A parent group no one is vouching for, a White supremacist round-up, and a disturbing breakfast club
PART TWO of a two-part summary of the fever dream that was April 18-May 21
As a descendant of Scottish settlers, I am grateful to be producing this newsletter in Moh’kinsstis, and the traditional Treaty 7 territory of the Blackfoot confederacy: Siksika, Kainai, Piikani, as well as the Îyâxe Nakoda and Tsuut’ina nations. I understand that this territory is home to the Métis Nation of Alberta, Region 3 within the historical Northwest Métis homeland. In the spirit of truth and reconciliation, I recognize that the land I work and live on was stolen from these nations and I have been afforded privileges as a result.
NOTE: With so much news to report this past month, I’ve broken this month’s newsletter into two parts. This is the second and the first one was posted yesterday.
After the UCP government completely defunded the Alberta School Councils’ Association, a new group called the "Alberta Parents' Union'' has suddenly appeared and is conducting town halls with parents.
The group had only one article on its website, under the heading of "Research," and it is an opinion piece advocating for a school voucher system. It's an overtly political piece while dismissing any criticism on the other side as "political".
Just a reminder school vouchers encourage the expansion of a parallel, government-funded, but privately-run education system. Steps must be taken to ensure equality of access so it doesn't become segregated as the wealthy flock to private schools, which they supplement with cash.
Lottery systems are usually introduced, which - as the name suggests - result in winners and losers. Regular people (not the elites) must compete for spots in private schools in order to excel. Public schools are left underfunded and unable to compete.
The wealthy seemingly don't care because it doesn't affect them, and the rest are left fighting for scraps in a compromised public education system. The whole point of "choice" seems to be to preserve and enable the wealthy to be insulated from others not like them (the 99%).
There is not enough conclusive evidence to say vouchers improve educational outcomes. Nor is there evidence it costs less overall. There are mixed results from the research. The most frequently cited article I found in a simple Google search was this one and there’s no clear advantage found: https://t.co/oKGoXTPNkj
As others have pointed out, this so-called parents' group is not grassroots, it's an arm of the Alberta Institute lobbying outfit, which has connections to the Koch-funded Atlas Network. The group is what is known as an Astroturf organization, funded by vested interests but disguised as something else.
The Alberta Parents Union is run by Jeff Park, who has no credentials in education but is known for having been fined following Jason Kenney's first leadership scandal, the kamikaze candidate fiasco.
The first thing I noticed is The Alberta Institute logo is almost identical to the Alberta Parents' Union logo. It looks like a standard Nationbuilder template (and I can't help but wonder if it's a shared NB account) which collects member data for future use.
The Alberta Institute says on its website, "Our solutions are informed by our belief in a free and open society built on individual rights, private property, peace, voluntaryism (sic), free markets, free minds, free trade, free movement, self-ownership, and reason." Not political at all.
To sum up, this is the definitive "special interest group" that Kenney is always railing about. It should be interesting to see if he and the UCP government give this the dismissive treatment given to other groups (many of them unfairly labelled, by the way).
President of the Airdrie-East NDP constituency association, Sarah Zagoda, attended one of their events in Cochrane and tweeted about her experience. Needless to say, she did not receive a warm welcome. That is because it is a partisan political group, not a parents’ group.
White supremacists here, there and everywhere - ALERT!
According to Republican senator Bill Cassidy, the rate at which women die during pregnancy or shortly after is not as bad as it seems—if you subtract the deaths of Black women.
Feminist and author Mona Eltahawy tweeted Donald Trump’s pick for a Michigan state Senate seat is promising to ban all birth control if she gets the chance.
“White supremacy has had a chokehold on this country for centuries. It is both overt and covert. It is inherently sexist and patriarchal, so white women, it will not ultimately save you either. It will be the end of this country.” uché blackstock, physician, author, and MSNBC contributor
Greg Locke preached like an unhinged idiot at the Insurrection Eve Stop the Steal event alongside Trump administration officials, Trump advisers and Trump friends/associates saying “Democrats are demons” and “baby butchers.”
Republicans just nominated State Senator Doug Mastiano to represent them in the race for Governor of Pennsylvania - a guy who bragged he'll make DeSantis look middle of the road.
Press Progress reported on a secretive religious sect receiving funds from Doug Ford’s government, Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party and Jason Kenney’s UCP. Another one? See the story about the Christian Prayer Breakfast below.
“Everywhere Babies” — a whimsical, lyrical ode to infancy - was among dozens of works recently targeted by an advocacy group called the Florida Citizens Alliance, which cited the picture book in a report identifying “extremely age-inappropriate and pornographic books.
Freedom to have an abortion under threat as UCP gather to pray
By now everyone knows that late on May 2, Politico dropped a bombshell of a story about a leaked draft opinion coming out of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS).
The story revealed SCOTUS had voted to strike down the landmark Roe v. Wade decision. This, despite denials by Trump-appointed Justices Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh that they would NOT consider overturning the decision on reproductive rights. It’s “settled” law, they said.
Guess what - they lied. The US Supreme Court is just a shocking embarrassment at this point.
States eager to control the uteruses of the nation began readying their own legislation to drop as soon as Roe v. Wade is overturned. On the table already is the criminalization of miscarriages, in-vitro fertilization, and even the termination of ectopic pregnancies.
See my most popular tweet this past month:
The very morning of this major breaking story, Alberta politicians started their day with a bougie event at the Alberta Christian Prayer Breakfast.
Kenney re-introduced the annual event back into the mainstream of Alberta politics after the NDP had discontinued the practice. The premier’s attendance is great for ticket sales, which are $60 each or $600 for a table. This event was organized by people who support causes such as forced birth, the right to deny medical care (sometimes called “conscience rights”), and gun freedom.
When the prayer breakfast made a comeback in 2019, I was unaware of how far back the connections to this event went. I thought it was another Kenney initiative but no, it wasn’t, as the replies to my tweet back in 2019 show. I’ll admit to being naive about the depth of the conservative involvement to the religious right event over the years.
What was interesting is that although many people were quick to point out that Kenney had not been the first premier to attend the events, no one was able to tell me whether the prayer breakfast is connected to the shadowy organization called “The Family” detailed by Jeff Sharlet in his book and in the Netflix series. It was complete silence by those involved. No denials at all.
This op-ed by Catherine Ford in 2019 summed it up nicely: “The poster which invites people to buy tickets has as its tag line a quote from Paul’s first epistle to Timothy…Timothy 2:12 brings home the point: ‘But suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.’”
“In case this isn’t enough to keep us quiet and subservient, consider this epistle blames Eve for being the original transgressor and winds up with an exhortation: “she shall be saved in childbearing.”
UCP MLA Joseph Schow posted to Facebook that Father Raymond de Souza “gave a great presentation to highlight the importance of God in governance.”
I guess no one has explained to him that two-thirds of Canadians (67%) say it is not necessary to believe in God in order to be moral and have good values.
There is also new data from Angus Reid about Canadian perceptions of religion:
“Many Canadians now believe Catholicism, evangelical Christianity and Islam are more damaging to society than beneficial, a new survey shows, as people across the country continue to turn their backs on religion.”
Both the federal conservatives and the provincial (Alberta) conservatives have refused to answer questions about abortion access since the Roe v. Wade decision was leaked.
This is exactly what you think it is - they will not protect access and don't want you to know the truth. They support the ideas of the far right Christian base. Some might argue they’re just courting their votes, but not Kenney. His history of anti-abortion activism is well documented.
The forced birthers see pregnant people as less than human, merely receptacles for delivering babies. Their motivations are to make others see them the same way. This is a longstanding, methodical campaign and their efforts are now achieving results as can be seen in the SCOTUS attack on Roe v. Wade.
Anti-abortion picketers parading around carrying grotesque photos of dead fetuses, while accusing people of murder, is hate speech. If it were targeting any other group, it would be a hate crime.
The Biker's Church in Ottawa had the message "No haven for fascists" spray painted on it and the police are investigating it as a hate crime. Accusing a group of people of murder in order to rally others against them is much worse than the fascism accusation and more harmful.
Overturning a legal precedent in one fell swoop was orchestrated by the same folks who say change is hard. When it serves their purposes, conservatives will take swift and brutal action.
“Drivers tend to not think about anyone but themselves”…
In Part One, I concluded the post with a short film about a female bicycle courier. But this next film, Snow Warrior, from the National Film Board of Canada, takes it to a whole new level.
The short documentary follows Mariah, a bike courier in Edmonton who navigates snow and freezing cold temperatures year-round. Brrr…
“Returning home in the dark, she dreams of another day doing battle with the elements. She loves her job.”
See Part One of this post. Covering Jason Kenney’s dodgy resignation, Canada’s failures on climate change policy, Pierre Poilievre stanning Jordan Peterson and the Rolling Thunder “storming” of Ottawa that devolved into a “sunshower” of ballsy accusations, balcony sex predators, and chants of “U-S-A.”