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Alberta

Alberta reports second COVID-19 death. Three Red Deer doctors test positive after working with dozens of patients. Outbreak at Calgary long-term care facility

Published

5 years ago

8 minute read

From the Province of Alberta

Update 11: COVID-19 pandemic in Alberta (March 24 at 5:30 p.m.)

A second Albertan has died. 57 additional cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed.  Total number of cases in the province is 358.

Aggressive public health measures continue to help limit the spread of COVID-19.

Latest updates

  • Cases have been identified in all zones across the province:
    • 214 cases in the Calgary zone
    • 86 cases in the Edmonton zone
    • 20 cases in the North zone
    • 28 cases in the Central zone
    • Eight cases in the South zone
    • Two cases where the zone is still under investigation
  • Of these cases, 19 have been hospitalized, seven have been admitted to intensive care units (ICU), and two patients have died.
  • Up to 28 of these cases may be due to community transmission.
  • A COVID-19 outbreak was confirmed last night at the McKenzie Towne Continuing Care Centre in Calgary.
    • This has resulted in one death of a resident – the second COVID-19 related death in the province. The individual was a female in her 80s. She developed symptoms on March 22 and died March 23.
    • One staff member and two other residents have tested positive.
    • There are 11 other symptomatic residents with tests pending.
    • The source of the infection is not yet known.
  • The number of confirmed recovered cases remains at three. A longer-term process for determining timely reporting of recovered cases is underway.
  • Aggregate data, showing cases by age range and zone, as well as by local geographical areas, is available online at ca/covid19statistics.
  • All Albertans who have travelled outside of the country, including snowbirds returning home from wintering in the United States and other countries, must go straight home upon returning to Alberta and self-isolate for 14 days.
    • This means not going to the grocery store, not stopping at the kennel to pick up their dog, not dropping their RV off for service or storage, and not having family and friends over to visit or going to visit them while isolated. It means going directly and immediately home, self-isolating for 14 days and monitoring for symptoms.
    • If symptoms do develop, individuals must self-isolate from all other members of their household for an additional 10 days from the beginning of symptoms or until they are feeling well, whichever takes longer.
  • People not experiencing symptoms are reminded they can still go outside, but this must be limited to activities such as walks, where the individual remains two metres away from others.
  • A bonspiel event was held in Edmonton March 11 to 14, during which some physicians were exposed to COVID-19.
    • All attendees have been contacted and are self-isolating.
    • Twelve of the 47 Alberta health-care workers who attended the event have tested positive for COVID-19.
    • All of their close contacts from the time they had symptoms, including some patients, are being notified as usual through local public health followup.
    • Three of the infected individuals are physicians working in Red Deer.
      • From these three cases, although they each worked less than a day while symptomatic, a total of 58 patients and 97 other health-care workers have been or will be contacted as potential close contacts of these three.
    • All Albertans need to work together to help prevent the spread and overcome COVID-19.

Community and social services

Funding criteria and forms for the emergency funding to charities, non-profits and civil society organizations are now posted online.

The Emergency Financial Assistance web page now includes information on the federal and provincial supports/programs and a link to the COVID-19 page for more information.

Community and Social Services has suspended in-person service delivery in its program offices and Alberta Supports Centres. Albertans should contact 1-877-644-9992 for more information.

Access to justice

Albertans are asked to not enter courthouses unless they have official business and to first check online for current processes.

Provincial Court of Alberta

Many youth criminal, criminal and family matters are postponed, and the number of operational courthouses and courtrooms is reduced. More information: https://www.albertacourts.ca/pc/resources/covid

Court of Appeal

The Court of Appeal will hear matters by video or teleconference. Changes have been made to filing procedures, timelines and bail check-ins. More information: https://www.albertacourts.ca/ca/publications/announcements/notice-to-public-and-profession—covid-19

Court of Queen’s Bench

The Court of Queen’s Bench will now allow lawyers to e-file documents. More information: https://www.albertacourts.ca/qb/resources/announcements/email-filing-of-court-documents

Information about charitable gaming proceeds

Charitable groups can access information about how charitable gaming proceeds may be used during the pandemic. Contact aglc.ca for more information.

Ongoing compliance checks for bars and nightclubs

AGLC inspectors have visited 953 licensed bars and nightclubs throughout the province since March 17 and are taking enforcement action, including suspending licences, on any licensees that violate current orders to close.

Seniors facilities limiting visitation

Seniors facilities are receiving social isolation and distancing information, and stronger restrictions are being put in place for visitors to long-term and seniors care facilities. Essential visitors will be restricted to a single individual who can be family, a friend, or a paid companion who provides care and companionship necessary for the well-being of the resident (physical and mental health) and/or a single designated visitor for a person who is dying, as long as only one visitor enters the facility at a time. Every visitor will undergo a health screening.

Offers of help

The Alberta Emergency Management Agency Unsolicited Offers Program has been set up in response to growing offers of generosity from individuals and organizations to help with the challenges many Albertans are facing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Those wanting to help can go to alberta.ca/COVID19offersprogram for more information.

Quick facts

  • The most important measures that Albertans can take to prevent respiratory illnesses, including COVID-19, is to practise good hygiene.
    • This includes cleaning your hands regularly for at least 20 seconds, avoiding touching your face, coughing or sneezing into your elbow or sleeve, disposing of tissues appropriately, and staying home and away from others if you are sick.
  • Anyone who has health concerns or is experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 should complete an online COVID-19 self-assessment.
  • For recommendations on protecting yourself and your community, visit alberta.ca/COVID19.
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After 15 years as a TV reporter with Global and CBC and as news director of RDTV in Red Deer, Duane set out on his own 2008 as a visual storyteller. During this period, he became fascinated with a burgeoning online world and how it could better serve local communities. This fascination led to Todayville, launched in 2016.

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Alberta

Sylvan Lake high school football coach fired for criticizing gender ideology sends legal letter to school board

Published on September 18, 2025

By

From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

The letter on behalf of Alberta high school volunteer football coach Taylor ‘Teej’ Johannesson mentions ‘workplace harassment’ while demanding his job back.

A Sylvan Lake high school football coach who was fired for sharing his views opposing transgender ideology on social media in a video discussing his Christian faith sent a legal demand to his former school board demanding he get his job back.

H.J. Cody High School volunteer coach Taylor “Teej” Johannesson, as reported by LifeSiteNews, earlier this month was fired by his school’s principal because he spoke out against gender-confused youth who “take their hatred of Christians” to another level by committing violent acts against them.

School principal Alex Lambert fired Teej, as he is known, as a result of a TikTok video in which he speaks out against radical gender ideology and the dangers it brings.

In a recent update involving his case, local media with knowledge of Johannesson’s issues with the principal at H.J. Cody High School in Sylvan Lake, Alberta, confirmed a legal demand letter was sent to the school.

The letter reads, “From his perspective, this opposition is consistent with the Alberta government’s position and legislation prohibiting prescribing prescription hormones to minors and providing care to them that involves transition surgeries.”

In the letter, the school board’s “workplace harassment” procedure is mentioned, stating, “Any act of workplace harassment or workplace violence shall be considered unacceptable conduct whether that conduct occurs at work, on Division grounds, or at division-sponsored activities.”

The legal demand letter, which was sent to school officials last week, reads, “Given that Mr. Johannesson’s expression in the TikTok Video was not connected to his volunteer work, the principal and the division have no authority to regulate his speech and punish him by the Termination decision, which is ultra vires (“beyond the powers.)”

Johannesson has said, in speaking with local media, that his being back at work at the school as a volunteer coach has meaning: “It’s about trying to create some change within the school system.”

He noted how, for “too long,” a certain “political view, one ideology, has taken hold in the school system.”

Johannesson has contacted Alberta’s Chief of Staff for the Minister of Education about his firing and was told that there is a board meeting taking place over the demand letter.

According to Teej, Lambert used his TikTok video as an excuse to get rid of someone in the school with conservative political views and who is against her goal to place “safe space stickers” all over the school.

Teej has been in trouble before with the school administration. About three years ago, he was called in to see school officials for posting on Twitter a biological fact that “Boys have a penis. Girls have a vagina.”

Alberta’s Conservative government under Premier Danielle Smith has in place a new policy protecting female athletes from gender-confused men that has taken effect across the province.

As LifeSiteNews previously reported, the Government of Alberta is currently fighting a court order that is blocking the province’s newly passed ban on transgender surgeries and drugs for children.

Alberta also plans to ban books with sexually explicit as well as pornographic material, many of which contain LGBT and even pedophilic content, from all school libraries.

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Alberta

Parents group blasts Alberta government for weakening sexually explicit school book ban

Published on September 17, 2025

By

From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

The revised rules no longer place restrictions on written descriptions of sexual content.

Some parental rights advocates have taken issue with the Conservative government of Alberta’s recent updates to a ban on sexually explicit as well as pornographic material from all school libraries, saying the new rules water down the old ones as they now allow for descriptions of extreme and graphic sexual acts in written form.

As reported by LifeSiteNews last week, Alberta Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides of the ruling United Conservative Party (UCP) released revised rules outlining the province’s ban on sexually explicit content in school libraries.

The original ban included all forms of sexually explicit as well as pornographic material. However, after a large public school board alleged the ban applied to classic books, the government changed the rules, removing a clause for written sexual content that has some parental rights groups up in arms.

Tanya Gaw, founder of the conservative-leaning Action4Canada, noted to media that while she is happy with Premier Danielle Smith for the original book ban, she has deep concerns with the revised rules.

“We are very concerned about the decision that no longer places restrictions on written descriptions of those acts, which is problematic,” she said in an interview with The Epoch Times.

Gaw noted how kids from kindergarten to grade 12 should “never” be “exposed to graphic written details of sex acts: incest, molestation, masturbation, sexual assaults, and profane vulgar language.”

According to John Hilton-O’Brien, who serves as the executive director of Parents for Choice in Education, the new rule changes regarding written depictions “still shifts the burden onto parents to clean up what should never have been purchased in the first place.”

He did say, however, that the new “Ministerial Order finally makes catalogs public, and what we see there is troubling.”

Alberta’s revised rules state that all school library books must not contain “explicit visual depictions of a sexual act.” To make it clear, the standards in detail go over the types of images that are banned due to their explicit pornographic nature.

As reported by LifeSiteNews in May, Smith’s UCP government went ahead with plans to ban books with sexually explicit as well as pornographic material, many of which contain LGBT and even pedophilic content, from all school libraries.

The ban was to take effect on October 1.

The UCP’s crackdown on sexual content in school libraries comes after several severely sexually explicit graphic novels were found in school libraries in Calgary and Edmonton.

The pro-LGBT books in question at multiple school locations are Gender Queer, a graphic novel by Maia Kobabe; Flamer, a graphic novel by Mike Curato; Blankets, a graphic novel by Craig Thompson; and Fun Home, a graphic novel by Alison Bechdel.

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