Is This For Real?

Black History Month has always been more or less a joke, but it was especially terrible this year. We’re looking back on this especially unfortunate February, from revelations that the Edmonton Police Service owns a plane (!) and is gearing up to purchase yet another, to the Calgary Police killing of community member Latjor Tuel. We also brought back Tom Engel to the show for a great interview about the Police Act, an important piece of legislation that we should all be focusing on ahead of the next provincial election.

With the recent federal election in Canada and local election in Edmonton, we continue the thriving era of neoliberal politics that leaves harmful institutions unchecked, despite everything that has come to prominence in public discourse since we started the show. We had a chance to interview Edmonton's new mayor Amarjeet Sohi to dig a bit deeper into the emptiness of performative politics and why politicians can't save us.

It’s plainly obvious that the most vulnerable people are the most heavily policed. Along with a lack of mental health and addiction supports, this creates a cycle where vulnerable populations remain in poverty or enter our punitive justice system. Hannan and Oumar talk to Shima Robinson, an organizer at the recently-closed Pekiwewin camp, about police targeting of homeless populations, the importance of de-escalation training, and the need for transit accessibility. We also speak to Mark Cherrington at the Coalition for Justice and Human Rights about the fear of police, lack of police accountability, and what a world without police might look like.

We're turning our focus to the devastation inflation that we've all be facing throughout this year. We're taking a look at a new study from the University of Calgary that outlines why inflation hits low-income households especially hard, record profits that companies like Loblaws are making during this time, and some incredibly cringe advice that the media is giving to consumers.

We also have some on the ground reporting from the Pope's visit to Edmonton. We discuss the clearing of homeless encampments from the area surrounding the Sacred Heart church, the problematic messaging embedded into the Pope's activities here, and whether or not meaningful change can ever even be achieved through symbolic gestures.

Oumar and Nicholas discuss the recent school shooting in Texas and its relevance to Edmonton’s school resource officer program. We also discuss the violence and challenges in Chinatown, as well as the tendency from politicians and the community to support further enforcement of the same system that causes those challenges.