batiste, again, a council candidate in Odomen who's come out as kind of very pro police.
00:13:06
Speaker
said yes to this question, said that there was systemic racism in the EPS. I mean, again, it's like acknowledging that water is wet. It's not a huge deal to say systemic racism exists and systemic racism exists. Of course it exists in the EPS. But the people who answered, the EPS is not racist on the whole, but there are some racist members. So do the old Bad Apple hypothesis.
00:13:30
Speaker
Um, you know, we've got, you know, your Tony Katarina's, your Mo Banga's, your, your, uh, Michael Oshry's, your Kim Chrishell's, uh, John Zadok, of course, who voted against defunding the police, you know, as did, uh, you've even got an emergent SOTY in that one. And you know, it, it, to me, that question, like answering that question is kind of like what they thought was the safe answer. Like, of course there's some race and racism in, in EPS, but it's only the members.
00:13:59
Speaker
It's not the system, you know? And like, I don't know if they just didn't understand the question. I don't like, they must have, but it's just ridiculous. Like it's, it's such a cop-out. Yeah. Even Adrian Bruff and Amadine, so he both said yes to this question, which was, which was, yeah, surprising to me.
00:14:18
Speaker
Then, the people who said there's no racism within the EPS are two people who I've never heard of, so it's not the biggest deal. Who cares? It's a couple of people answered it that way. The second question is, when police request funding for capital projects, how should counsel respond?
00:14:40
Speaker
And a council should trust the police to know that we to know what they need and generally approve their request. There's only one person who said to just gave the police a blank check, a guy who I've never heard of named Mukesh Magwana. But the vast majority of people this I mean, this is like
00:14:59
Speaker
Whatever. Everyone and their dog said, B, counsel should closely scrutinize all requests. Only three people, counsel should not approve any further funding requests from police, actually agree with that statement. And I think it's worth saying who they are, because this is actually a good answer.
00:15:19
Speaker
It's Gino Akbare, a counselor in Odaemon. Abdul Hakim Dallal, a candidate in Ward Metis. And Naima Hailey, a candidate in Odaemon. Sarah Hamilton, again, skip this question. Good one, Sarah. Yeah. It's just, you know, it's kind of interesting the differences between the two. You know, it shows like, you know, when it comes to systemic racism, either it's apathy or lack of understanding and, you know,
00:15:53
Speaker
And finally, the biggie, the real like, this is the most clear kind of defunding the police question. What should be done about the police budget? A, increase it as determined by the funding formula. So essentially give the police what they want. Mo Banga, Tim Cartmell, Tony Catarina, John Zadak, Tom Shaw, Trisha Veltison, who's running against Aaron Piket. You know, like,
00:16:10
Speaker
But when it comes to budgets, suddenly everybody cares about the budget.
00:16:20
Speaker
Um, people who you would expect, uh, be freeze it until it is in line with comparable cities. Uh, you know, this is like kind of a safe middle of the road, non-answer. You had a lot of people who picked this one, including Amerjeet. So he, uh, you know, Kim Chrishell picked this as well. Like a lot of the like progressive candidates kind of picked this question, decrease it somewhat. This was a decent, there's a decent amount of people who said decrease it somewhat.
00:16:49
Speaker
You know, Gino Akbari again, Ahmed Nomadic Ali, Haroon Ali in Papasteu, Cody Bondarchuk, Adrian Bruff, Kirsten Goa, Michael Jans, Glynis Leib, Aaron Rutherford, Ann Stevenson, Shamir Turner, even Rick Comrie said decrease it somewhat, which I think my understanding is he's like kind of a reactionary, but I guess he just wants to decrease the entire city budget. So. Oh yeah.
00:17:15
Speaker
And then sadly, defund the police altogether. No, not a single candidate selected that response, unfortunately. Yeah. And then, you know, you go to E and, and, uh, the candidates that skipped and then you see some, you know, familiar faces in there. Yeah. Bev Esslinger, Andrew Knack, Cheryl Watson don't have a position on whether, uh, anything should happen with the police budget, I guess. And Sarah Hamilton and Aaron Piket both skipped the question.
00:17:45
Speaker
And, you know, it's just like, it's sad. Like why, why, why participate if you wouldn't answer this and why participate in this, if you don't have a position on anything, if you don't have a position on anything, then what does your platform mean?
00:18:02
Speaker
Exactly. And we'll link to these, what we're discussing in the show notes, so you can kind of go through and see them where your council candidates kind of answer these questions, particularly that last one. But what should be done about the police budget? What is to be done, as Lennon would say?
Impact of Lack of Political Slates
00:18:19
Speaker
But yeah, it's
00:18:22
Speaker
Again, I'm very frustrated by the fact that huge line item in the budget, massive international movement that actually had a clear demand and there's just no one actually doing anything. Maybe one of the reasons why Trent and I want to run this by you is because we don't have slates. We don't have political parties at the municipal level in this province. Do you think maybe that's why this hasn't come up? It's just every individual candidate on their own?
00:18:53
Speaker
I think to a certain degree, I think, you know, while there's no official slates, there's some pressure, you know, and there's some, you know, provincial and federal connections wanting to be able to work with the city council. There's, um, you know, there's things like the Edmonton city police union that's putting pressure on candidates. And there's a lot of factors that, you know, with some of these questions, I feel people were weighing, which is the safest answer for my platform versus, you know, what do people want to hear?
00:19:20
Speaker
It's like, what's safest? What will escape criticism? But it baffles me that, why would you even do it if you don't have a position on anything? Why would you even do it if you're going to skip everything? Did you just answer for one issue? But it wasn't this one? Because why? Because you and I are looking for this one.
00:19:39
Speaker
Yeah. I like the idea of municipal political parties, municipal slates. I want it to be clear and easy to understand what a municipal candidate's politics are and what their ideology is and how they're going to approach
00:19:56
Speaker
their time as a on city council. Right now you go to every single freaking candidates page and it's like you could literally it's lorem fucking ipsum text. It could all be the same written by the same person, copy and paste. It's like accountability, transparency, I'll be smart with your money. Like it's like, I promise to listen to you about your potholes or whatever. And it's like, I don't give a shit about that. It's all pablum. It's all pablum.
00:20:22
Speaker
And say what you will about slaves or political parties. It gives you the opportunity to take and make more definitive statements about what you would do on city council, the things you want to get done and your objectives. Because you could say, hey, look, if you elect seven of us, or eight of us, I guess, in Edmonton. No, seven in Edmonton.
00:20:41
Speaker
We can do the projects that we say we are campaigning on. If you wanted to defund the police and you campaigned on defunding the police and you elected seven counselors that would defund the police, guess what? You would defund the fucking police. Instead, what we have in council is 12 individual counselors and one mayor, and it's all log rolling and favor culling.
00:21:05
Speaker
And every little thing that goes through counsel is kind of subject to the vagaries of these individuals whims. And I don't like it. I am on record now. I would prefer a slate. I would prefer a municipal political party. I want to know where people stand. Well, Duncan, it's time for you to get ahead.
00:21:33
Speaker
It's the same bullshit rhetoric from people who don't actually know what real people's lives are like. Why are these people running? That's what I want to know. Are you running for a community or are you running for you? Is this another step up the ladder? I don't want to have no public parks named after me by the time I'm in the ground. What is it? Because when you don't have a position on issues that affect a considerable amount of people,
00:22:01
Speaker
as Edmonton is approaching a city that is almost majority racialized communities, how can people not have a position?
00:22:09
Speaker
Yeah, there is no bigger issue that city councilors will deal with than policing. It is your single largest line item. It is the thing that causes the most harm, the most damage to people on a regular basis. It is violence regularly and human rights violations regularly inflicted on poor people, on oppressed people, on BIPOC folks. This is the reality of the situation and it's just, you know, don't want to talk about it.
00:22:39
Speaker
Yeah. And like, I worked in harm reduction for two years and part of that was during the pandemic. And, you know, it was a brutal time and seeing city council make promises and houselessness in 10 weeks to address policing. But, you know, my clients that were unhoused and through the process of getting housed with addictions and intergenerational trauma, getting brutalized by police, you know,
00:23:05
Speaker
How can this be something you don't have a position on? It just speaks to the people who they're representing or want to represent when there's candidates here that don't have a position on this, but they want to shut down the LRT. People that are affected aren't the ones that they're going to be fighting for.
00:23:25
Speaker
Yeah, Don Iveson was mayor from 2013 to 2021, and despite his promises, he did not actually manage to solve the issue of homeless folks. The thing that makes me mad about that, because this was during the pandemic when we were stressed to the breaking point, when shelters had to turn people away because of capacity and social distancing.
00:23:49
Speaker
when people were dying of overdoses and a lack of social service supports due to, you know, personnel shortages, et cetera. And we had a mayor promised to end houselessness in 10 weeks. And, you know, if he couldn't do it, he would defer that responsibility out of the province or the federal government. But he made that promise.
00:24:08
Speaker
Yeah. Quote, whatever it takes. That was the quote from Don Iveson. He would pledge to end homelessness in the fall of 2020. This is of course, uh, when Camp Pekoewen was happening, this large encampment down in the river Valley, uh, kind of by Walterdale bridge, you know, he made this outlandish promise to do something.
00:24:27
Speaker
anything that he would end homelessness. Like he for real said that. And then, and then, I mean, yeah, I was, I was like walking the street with bear clan last night. Like there are still un-housed folks everywhere, by the way, just so you know. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, I was working, um, in the housing first program at the time and that announcement was made. And I remember like seeing that on my phone as I was like driving in between appointments. And I remember just like laughing, like, like, like what the fuck kind of laughing and just like,
00:24:54
Speaker
I don't know, like, just like, how do you react to that? And then I like, like immediately, like, I like texted my team and I was like, Hey, they just made this promise. And we all just kind of laughed. I mean, in a city where the housing first program houses like a thousand unique individuals per year, like what the hell 10 weeks.
00:25:12
Speaker
And if you want another kind of example of why your vote in these municipal elections matters, we also have the example of school board trustees. These tend to be a little more lower profile, unless someone really fucks up or says something stupid, they don't tend to get a bunch of media attention. But there was an outgoing Edmonton public school trustee who did
00:25:40
Speaker
say a bunch of stupid shit as she was going out the door. EPSB had an emergency meeting the other day because of COVID and what's going on in schools and transmission of COVID in schools. And this Sherry Adams woman, she's been a public school trustee for quite some time. I want to say two, maybe even three terms. She used the platform afforded to her by this emergency meeting, really her last act
00:26:02
Speaker
as a public school trustee to essentially just out herself as this like pro covid, you know, anti-vax person. You know, she went off about Ivermectin and how it was better than vaccines and just like absolute Looney Tunes shit. And this is, again, an example of why these these municipal and school board elections matter. Right. Mm hmm. And, you know, I feel like school board trustee elections, you know, I feel like
00:26:30
Speaker
the candidates don't get their fair due by both the media, by the community, by even people like us. It needs to be talked about way more than it is. Because look at this. Look at how COVID is affecting our schools with the provincial government unwilling to do their job. And then it's down to EPSB having to issue a firebreak to close schools in the midst of a crisis. And then you have somebody in that seat of power for a ward in the South Side saying,
00:26:59
Speaker
you know, inject yourself with like horse meds, like what the hell? Yeah, this is your school board trustee for where you live, isn't it? No, she's right adjacent to me. She's in Mill Woods. She's in Ward High, I believe. And like, you know, this is insane to like tell people to use ivermectin, like, like what a callous and dangerous use of one's powerful position, that privileged position to any parents or children that follow EPSB to hear that. Like that's crazy.
00:27:30
Speaker
So, yeah, this is Sherry Adams, when she is a pastor at a church in June, she moderated a panel at her church titled, could a COVID passport possibly be the mark of the beast? Which for any millenarians out there or lapsed Christians, I mean, I'm a lapsed Christian, but I distinctly remember
00:27:54
Speaker
the craziest Christians that I knew being obsessed with the mark of the beast. But yeah, so Dawn Hancock is a candidate for school board trustee in the West End, and she's a pastor at the same church as Adams. She is a little more low key than Adams. She hasn't been going off about horse paste or what have you, but just FYI for anyone living in the West End of Edmonton,
00:28:19
Speaker
Another school board trustee who came onto my radar was this Esther Ekpe woman. You're familiar with her too. Why don't you tell the folks why this Esther Ekpe person should vote for someone else?
00:28:36
Speaker
Oh, yeah. This one was tipped off to me because with some of my social media platform and the kind of issues that I speak on, someone let me know about this because they trusted me. And I'm going to be making a TikTok about it with my thoughts. And Esther, this candidate for Ward B, I believe, she has her signature. And the organization that she signed on behalf of or whatever is her church, I think it's RCCG or something on the document
00:29:06
Speaker
But she signed something that is called the Alberta Christian Accord, which is part of like a cross jurisdictional accord called the One Accord. And it's designed to like, unify leaders, leaders, so like, that's an interesting word, and churches to form a coalition, which can be a united stand. And essentially, it's
00:29:33
Speaker
on gender identity and human sexuality. Like it's like one man, one woman, one nuclear family before God. And when you look up one accord, it has connections to conversion therapy. And this person's running for Edmonton public school board.
00:29:51
Speaker
Yeah. No, wild. I, I, this one, a court shit I was not really aware of, but I was like, Oh man, like this is a really handy list. If you just want to find like awful people or awful like pastors, just run them. Just, just go to that page and go command F and see.
00:30:08
Speaker
But it's frightening to me for someone like that to be in that kind of position. If they got her name on their list, what degree is she beholden to these people, to this agenda?
00:30:23
Speaker
Yeah, it's bad. The other thing about School Board Trustees and an organization that has long, we have long kind of kept an eye on is the anodynely named Parents for Choice in Education group.
00:30:39
Speaker
And these folks are, again, very much in the vein of this one accord stuff. They tend to be Christian, a Christian fundamentalist, adjacent, and very much worried about trans ideology and GSAs and shit like that.
00:30:57
Speaker
And if you're looking for a handy way to just like scratch a candidate off, you can just go and check out their questionnaire. Very much like Tapper, they also sent questionnaires out. And it's a just, first off, it's just a giant red flag. If anyone even responds to a parents for choice in education questionnaire. But like, if you actually click on it and see what they say, like it very much like it's that you can see who's who, right? Like Esther, Ekpe,
00:31:26
Speaker
responded yes to the question, currently provincial legislation requires that parents be provided notice when a program of study involves subject matter that deals primarily and explicitly with religion or human sexuality. Do you agree that this notice and opportunity should continue to be provided? She said, you know, yes.
00:31:44
Speaker
Oh, this is the one that's the GSA one. She said yes to, do you agree that any school board policy that forces teachers to keep secrets from parents is unacceptable? And if elected, would you move to repeal any such policies? For example, the NDP government in 2017 forced boards to pass a policy regarding certain student clubs, GSAs, that said notification, if any, respecting a voluntary student organization is limited to the fact of establishment of the organization or the holding of the activity.
00:32:11
Speaker
Essentially this is the like, they want teachers, they want to repeal legislation that allows teachers to out kids who joined GSA's to their parents. And like Esther, for instance, said, yes to this. Anyone who says yes to that question. Yeah. Automatic, huge red flag. You know what I mean? Like, yeah. And like, it's, it's dangerous. Like to have someone like that potentially be in a seat of power over, you know, school board has a lot of power to, to influence obviously the schools, the schools in which our children will be in.
00:32:41
Speaker
And if your child is not comfortable telling you and they're comfortable telling a teacher, then forcing that information to go to parents could put that child at risk. And if that's your parenting style, that's on you. And it's not up to a school board or a politician to put children in dangerous positions. We can't assume that every parental household is a safe one.
00:33:09
Speaker
Yeah, and so I actually, the project, fun project for later might be just going through every single one of these and just finding all of the school board trustee candidates that agreed with that question about outing kids who joined GSAs. We'll see if I can find the time for that before the 18th. But very just easy tool to just see if these people are just kind of like outing themselves.
00:33:33
Speaker
But I don't have a good segue into this next segment. Maybe I could construct something about how we're seeing a rising tide of white nationalism and white extremism. We're seeing it perhaps in these Christian candidates for school board. We're seeing it in shit like Sherry Adams saying vaccinations are bad and you should use horse paste.
00:34:00
Speaker
It's all, it's all somewhat related, but, but I'm just going to dive right into it. The thing I also want to talk about on this podcast is an absolutely insane case out of Edmonton that we have to call the mole man case.
Judicial Concerns: The Kelvin Moore Case
00:34:17
Speaker
Uh, you had not heard about this until I brought it, told you that we'd be talking about it on the pod, right? Yeah. I'm honestly like, it's been, it's been tough to keep up. And then when I read this, like,
00:34:28
Speaker
You know, it's hard to be surprised anymore, but Jesus fucking Christ. So this, this case originally came on our radar and we had some posts on Twitter about it. Uh, when, um, in September, uh, it was, it was released or the news came out that Kelvin Moore,
00:34:46
Speaker
A 26-year-old who lives in Parkland County was released on bail in September. He had appealed the decision by a judge to not grant him bail, which is actually pretty extraordinary, to not grant someone bail. He had been in prison since earlier in the year when he had been charged with 35 separate weapon offenses. The RCMP alleged that Moore posted extremist views online and presented a threat to critical infrastructure, police, and the public.
00:35:14
Speaker
This is a guy who dressed up in a cop uniform. This is a guy who broke into and vandalized a oil field site. This is a guy who was on 4chan saying and doing absolutely wild shit. The reason why he was on our radar was that when the judge let him out on bail,
00:35:37
Speaker
In his written decision, he said, quote, the crown's concerns about Mr. Moore's belief are valid, but misplaced. There is no concrete evidence before the court that ties him inexorably to these beliefs or groups. Sure. I mean, that's, that's your opinion judge, but fair enough.
00:35:55
Speaker
But this is the doozy. To deny him bail based on these assertions would be wrong. It would be reminiscent of the overreaction during the McCarthy era of the early 1950s into the unjustified fear of communist subversives.
00:36:11
Speaker
So not giving this fucking Fort Chan loser with like, who was caught with let's, let's be real, like a bunch of restricted weapons that he was trying to turn into automatic weapons with like explosives to deny him bail based on these assertions would be wrong. It would be reminiscent of the overreaction during the McCarthy era. He's, it is not McCarthyism.
00:36:32
Speaker
to put a fascist in prison without bail, especially when you catch him with a bunch of fucking guns and explosives. That is not McCarthyism. You're a fucking judge. Read a fucking book. If the House of Un-American Activities had ever turned up anyone like Kelvin Moore, then McCarthyism would not have the meaning that it has. Jesus Christ.
00:36:59
Speaker
The details of this case are wild. So police say in January that he impersonated a police officer near Spruce Grove. Then on February 12th, he allegedly damaged an oil and gas facility near Drayton Valley belonging to Obsidian Energy. He was then arrested the following day. I think the police have been keeping very close tabs on this guy. The story that came out today on this was the Edmonton Journal publishing a piece which gets into this guy's 4chan posting history, and that's the piece that I sent to you, right?
00:37:30
Speaker
Like how safe do you feel walking around knowing that this guy is out on bail? It's terrifying to me, you know, like we've seen this with, with, uh, you know, other mass, um, shootings. We've seen the, the Quebec mass shooting with Alexandre Bissonette. We've seen the New Zealand shooting and, you know, in New Zealand, the youngest Muslim child, Muslim person that was killed was a three year old, like a little toddler.
00:37:57
Speaker
And, you know, my kids played their dinosaurs in the mosque back pre-COVID when we could all go. And, you know, for me looking at this as a Muslim person who's seen hate crimes increase and seeing how black Muslim women in our community are so disproportionately affected, you know, it reminds me of like, you know, Patrick Matthews and, you know, these people like,
00:38:17
Speaker
no charges are laid, or they're put on bail, and then they escape across the border, or they are able to reunite with other extremists that share their ideology. How could you let someone like that out?
00:38:30
Speaker
Yeah. And to call it McCarthyism is wild. And so this guy's trial happens in April, 2022, uh, the reporting, which, which we'll link to in the show notes, there's some actually wild photos of this guy on Halloween, 2016. Uh, this guy was out in like camo, uh, and like posing with cops. There's a picture of him in front of the legislature, like with a handgun. Uh, you know, this is something that I've been kind of
00:38:54
Speaker
rolling around in my head for a while now, pretty much since the federal election and the media's inability to see what the PPC is and what it does, how it operates. But we need to start building institutions of self-defense. White people are becoming increasingly radicalized. Reactionary conservative white folks are dangerous.
00:39:21
Speaker
And the thing is, is that this is an issue, you know, and there's been studies on this, you know, like there's been organizations like OPV that have looked into this on, um, how radicalization and de-radicalization work. And, you know, there's lots of other organizations, academic studies you can access, but it's affecting, you know, young white males, very, very, uh, disproportionately. And like these, these young men, these sometimes children,
00:39:50
Speaker
are online getting radicalized by Facebook. We saw recently with Facebook getting shut down. There's lots of concerns there on Instagram, on TikTok, where there's active white nationalists with platforms in the thousands of followers that these apps and these social media giants are letting run amok because it drives controversy, it drives clicks, and it drives shares.
00:40:16
Speaker
Yeah, and you were sending me stuff like that, and you keep a better eye out than I do on that shit. No, reactionary white folks are getting radicalized, they're getting radicalized more and more, and it's really fucking scary and dangerous. We need to figure out what self-defense looks like and how that works.
00:40:36
Speaker
On that cheery note, let's transition to something a little more fun, Trent, and I do want to give a little bit of a status report on the most important part of the upcoming municipal elections, and that is, of course, the Senate campaign. I assume you've been keeping very close track of the Senate campaign, haven't you? Yeah, it's been an intense race to embarrass Jason Kenney, essentially.
00:41:01
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, it has been actually quite good for my mental health to just like see all the posts on, you know, on, on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram of like, Hey, I voted for you. And like, Hey, here's a picture of your funny, like fuck Kenny, vote Kenny button. And if you want a fuck Kenny, vote Kenny button, uh, just send me a message on like Twitter. My DMS are open. Um, Oh yeah. Yeah. I'll get you some. I got a big bag. Um,
00:41:28
Speaker
But it's been very good for my own health to just get all these positive vibes sent my way of just people sending me messages saying, hey, I voted for you, or during an otherwise very dark time. It's good. I also do want to talk about the rise of another incredible candidate for Senate, and that is Jet Thunders.
00:41:45
Speaker
If you are taking the opportunity to vote in these Senate elections, I would recommend both myself, obviously, and Jet Thunders. He is treating the Senate election with the respect and seriousness and decorum that it deserves. Do you have any thoughts on Jet's persona or videos or anything?
00:42:06
Speaker
Aside from the impeccable sense of style and rocking a very fashionable hairstyle, I think the name alone should be a vote right there. And you can vote for Jet Thunders and Duncan here. So you might as well vote for both.
00:42:23
Speaker
Yeah. You get up to three. Uh, I only voted for, for me and jet, but you do get up to three. So if one of those other, uh, candidates tickle your fancy or is like your uncle or something, I don't know. There's like three conservatives and three PPC. So like, uh, yeah, we definitely want to beat them, but I don't know. It's, it's, it's like, it's like funny to contemplate winning that. It's like, um,
00:42:44
Speaker
The political stakes are very low for this Senate election, right? On the fucking floor. It does not matter at all. The winner will not become a Senator. But the comedy stakes, if I win, are very high. Well, it's just so meme-able. Especially on top of Jason Kenney's other mountain of accomplishments this past year, having somebody who wants to abolish the Senate be his elected Senator in a sham race would just be the icing on the cake, as it were.
00:43:14
Speaker
Yeah, there you go. So if you haven't, the advanced polls are open here in Emerson Calgary, I think to like Monday or Tuesday next week. So if you can get out to the advanced polls, if not, the election is held on October 18th. But yeah, don't just vote for me, vote, vote, look into your counselors, look into your school board trustees. The labor councils tend to have very good endorsement lists, which are a great place to start, if not just go off of.
00:43:41
Speaker
Climate Justice Edmonton has a very good list of endorsements as well. There are resources out there. Jim did just put out a newsletter that went into a little bit more detail on this. We can link to that in the show notes. Any last thoughts on the various municipal election things before I close it out?
00:44:01
Speaker
Well, you know, I think people, people should follow some folks on Twitter. You know, Dr. Obaka Okwoku is a really good source of information. He's got his own takes on the municipal election. You know, I think there's a lot of folks that like us are looking at defunding police as being a major issue. And I think at the end of the day, you know, this is an election you can't afford to sit out. This isn't like, this isn't like the federal election or the provincial election. No, but I would, I would argue that municipal elections affect the average person more.
00:44:30
Speaker
And there's a huge, huge amount of things at stake here. So if you can go out to the polls and vote. Yeah, I agree. And you know, maybe let's build a, like an actual municipal political party or a slate for four years from now. Uh, maybe, uh, give me a call or send me a DM after this whole thing is over and we can, we can get that in motion. We'll call the jet thunders party.
00:44:55
Speaker
Exactly. All right. Bay stuff. Yes. Our heroic leader, uh, Trent, um, you know, what's the best place for people to follow along with, uh, the work and the content you produce online? Well, how can time now you can, uh, plug your pluggables. Uh, well, I've been most active on Tik TOK in the past couple of year, I guess, um, which is daily, my surname, D a L E Y shenanigans, daily shenanigans. And, uh, I, I tweet occasionally. Um, and I think that's the two things I post on the most and,
00:45:24
Speaker
Uh, with a couple of my friends, um, a Métis woman from Calgary and a trans person from Calgary where started like a little YouTube channel called spare room news, where he just kind of do like a very sarcastic and satirical takes on Jason Kenney and the provincial going on.
00:45:40
Speaker
Yes. Your TikTok account is good. It's treasure. Please follow it if you find yourself on that social media platform. I made a few videos on there and then I stopped it. I don't know. It's just another, it's more work. It's a unique social media platform to be sure.
00:45:58
Speaker
But definitely follow Trent on what he does on TikTok. It's very good. Folks, if you like this podcast, you want to keep hearing it. There's a very simple thing you can do to help us out. And that is donate money to us a small bit every month, five, 10, $15, whatever you can afford. It really does.
00:46:15
Speaker
Make a difference for Jim and I. You join 500 or so other folks who also donate and are absolutely key to this independent media projects continued existence. There is a link in the show notes or it's just theprogressreport.ca slash patrons. Also, if you have any notes, thoughts, comments, things you think I need to hear or that I screwed up on, I'm very easy to reach.
00:46:39
Speaker
Uh, I am on email at Duncan K at progress, Alberta.ca, and you can reach me on Twitter at at Duncan Kinney. Thanks to Jamie Cremans for chase producing. Thanks to Jim story for editing. Thank you to cosmic fam. You communist for our amazing theme. Thanks again to Trent daily for coming on. This has been really great trend. We'd love to have you back. And, uh, and to all the folks listening in and out there, thank you for listening. Goodbye.