Alberta
Red Deer South MLA Jason Stephan joins call for National Citizens Inquiry
Article submitted by Red Deer South MLA Jason Stephan
A Citizen’s Inquiry into Government COVID Policy is in the Public Interest
The National Citizens Inquiry
Many, including myself, have been calling on governments for an independent, transparent, comprehensive public inquiry into governments’ response into COVID, including, a full-cost analysis of the harms of COVID-19 restrictions on children and young adults.
Governments are not responding, so private citizens are stepping up, including Preston Manning and other community leaders forming the National Citizens Inquiry (“Inquiry”).
This Inquiry is a citizen led inquiry, not a government commissioned public inquiry. A citizen led inquiry avoids some of the inherent conflicts of interest and losses of trust cumbering governments to lead in these circumstances.
As the Inquiry is citizen, not Government, led, it relies on public support. Information about the National Citizens Inquiry can be found at: https://nationalcitizensinquiry.ca/
Most important, the Inquiry will use its findings to make recommendations so that any future national crises are better managed, harms mitigated, and trust in public institutions upheld. Isn’t that what we all want?
The Inquiry is Justified
The website for the Inquiry reports that 3 out 4 Canadians report being harmed, not by COVID, but by governments’ COVID policies. For many the cure was worse than the disease. With this being the case, is it right to look the other way and pretend nothing happened? No.
Don’t these unprecedented government actions, incurring hundreds of billions in government debts, burdening our children for generations, compel us in the public interest to consider thoroughly and honestly what occurred? Yes.
The duty of government is to listen to the public, most of whom experienced harms from government COVID responses, with a sincere desire to learn from both successes and mistakes.
As the truth will always prevail, let’s love it and unite with it.
The Trudeau-NDP Media Fuelled Fear Machine is Not Stopping
For over two years, Trudeau, the NDP, and most of the media, using fear as a tool, sought for more restrictions, mandates and passports and lockdowns. They are not stopping.
This week the media is asking the Premier about masking children in schools. The Premier said government was not going to mandate across the board masking for children, respecting individual parent decisions to mask or not mask their children according to their own circumstances. While this was a principled response, that was not good enough for the left media, reporting “ALBERTA PREMIER SAYS NO SCHOOL MASK RULES AS VIRAL CASES RISE, JAMMING HOSPITALS”.
As a parent and having visited schools last week and this week, and seeing very few masks, I am forced to conclude that some of the left media folks are not normal Albertans and are divorced from reality. It seems as they want to live in a perpetual universe of fear, and they want to force all of us to join them.
The Inquiry is coming to Alberta
The Inquiry intends to hold seven hearings in the new year, nation wide in Canada, including one in Red Deer, for all of Alberta and Saskatchewan. This is an exciting, great opportunity to get involved, serve, and participate for more accountability and transparency.
A free and open discourse of perspectives and experiences allows us to respect our differences, valuing others. It fosters more truth and less error. The more truth the better. Alberta is a land of freedom and prosperity. We must be vigilant to keep it that way.
The Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo says a “tragic accident” led to the recent death of an adult Masai giraffe. A statement from the zoo says the female giraffe named Emara died May 19 after tangling one of her horns on a cable surrounding her enclosure. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo-Sergei Belskey
Calgary
The Calgary Zoo says a “tragic accident” led to the recent death of one of its adult Masai giraffes.
A statement from the zoo says a female giraffe named Emara died May 19 after tangling one of her horns in a cable surrounding her enclosure.
The statement says a necropsy revealed Emara fell against the enclosure fence and died almost instantly of a broken neck.
Emara, who had just turned 12, came to Calgary from the San Diego Zoo in 2016.
The statement says she was a treasured member at the zoo and was known for her cautious yet curious personality and gentle nature.
The zoo says it is checking fencing within its African Savannah Yard enclosure to see if changes are needed to better protect the other giraffes and animals that share the space.
Doug Whiteside, interim associate director of animal care and welfare at the zoo, said Emara was in her prime and was in excellent health when she died.
“Major life changes such as this not only affect our people but can affect our animal residents as well,” Whiteside said in the statement Monday.
He said the zoo’s remaining giraffes, Nabo and Moshi, are doing well.
Grief counsellors are being made available to Emara’s caregivers and other zoo staff.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 29, 2023.
United Conservative Party leader Danielle Smith makes an election campaign announcement in Calgary on Monday, May 1, 2023.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
Candidates for both the United Conservative Party and New Democrats have been campaigning over the last four weeks for their party to form the next Alberta government. Election day is Monday.
Here are some memorable quotes from the campaign:
“(The NDP) devastated the Alberta economy. They created policies that drove investment out, drove jobs out, and we had to reverse all of that,” UCP Leader Danielle Smith said on May 1, the day the writ was dropped. “The choice in this election couldn’t be clearer. It’s a choice between a UCP government that will cut your taxes and make life more affordable or an NDP government that will make you pay more across the board.”
—
“Over the past four years, our health care has been thrown into chaos by the UCP,” NDP Leader Rachel Notley said during the first week of the campaign. “They’ll tell you they fixed it, but Albertans aren’t feeling it and they’re not buying it … our (emergency rooms) are still full, our ambulances are still delayed and many (patients) are waiting months and months for critical tests and surgeries.”
—
“I am satisfied Mr. Pawlowski intended to incite the audience to continue the blockade — intended to incite protesters to commit mischief,” Justice Gordon Krinke said in Lethbridge, Alta., on May 2, when he found Calgary pastor Artur Pawlowski guilty of charges related to his role in protests against COVID-19 public health measures. In a leaked phone call between Smith and Pawlowski, before his trial, Smith told Pawlowski the charges against him were politically motivated and she would make inquiries on his behalf and report back.
—
“(Smith) has a policy of not speaking publicly on matters before the courts, except when she’s talking to the person who’s before the courts about how she’s going to interfere with the matter before the courts,” Notley said when asked to comment on Smith’s no comment on the Pawlowski case. “That is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard from her. OK, maybe it’s not the most ridiculous, because there’s a lot of ridiculous.”
—
“COVID was a really difficult and frustrating time for everyone, including me, and I don’t think that there is a single one of us that wasn’t deeply impacted in some way,” Smith said on May 9, after past comments surfaced in which she equated those vaccinated against COVID-19 to Nazi supporters and said she would not wear a Remembrance Day poppy out of disgust for pandemic restrictions imposed by political leaders. “Sometimes I let my frustrations get to me during that time. I clearly shouldn’t have.”
—
“That little bit of poop is what wrecks it … it does not matter that we’re in the top three per cent in the world,'” said Jennifer Johnson, UCP candidate for Lacombe-Ponoka. In a tape from September, she said Alberta’s high-ranking education system counts for little when set against the issue of transgender students and compared their presence to a batch of cookies laced with feces.
—
“(Judicial independence) is a fundamental pillar of our democracy. The premier breached this principle by discussing the accused’s case,” ethics commissioner Marguerite Trussler said in her report released May 18 into Smith’s actions as premier when she called her justice minister about Pawlowski’s case.
—
“I’ve asked the ethics commissioner to give advice,” Smith said May 19. “I am a non-lawyer. As premier, I do need to be able to get advice from my top official, my top legal adviser. If she has recommendations on how to do that better next time, I will absolutely accept them.”
—
“More and more conservatives are coming to me saying, ‘I’m a lifelong conservative voter, but what I see in Danielle Smith and this new UCP is not my values,'” Notley said on May 23.”They often say that they’re going to lend us their vote, and I say that’s just great. Because, quite frankly, I think all Albertans should always only ever lend their vote because leadership has to earn it.”
—
“(The phone call) was always about the charges, from the very beginning. I had nothing really else to say,” Pawlowski told reporters at the legislature in the final week of the campaign. “This phone call was always about the same thing: when are you going to introduce what you promised, the amnesty bill for people like me and thousands of other Albertans.”
—
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 28, 2023.
UPDATE: Red Deer RCMP arrest 31 year old Chad Wickett for conspiracy to commit murder
“High school has shown us who we are and how we can take forward what we’ve learned and apply it to whatever we encounter in the future.”
Edmonton teacher arrested for child luring
Officials report progress on Alberta wildfires as many evacuees return home
-
Brownstone Institute1 day agoThe Best Life Lesson for a Teen Is a Job
-
Atlantic6 hours agoHalifax wildfire still out of control, 14,000 forced from their homes: deputy chief
-
Sports22 hours agoBlais scores twice, Canada beats Germany 5-2 to win gold at men’s hockey worlds
-
Alberta1 day agoSaskatchewan entrepreneur says government thwarted his ag-plastics recycling business
-
2023 Election5 hours agoElection day: Alberta voters go to the polls, expected nail-biter between UCP, NDP
-
Sports2 days agoStars stay alive with 4-2 road victory over Golden Knights
-
2023 Election5 hours ago
Some of the memorable comments made during Alberta election campaign
-
Bjorn Lomborg1 day agoHow to save 4 million lives every year