NightOwl

The reporters also published an AHS internal price comparison for surgical facilities “that shows the proposed projects in Red Deer and Lethbridge were negotiating rates far higher than what a competitor in Calgary is paid. Further, the fees on the table surpassed what it costs AHS to perform the same surgeries, according to the internal document.”

"AHS pays $4,833 for a shoulder replacement, while private facilities under ASI were negotiating rates as high as $11,243," the union representing paramedics and other health care professionals said, citing the Globe report. "Similar overcharges exist for hip and knee replacements, with private providers consistently charging over twice what it costs AHS to perform the same procedures."

"This is an outright betrayal of Albertans," HSAA President Mike Parker said in a forceful news release. "The UCP tells Albertans for-profit health care would save money and cut wait times through innovation, but instead, we have an out-of-control system where taxpayer dollars are being funneled into private pockets at double the cost. This is not innovation -- this is profiteering at its worst."

Despite falling flat in the past, Rustad is reviving the deceptive and potentially costly strategy of targeting environmental groups because it appeals to the Conservative Party base, provincially and federally, that backs unimpeded oil and gas expansion, he said.

"It's good politics," Bratt said. "That base is convinced that environmental groups are illegitimately blocking energy projects."

However, Conservative politicians don't apply the same standard when it comes to the comparatively massive U.S. investment into Canada's oil and gas industry or as a market for B.C. or Alberta's fossil fuel, Bratt noted.

Nearly 37 per cent of Canada's oil and gas assets are under foreign control withAmerican investment controlling the lion's share at 16 per cent, followed closely by Asia with 15 per cent, and the European Union at five per cent in 2022. Both Rustad and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith originally advocated against the B.C. or federal government imposing any retaliatory tariffs in response to a trade war with U.S. President Donald Trump that would harm the Canadian fossil fuel sector.

Engler's arrest has been widely reported by X users, including well-known political commentator Glenn Greenwald and Ali Abunimah of Electronic Intifada (Abunimah was himself unjustly arrested by Swiss authorities last month). Turkish and Iranian media have reported on Engler's arrest, as has the UK-based channel Middle East Eye and the online legal news service Jurist News. However, no mainstream Canadian media have reported on Engler's arrest, and next to no Canadian politicians have condemned his jailing.

The UCalgary students and other community members involved in the protest were part of a broader movement at campuses across the United States and Canada calling for their institutions to disclose investments and divest from those implicated in Israel's genocidal war.

These encampments lasted for varying amounts of time, but few, if any, were shorter lived than the one at UCalgary.

Before anyone had the chance to stay overnight, Calgary police officers stormed onto campus dressed like they were going to war. The cops violently dismantled the protest camp, firing 15 pepperball rounds and four pepper grenades at the participants and using a degree of physical force that gave at least two protestors traumatic brain injuries.

The university’s preparations for the encampment would be undertaken strictly from the perspective of pro-Israel students and community members, with the presumption that any protest against Israel’s actions is by definition antisemitic and creates a hostile environment for Jewish people.

On May 14, law professors from UCalgary and UAlberta wrote an open letter to the presidents of their universities, the Calgary and Edmonton police services, and the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service arguing that the universities and police forces violated the encampment protestors' Charter rights.

"We are further concerned by the excess force and violence with which the Calgary Police Service and Edmonton Police Service cleared the camps," they added. "Video evidence suggests that police officers used force that went far beyond that which was necessary to effect law enforcement purposes."

In this 2021 book Value(s): Building A Better World For All, Carney tried to persuade us to believe in the free market---not just its merits, but its capacity to self-regulate, to be persuaded to do the right thing, to adopt "enlightened values," to develop a kinder and gentler capitalism to meet a brutal moment.

This is the same Carney who played a key role in bailing out Canada's banks during the global financial crisis.

The move ushered in more than a decade of cheap money, which in turn helped fuel a long-term, record-setting growth in the wealth gap while giving rise to financial bubbles and dodgy investments, driving up household debt, and exacerbating the housing crisis.

The asset-management firm Carney chaired, Brookfield, is another clear example of the fundamental inconsistency in believing the free market---perhaps led by the gentlest of hands by the state---is the way forward on climate.

The firm is a dirty-energy behemoth, investing billions in fossil fuels.

It has "one of the biggest portfolios of dirty energy in the world," says climate finance activist Jason Mogus, who worked with the Sunrise Project. "And they continue to expand it."