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Alberta

Former Premier Rachel Notley steps down as leader of the Alberta NDP

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News release from the Alberta NDP

Good morning everyone.

We’re gathered on the traditional territory of Treaty 6 and I also want to acknowledge the Metis people who share a deep connection to this land.

There’s been a great deal of speculation since the election as to my future. While politics to the south of us would suggest I have at least 20 years left in my political career, I think the advisability of that is debatable.

More to the point, having considered what I believe to be the best interests of our party, our caucus, as well as my own preferences, I am here today to announce that I will not be leading Alberta’s NDP into the next election.

I have informed both the senior officers of Alberta’s NDP as well as my caucus and staff that upon the selection of a new leader, I will be stepping down from that role.

This October will be 10 years since I was first given the honour of leading our party.

At the time we were the fourth party in the legislature with a massive caucus consisting of four MLAs. Less than seven months later we had a caucus of 54 MLAs, and Alberta’s first NDP government.

While many of those folks never expected to be elected…

…let alone find themselves in a government cabinet, we scrambled, quickly, to live up to the immense privilege the people of Alberta bestowed upon us.

We didn’t get everything right. But we governed with integrity, an ambitious agenda and an earnest desire to make life better for Albertans.

While this is not the place to go down into a policy rabbit hole, I will highlight just a few of the things that make me proud.

We approved and built the Calgary Cancer Centre – a decision that was at least a decade overdue.
We stood up for the rights of working people – improving their access to unions, increasing their holidays, protecting their safety in the workplace …

…And we were the first jurisdiction in North America to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour, making a real difference in the life of Alberta’s working poor and tens of thousands of young people and their families.

We secured Alberta’s first pipeline to tidewater in over 50 years, ensuring that the return to Albertans for the sale of resources we all own is permanently increased.

We eliminated coal-fired electricity in Alberta, thereby increasing the health of countless citizens, and at the same time kickstarting our renewable energy industry to be the fastest growing on the continent…

…all while significantly reducing our emissions in one fell swoop.

And, finally, in the midst of a recession caused by the international collapse in the price of oil (seriously folks, I did not cause that), we cut child poverty in half.

But, as I said, we didn’t get it all right. And Albertans told us so in April of 2019.

Now I thought about leaving then. And there are many reasons I did not. But the biggest is probably this: too many people were declaring that the Alberta NDP was done, and, more importantly, that Alberta was destined to revert back to being a one party conservative state.

And I knew that wasn’t true. And I also knew that it would be awful for Albertans if they came to believe that it was.

So four years later, last spring, we came so close to earning the right to lead Alberta again.

We received the highest percentage of the vote that the Alberta NDP ever has.

We won Edmonton,

We won the majority of seats in Calgary,

We increased our vote throughout the province and we elected the largest Official Opposition in the history of this province.

An opposition that is very very ready to take over the reins of government.

But it wasn’t enough. And that’s why it’s now time for me to leave.

But if there is any ONE accomplishment that I can leave behind me… it’s that we are NOT a one party province where Albertans have no real choice about how their province is run.

Albertans do not ever have to feel that elections and their opinions don’t matter.

It was that way when I started. It’s not that way anymore.

Not only do I leave Albertans with that electoral choice, I leave them with a caucus that is filled with expert, dedicated, diverse people, supported by the hardest working and most skilled political staff in the country.

Our NDP team will not stop fighting to make life better for all Albertans.

We will fight to protect and improve our healthcare, to stand up for our children’s right to a world-class education, to fix the housing crisis, to keep Albertan’s CPP safe, and to confront the reality of climate change.

Roughly ten years ago today, I talked to my kids about how they’d feel if I decided to run for the leadership of the Alberta NDP.

Roughly 15, 12 and 10 years ago, I listened to my husband tell me he thought I should run for the leadership of the Alberta NDP.

In all cases, my family got a bit more than they’d bargained for. It’s been a crazy ride, but I could not have done it without them.

I was raised by both my father and my mother to believe that public service is something one should strive for throughout your life.

I wish they could have been here to see some of what we’ve accomplished.

Either way it would not have happened without the examples they both set – demonstrating daily the value of hard work, compassion for our neighbours and the importance of their social democratic convictions.

To all the volunteers, activists, donors, canvassers, past current and future in Alberta’s NDP — Thank you.

There would be no success without you. You are the strength and the foundation of our movement and I will be forever humbled by your selfless dedication to our province.

Short of having, raising, and debating with my family, the opportunity to serve this party and this province has been the honour of my life.

Over the last decade, Albertans have given me a tremendous opportunity to serve in this role and I am so grateful.

The people of our province are bold, friendly, open, caring and adventurous. I’ve learned so much from them. And the land we share is the most beautiful — and sometimes the coldest — place on earth.

I also want to thank the people of Edmonton Strathcona who have supported me since 2008. We live in and are part of a fabulous community that I am so proud to call home.

Thank you to all the Albertans I’ve met along the way – those who advised me, supported me, disagreed with me, and, yes, even campaigned against me.

We all love this province.

I love this province and I know that our best days are still ahead.

Thank you.

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Alberta

Alberta introduces bill banning sex reassignment surgery on minors

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From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

Alberta Conservative Premier Danielle Smith followed through on a promised bill banning so-called ‘top and bottom’ surgeries for minors.

Alberta Conservative Premier Danielle Smith made good on her promise to protect kids from extreme transgender ideology after introducing a bill banning so-called “top and bottom” surgeries for minors.

“It is so important that all youth can enter adulthood equipped to make adult decisions. In order to do that, we need to preserve their ability to make those decisions, and that’s what we’re doing,” Smith said in a press release.

“The changes we’re introducing are founded on compassion and science, both of which are vital for the development of youth throughout a time that can be difficult and confusing.”

Bill 26, the Health Statutes Amendment Act, 2024 “reflects the government’s commitment to build a health care system that responds to the changing needs of Albertans,” the government says.

The bill will amend the Health Act to “prohibit regulated health professionals from performing sex reassignment surgeries on minors.”

It will also ban the “use of puberty blockers and hormone therapies for the treatment of gender dysphoria or gender incongruence” to kids 15 and under “except for those who have already commenced treatment and would allow for minors aged 16 and 17 to choose to commence puberty blockers and hormone therapies for gender reassignment and affirmation purposes with parental, physician and psychologist approval.”

Alberta Minister of Health Adriana LaGrange, the bill’s sponsor, said the province’s legislative priorities include “implementing policy changes to continue our refocusing work, position our health care system to respond to pressures and public health emergencies, and to preserve choice for minors. These amendments reflect our dedication to ensuring our health care system meets the needs of every Albertan.”

Earlier this year, the United Conservative Party (UCP) provincial government under Smith announced  she would introduce the strong pro-family legislation that strengthens parental rights, protecting kids from life-altering, so-called “top and bottom” surgeries as well as other extreme forms of transgender ideology.

With Smith’s UCP holding a majority in the provincial legislature, the passage of Bill 26 is almost certain.

While Smith has done far more than predecessor Jason Kenney to satisfy social conservatives, she has been mostly soft on social issues such as abortion and has publicly expressed pro-LGBT views, telling Jordan Peterson that conservatives must embrace homosexual “couples” as “nuclear families.”

This weekend, thousands of UCP members will gather for the party’s annual general meeting, where Smith’s leadership will be voted on along with many other pro-freedom and family policy proposals from members. Smith is expected to pass her leadership review vote with a large majority.

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Alberta

Alberta court upholds conviction of Pastor Artur Pawlowski for preaching at Freedom Convoy protest

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From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

Lawyers argued that Pastor Artur Pawlowski’s sermon was intended to encourage protesters to find a peaceful solution to the blockade, but the statement was characterized as a call for mischief.

An Alberta Court of Appeal ruled that Calgary Pastor Artur Pawlowski is guilty of mischief for his sermon at the Freedom Convoy-related border protest blockade in February 2022 in Coutts, Alberta.

On October 29, Alberta Court of Appeal Justice Gordon Krinke sentenced the pro-freedom pastor to 60 days in jail for “counselling mischief” by encouraging protesters to continue blocking Highway 4 to protest COVID mandates.

“A reasonable person would understand the appellant’s speech to be an active inducement of the illegal activity that was ongoing and that the appellant intended for his speech to be so understood,” the decision reads.

Pawlowski addressed a group of truckers and protesters blocking entrance into the U.S. state of Montana on February 3, the fifth day of the Freedom Convoy-styled protest. He encouraged the protesters to “hold the line” after they had reportedly made a deal with Royal Canadian Mounted Police to leave the border crossing and travel to Edmonton.

“The eyes of the world are fixed right here on you guys. You are the heroes,” Pawlowski said. “Don’t you dare go breaking the line.”

After Pawlowski’s sermon, the protesters remained at the border crossing for two additional weeks. While his lawyers argued that his speech was made to encourage protesters to find a peaceful solution to the blockade, the statement is being characterized as a call for mischief.

Days later, on February 8, Pawlowski was arrested – for the fifth time – by an undercover SWAT team just before he was slated to speak again to the Coutts protesters.

He was subsequently jailed for nearly three months for what he said was for speaking out against COVID mandates, the subject of all the Freedom Convoy-related protests.

In Krinke’s decision, he argued that Pawlowski’s sermon incited the continuation of the protest, saying, “The Charter does not provide justification to anybody who incites a third party to commit such crimes.”

“While the appellant is correct that peaceful, lawful and nonviolent communication is entitled to protection, blockading a highway is an inherently aggressive and potentially violent form of conduct, designed to intimidate and impede the movement of third parties,” he wrote.

Pawlowski was released after the verdict. He has already spent 78 days in jail before the trial.

Pawlowski is the first Albertan to be charged for violating the province’s Critical Infrastructure Defence Act (CIDA), which was put in place in 2020 under then-Premier Jason Kenney.

The CIDA, however, was not put in place due to COVID mandates but rather after anti-pipeline protesters blockaded key infrastructure points such as railway lines in Alberta a few years ago.

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