Alberta

New policy would require parents to consent before children under 16 can change their names or pronouns

It’s not hard to connect the dots between the anti-vaccine extremists, including Premier Danielle Smith, who now dominate Alberta’s United Conservative Party and the admission by a beleaguered Alberta Health Services that it is shutting down its long-COVID clinics in Calgary, Edmonton and Sherwood Park.

AHS, once a model of how to run a modern integrated provincial public health-care agency, is in the early stages of being broken up by Smith’s government, which is bent on relitigating the 2020-to-the-present COVID-19 pandemic from a MAGA perspective that denies the reality of the disease, believes life-saving vaccines kill children and views public health measures as a totalitarian control mechanism.

And it is no mere coincidence that this happened only a day after an anti-vax UCP MLA’s incoherent ramblings about how he’d like to see the vaccine banned completely caused a stir on social media. MLA Eric Bouchard has since recanted his apparent claim that an actual plan to ban the COVID vaccine was in the works.

1,328 votes against narrowly beat out 1,194 votes in favour

Over one-third of Alberta’s school divisions are cutting teachers next year even though classes are already overcrowded and enrolments are continuing to rise.

Student enrollment and class sizes will meanwhile continue to increase, with the ATA’s data indicating 26,000 additional students are expected to enroll next year compared to last year.

According to the ATA and public education advocates, the cuts are a result of a funding model introduced by the United Conservative government in September 2022 called the “Weighted Moving Average.” The “Weighted Moving Average” calculates student funding over three years using numbers from the previous year, current year and proceeding year. According to Schilling, this system fails to account for enrollment growth and complex challenges in the classroom. “It’s starting to create a crisis,” Schilling told PressProgress. “Talking to my colleagues across the province, staff rooms are being converted into classrooms, library commons are being converted into classrooms, gymnasiums, wherever they can find space.”

Bradley LaFortune, Executive Director with Public Interest Alberta, notes the Alberta Government has launched major advertising campaigns to draw newcomers into the province. LaFortune notes that Calgary has only built one new school even though the Calgary Board of Education is expecting 9,000 new students in the next year.

"What we’re seeing is a cut as a result of a funding formula that’s inaccurate. It doesn’t address new challenges, it doesn’t address population growth. It’s a recipe for disaster. It’s pretty appalling that that’s the state of public education today,” LaFortune said. “We need to stop investing in inaccessible private schools, fund public education, defund private education, and get back to the basics.”

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/how-did-a-mormon-town-grab-first-dibs-on-alberta-water-1.7216361

From the article:

Within the restricted zones are hundreds of oil and gas facilities. One open-pit coal mine in the Rockies is before the provincial regulator and the expansion of another has already been approved. Much of the area has been extensively logged.

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled Thursday it will not hear an appeal from Matthew de Grood to acquire more freedoms while under psychiatric care.

De Grood(opens in a new tab) fatally stabbed five people at a Calgary house party in 2014 during a schizophrenic episode.

He was found not criminally responsible (NCR) for the deaths in 2016.

De Grood’s lawyer, Jacqueline Petrie, has been fighting to get him more freedoms while under psychiatric care.

Hi all,

I was wondering if anybody knew where I could access to some old newspapers based in Alberta. I've been working on expanding information about the Calgary music scene in MusicBrainz, and I've been getting to a point where finding information on some bands online has been a pain with some having next to no information online.

Thanks for any help in advance!

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/danielle-smith-unveils-sweeping-changes-to-alberta-s-student-gender-identity-sports-and-surgery-policies-1.7101053

"This is interfering ideologically in the provision of medically necessary healthcare for trans and gender diverse young people," Johnstone said in an interview with CBC News.

"And flies in the face of establishing medical best practice, while also putting in parameters around school inclusion that are actually more likely to force trans kids back into the closet or extreme cases will lead to trans kids being kicked out of their homes."

Not "a little worse than we thought." Has Premier Smith commented on this yet?

Well this ain't good. Who is going to want to invest in a province that knowingly deceives investors? (nevermind the electorate, we don't matter)