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Alberta

Province forms Edmonton Public Safety Cabinet Committee in response to homeless encampment crisis

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Edmonton encampments: Deputy Premier Ellis

Deputy Premier Mike Ellis issued the below statement in response to Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi’s announcement of his intention to declare an emergency:

“In November, Premier Danielle Smith ordered that an emergency cabinet committee be created and convened in response to the issue of crime and gang-related activity within encampments across the City of Edmonton.

“Alberta’s government cares deeply about vulnerable Edmontonians and we will always ensure that anyone who wants shelter and supportive services will receive it. However, we will not stand by and watch as vulnerable Albertans and the general public continue to be extorted, taken advantage of and killed by gangsters and deadly drugs.

“The Edmonton Public Safety Cabinet Committee (EPSCC) is comprised of ministers from departments that oversee operations and/or administer programs that promote public safety and support the transition of Edmonton-based encampment residents into safe, secure and appropriate arrangements.

“The cabinet committee membership includes:

  • Danielle Smith, Premier (chair)
  • Mickey Amery, Minister of Justice
  • Mike Ellis, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Services
  • Adriana LaGrange, Minister of Health
  • Ric McIver, Minister of Municipal Affairs
  • Jason Nixon, Minister of Seniors, Community and Social Services
  • Searle Turton, Minister of Children and Family Services
  • Dan Williams, Minister of Mental Health and Addiction
  • Rick Wilson, Minister of Indigenous Relations

“Also sworn into the committee are:

  • Cody Thomas, Grand Chief, Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations
  • Dale McPhee, Chief, Edmonton Police Service

“This committee has met continuously since its initial meeting on Nov. 29, 2023, to plan a joint response. Our government is working on an action plan alongside Alberta Health Services, Edmonton Police Service, the Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations and several departments from the City of Edmonton, including Edmonton Fire Rescue Services.

“Our government will continue to respond to these issues following the expected court decision on Jan. 16, no matter the outcome. We will have a more detailed statement regarding this response once the court decision is made.”

Additional quotes

“It is dangerous for the mayor and others to continue to suggest that vulnerable Albertans do not have anywhere to turn. This is false and will lead to more folks choosing not to seek out shelter because they fear they’ll be turned away. I have said before and will continue to say: there is safe space in shelters around the city and nobody will be turned away. We have more than enough room for every homeless person in the city of Edmonton to have a warm, safe place to stay. It is completely inappropriate and dangerous for the mayor, or anyone, to suggest Edmonton is out of capacity in our social services sector or our emergency shelter systems. Anyone needing shelter space will be kept care of.”

Jason Nixon, Minister of Seniors, Community and Social Services

“I have been working and will continue to work diligently alongside the provincial government, in the spirit of reconciliation, for months on the serious action that is needed to get all people off the streets, including First Nations people. Encampments are not a safe place and letting people overdose and freeze in the cold is not reconciliation.”

Cody Thomas, Grand Chief, Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations 

This is a news release from the Government of Alberta.

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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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