The activist who went viral after yelling “F*ck your fascist pancakes” at Alberta Premier Danielle Smith was removed from an Alberta independence rally Saturday after confronting attendees and repeatedly calling them “traitors.”

Video from the Aug. 29 rally at the Alberta Legislature shows the woman being physically escorted away by law enforcement as she continues shouting at people gathered for the event.

“You are traitors,” she can be heard saying as she is taken away. “You should arrest them all,” she repeatedly tells those removing her, referring to the people attending the rally.

In a video posted afterward, the activist said she had allegedly received a 90-day ban from the Legislature “for causing two disruptions.”

During the removal, the person escorting her away can also be heard telling her, “You’re banned, though,” before saying she was not allowed back for 24 hours.

The incident occurred as Alberta separatists gathered at the Legislature Saturday afternoon for an independence rally organized by the Alberta Prosperity Project.

A large crowd of supporters gathered outside carrying Alberta flags and listening to speeches, prayers and sermons in support of the independence movement.

Mitch Sylvestre, head of the Alberta Prosperity Project, addressed the crowd and called on Albertans to stand up to Ottawa.

“Ottawa is putting its elbows up to protect themselves from us. We think that’s backwards.” Sylvestre said.

Two pastors also spent a significant portion of the event praying for the independence movement and delivering sermons.

The rally came as Alberta’s separation debate continues to intensify ahead of the province-wide referendum scheduled for Oct. 19.

The referendum’s 10th question asks Albertans whether Alberta should remain a province of Canada or whether the provincial government should begin the legal process required to hold a future binding referendum on whether Alberta should separate from Canada.

Elections Alberta confirms that the Oct. 19 vote is not itself a vote on separation.

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An organizer involved in Alberta protests over international students’ post-graduation work permit troubles says he is now looking at opening a college of his own in Canada.

The organizer posted an Instagram story this week asking followers to connect him with anyone involved with a Canadian college.

“Please contact me,” he wrote, saying “we” are thinking about opening a college and need “some help or data.”

“We can also do partnership with him/her,” the post continued, according to a translation.

International students have been protesting in Alberta after their applications for post-graduation work permits were refused. The students argued they enrolled believing their studies would qualify them for the permits and have demanded Ottawa reconsider their cases.

Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab has rejected claims that Ottawa changed the eligibility rules, saying non-credit programs were never eligible for post-graduation work permits.

The protests have so far failed to secure the permits students sought. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith told Juno News in July that former students whose visas have expired and who do not have permanent residency “need to go home.”

The dispute escalated earlier this month when Canada Border Services Agency officers attended the Calgary protest. The border agency later told Juno that 20 people had their immigration status checked and 12 were identified as potentially inadmissible to Canada.

Juno News did not receive a response when we reached out to the organizer to ask for clarification on his stated interest in starting a private college.

The organizer did not specify where the proposed college would be located, what programs it would offer or whether it would cater to international students.

He has been among those involved in protests by international students in Alberta who say they came to Canada expecting their studies would make them eligible for post-graduation work permits, only to encounter refusals.

In a July social media post about the dispute, the organizer highlighted that students received refusals from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and accused their college of refusing to help.

His Instagram posts do not say whether the plans for a new college have gained any traction, nor do they establish any kind of financing or regulatory approval.

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Smith pushed back after Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi and other federalists warned that holding the vote during an escalating Canada-U.S. trade war could undermine national unity.

“Well, it’s a separate process,” Smith said when asked whether the referendum could expose a weak link that the Trump administration could exploit.

“We have citizen initiative law,” she added, arguing the government must respect petitions that receive enough public support to put a question to voters.

Albertans are scheduled to vote Oct. 19 on whether Alberta should remain in Canada or whether the government should begin the legal process required to hold a future binding referendum on separation.

Smith pointed to competing petition campaigns as justification for holding the vote.

“400,000 people asked for a vote to remain, 300,000 people asked for a vote to leave,” she said.

Despite defending the referendum, Smith left no ambiguity about where she stands.

“I think this is an important time for us to be looking at the benefits that come from being a part of Canada,” she said.

“That’s what I’ve been advocating. That’s why I’m voting to remain.”

Smith acknowledged Alberta still has disputes with Ottawa but said she believes there is growing momentum for provinces and the federal government to work together.

“I hope to persuade as many people as possible to vote with me,” she said.

Nenshi has demanded Smith cancel or at least postpone the referendum, arguing the vote sends the wrong message as Canada battles the United States over trade.

“It’s time to call off the referendum,” Nenshi said.

“The premier’s pandering to separatists just shows weakness; it shows that Canada is not united.”

His criticism follows a similar warning from Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon.

St-Pierre Plamondon said that if his party takes power in Quebec’s October election, he would postpone a promised independence referendum until after U.S. President Donald Trump leaves office, arguing the administration’s unpredictability could interfere with the process.

Nenshi seized on the comparison to attack Smith.

“If real separatists [in Quebec] understand the danger of doing this, how come a separatist of convenience, like Danielle Smith, doesn’t understand that danger?” he said.

Smith, however, maintains holding the referendum is about respecting Albertans rather than promoting separation.

“Citizens signed one of two petitions saying they wanted to have this question now, and that’s what the vote is going to be on Oct. 19,” she previously said.

“I think we need to make sure that we are clear about what Albertans want us to do.”

The Oct. 19 vote would not itself separate Alberta from Canada.

Instead, choosing the separation option would direct the government to begin the legal process required to hold a future binding referendum on independence.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has called the upcoming referendum a “question on the question,” saying the federal Clarity Act would only come into play for an actual secession vote.

Carney has also argued a future independence referendum would require a “clear majority” recognized by Parliament, rather than automatically being settled by 50 per cent plus one.

For Smith, defending Albertans’ right to hold the referendum and supporting independence are two separate questions.

Her answer to the latter remains straightforward: “I’m voting to remain.”

Alberta’s fiscal fortunes have taken a dramatic turn.

The province’s first-quarter fiscal update projects a surplus of more than $2 billion, a stunning reversal from the $9.4 billion deficit forecast in Budget 2026.

Surging oil revenues are driving the turnaround.

Natural resource revenue is up $9.7 billion, helping push total revenue $11.7 billion above budget.

“This is good news for Alberta and for Alberta’s future,” Finance Minister Jason Nixon said Thursday.

“It means we’re on the path to the province’s sixth consecutive surplus year.”

However, Nixon warned the government won’t treat the oil-fuelled windfall as permanent.

“We know energy prices are volatile, and we cannot budget on the expectations that high oil prices will last,” he said.

Alberta now assumes WTI will average US$65 per barrel, after averaging roughly US$88 from April to August.

Every US$1 change in oil prices swings provincial revenue by about $680 million.

Nixon attributed much of the turnaround to higher oil prices driven by the war in Iran.

“The $11.4-billion shift from Budget 2026 is primarily driven by non-renewable resource revenues fuelled by the Iran war, pushing oil prices significantly higher,” he said.

Despite the windfall, Alberta isn’t planning to pour the projected surplus into new programs, debt repayment or the Heritage Savings Trust Fund.

Nixon instead repeatedly preached caution, warning against repeating past governments’ mistakes during energy booms.

“Let’s take the success that we’re seeing, but let’s make sure that we don’t create structural challenges across our budget that, in the long term, are going to create bigger deficits and will hurt Albertans,” he said.

A weaker loonie is also helping, with every one-cent drop adding roughly $440 million in provincial revenue.

However, the projected $2 billion budget surplus doesn’t mean Alberta is swimming in cash.

Despite the projected surplus, Alberta remains $4.3 billion short of a cash surplus due largely to the timing of royalty payments, capital spending and accounting adjustments.

Nixon warned against mistaking the oil windfall for a permanent trend.

“Despite this projected surplus, Alberta is not yet in a cash-surplus position,” he said, adding fiscal responsibility remains a top priority.

Oil isn’t the only bright spot.

Income tax revenue is also up $1 billion on stronger corporate profits and population growth, while manufacturing has recovered to pre-2025 levels.

Alberta’s population is forecast to grow 1.2 per cent through 2026 and 1.4 per cent in 2027.

Manufacturing has also recovered to pre-2025 levels, while reduced Chinese duties have helped boost canola exports.

Alberta raised its inflation forecast from two per cent to 2.6 per cent, with higher oil prices and potential Canada-U.S. counter-tariffs adding pressure.

Nixon warned counter-tariffs “could create significant inflation,” though Alberta remains relatively insulated as energy exports have largely avoided U.S. tariffs.

Alberta remains relatively insulated from the trade dispute because energy exports have so far avoided the brunt of U.S. tariffs.

Meanwhile, producers are capitalizing on higher crude prices by delaying maintenance and scheduled slowdowns.

Conventional natural resource production is now expected to grow 4.5 per cent, up from the 3.7 per cent forecast in Budget 2026.

For now, Alberta’s oil-fuelled fiscal turnaround has put the province back in the black — but Nixon isn’t betting the budget on crude staying there.

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Author: Alex Dhaliwal

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is taking aim at the industrial carbon tax as a job-killing “cash grab,” putting him on a collision course with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, who has agreed to keep the levy alive under her deal with Ottawa.

“The industrial carbon tax has nothing to do with the environment,” Poilievre said. “It is a cash grab that kills jobs for our people and drives up the costs for our consumers.”

Poilievre said the levy puts Canadian steel, aluminum, auto and other major industries at a disadvantage against foreign competitors.

“The Americans don’t have that tax. The Europeans are exempting heavy industry from that tax. The Chinese economy doesn’t pay that tax,” he said, arguing Canada is pushing production and jobs into foreign economies by increasing costs at home.

Smith, however, has defended keeping Alberta’s industrial carbon tax as a compromise with Carney’s Liberals, conceding Poilievre’s election could have changed course.

“Pierre Poilievre did not get elected,” Smith said. “If he had gotten elected, we might have had a different approach.”

“We have a Liberal government where their carbon tax objectives are a much higher priority,” she added. “And so if we’re going to try to get to a deal, there’s a compromise that we have to make.”

Smith has defended the broader Ottawa agreement as an improvement over the Trudeau era, praising relations with Prime Minister Mark Carney as “a lot better” after Alberta secured concessions on the emissions cap and net-zero electricity regulations.

“It’s a lot better than under Trudeau, who wanted a $170 carbon price, wanted an emissions cap [that] would have shut in 2.5M barrels of Alberta oil, and a net-zero power grid where... [noncompliant] executives would go to jail,” Smith said May 8.

Under a subsequent agreement, Alberta accepted higher TIER carbon prices beginning in 2030 in exchange for federal support for a new West Coast pipeline, a deal Smith called a “win.”

The floor rises from $60 per tonne in 2030 to $110 by 2040, with the headline price reaching $140 and an effective target of $130.

However, Smith also warned the tax could hurt Alberta’s competitiveness and raise costs.

Earlier, Alberta froze its TIER industrial carbon price at $95 per tonne, rather than allowing it to rise to $110, citing U.S. tariffs, economic uncertainty and industry competitiveness concerns.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, by contrast, scrapped both carbon taxes, citing lower costs and stronger competitiveness.

Meanwhile, Poilievre has pledged to go further federally by eliminating the industrial carbon tax, repealing the federal carbon-pricing law and ending provincial backstops.

A Fraser Institute study warns Alberta’s $140 carbon tax and carbon capture rules will raise energy costs and hurt competitiveness.

By 2040, the policies are projected to raise production costs by 19.6% to 39.1% across Alberta’s oil, natural gas and electricity sectors, while U.S. competitors in Texas and New Mexico face no comparable costs.

Author Jack Mintz warned the higher costs could push investment to U.S. jurisdictions offering better returns while also raising electricity costs for Alberta businesses.

Similarly, a Leger poll commissioned by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation found 70 per cent of Canadians believe businesses pass most or some industrial carbon-tax costs on to consumers.

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Author: Clayton DeMaine

As trade relations between Canada and the U.S. break down again, former premiers, United Conservative Party Premier Jason Kenney and NDP Premier Rachel Notley have joined forces on a campaign against the Alberta independence movement.

After U.S. President Donald Trump announced his plans to impose a 50 per cent tariff on the Canadian automotive and steel industries, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce announced Tuesday that Notley and Kenney would co-chair its Alberta and Canada: Stronger Together campaign.

According to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the campaign will bring business and community leaders together around a “shared commitment to Alberta’s prosperity and Canada’s economic future.

The chamber said in a statement the campaign comes at a “consequential moment for Alberta and the country,” and will make the economic case for a “strong Alberta within a strong and united Canada.” The group said the campaign will also focus on “advancing practical solutions” to challenges facing Alberta.

In the 2019 Alberta provincial election, Kenney’s United Conservative Party defeated Notley’s incumbent NDP government with 54.9 per cent of the popular vote against her 32.7 per cent.

Albertans are set to head to the polls on October 19 to vote on a variety of referendum questions, one of them being whether Alberta should secede from Canadian Confederation.

“Alberta and Canada are stronger together — and a more competitive, prosperous Alberta makes for a more competitive, prosperous Canada. The national business community represented by the Canadian Chamber is an integrated network of hundreds of thousands of businesses of all sizes who know Alberta’s interests, and theirs go hand in hand,” Kenney said in a statement released by the chamber of commerce.

“We’re ready to rally with facts and to make the case for a strong Alberta and a united Canada.”

Notley emphasized the “critical moment” Alberta and Canada find themselves in amidst trade threats and tariffs from Trump.

“We need to be focused on building this province, growing job opportunities across the board, strengthening our healthcare system and vital programs that keep Alberta strong,” Notley said. “Any distraction that takes us away from that focus is a missed opportunity for all of us.”

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce president Candace Laing said both Kenney and Notley “understand what’s at stake” and celebrated the two putting aside their differences to fight for Alberta to remain in Canada.

Liang added that uncertainty about Alberta’s future within Canada deters potential investment into the province.

“Prolonged uncertainty around constitutional or political separation brings real risks for investor confidence, economic growth and Canada’s competitiveness, at exactly the wrong time,” he said. “With geopolitical and economic uncertainty reshaping global trade and investment, Canada will be only better off with greater economic cooperation – not less.”

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Author: Alex Dhaliwal

Premier Danielle Smith is warning Ottawa that escalating its trade war with retaliatory tariffs risks making Canadians pay the price for punishing Washington.

“I know, emotionally, it feels good to retaliate. I get that,” Smith said during her Saturday radio show. “But let’s remember what happens when we retaliate.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that Canada is prepared to impose dollar-for-dollar tariffs on American imports after his government walked away from trade negotiations with Washington on Friday.

The counter-tariffs are expected to take effect after Labour Day unless the two countries reach an agreement.

Smith backed Carney’s decision to abandon the negotiations, saying some U.S. demands were too damaging for Canada to accept.

“There were just a couple of key demands from the United States that made it really untenable for us to sign off,” she said. “It would have been too painful.”

But Smith warned that retaliatory tariffs of up to 50% on U.S. goods could significantly raise costs for Canadian consumers and businesses.

“We shouldn’t be cheering if our farmers have to pay 50 per cent more for all the equipment that they need to produce our food,” Smith said. “That is not a success.”

Smith has consistently opposed counter-tariffs and using Canadian energy as leverage, warning Alberta would bear the brunt of the economic fallout.

Her chief of staff, Rob Anderson, went further Friday, describing retaliatory tariffs as a “knee-jerk” response.

“Why would we punch our own Canadian businesses, workers and consumers in the face just because the U.S. is doing so to their own businesses, workers and consumers,” Anderson wrote on social media.

“We need to be smarter, not more tough guy-er.”

Smith nevertheless praised Carney for delaying the counter-tariffs until after Labour Day, suggesting the government is leaving Washington an opportunity to return to negotiations.

“That’s the Prime Minister saying: ‘Come on, guys, let’s see if we can figure this out over the next two weeks.’”

Alberta remains heavily dependent on the American market. The province exported $151.5 billion in goods to the U.S. in 2025, including $110.8 billion in crude petroleum.

U.S. President Donald Trump has so far spared Canadian oil and gas from the tariffs hitting other sectors.

Smith said only around 3% of Alberta’s U.S. exports are currently exposed, while the province estimates the latest measures could affect roughly $1.5 billion in Alberta trade.

“I worry about the viability of some of those furniture companies and honeymakers,” Smith said, adding that she welcomed Ottawa’s promise of financial assistance for affected industries.

Despite longstanding tensions between Alberta and Ottawa over the treatment of the energy sector, Smith also defended Ontario’s auto industry as “vitally important” to Canada’s economy.

“I hope that they can get back to the table to negotiate something that’s more fair,” she said. “But we have to understand how important that is to Ontario, as an engine of their economy.”

Smith’s cabinet is expected to meet Tuesday as Alberta weighs its response to the escalating trade dispute.

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Author: Melanie Bennet

A trans-identified man in Courtenay, B.C., has admitted on Instagram to smacking a teenager “upside the head” at Lewis Park after a group of youths called him a “tranny,” later telling Juno News he would “do it all over again” and warning that anyone who questions his existence will be treated as a threat.

Leanne Lawson said he was “minding [his] own business” in Lewis Park when a “group of kids” directed the slur at him and “used words they weren’t supposed to.” In a series of videos posted to Instagram, Lawson said he responded by smacking one of the youths upside the head.

Lawson continued filming as he followed the teens, trading insults with them. After one teen told him to stop following, another person can be heard telling the group they would “all get [their] a*ses kicked.”

When the mother of one of the youths approached and apologized, Lawson admitted to the assault and warned that her “son better not talk crazy like that, or he’s going to get his head knocked off.”

In a subsequent video, Lawson said he is “not ok” and “terrified.” He stated that the youths’ status as minors did not matter: “anyone who talks to [him] like that… [he’s] going to react like that.”

Juno News contacted Lawson seeking comment on the park incident. He replied with another Instagram video in which he said he would “do it all over again.”

“A lot of you seem to think violence isn’t the answer,” Lawson said. “The truth is, the violence has already started.” He claimed “there’s literally a trans genocide going on” and added that if anyone approaches him to “explain [his] existence,” he will “interpret it as a threat” and “act accordingly.”

Lawson justified the assault by saying the youths used the “n-word” and are “repeat offenders.” He blamed the community for failing to “giv[e] them a bit of wisdom since their parents can’t seem to give them any,” and said it was his responsibility to discipline them. The teens were lucky, he claimed, that he “only smacked them upside the head.”

Had the youths been adults, Lawson said, he would have “drop-kicked them” and “made sure they can’t eat solid food for a while.” Looking into the camera, he added: “Just think about that next time you’re transphobic to a tranny.”

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Author: Alex Dhaliwal

Former prime minister Justin Trudeau continues to receive regular RCMP protection, including during personal travel, media sources have revealed.

However, the RCMP would neither confirm nor deny whether Trudeau, 54, currently receives protection. They also would not disclose its cost, staffing or deployment details.

“Protective decisions are based strictly on assessed security needs, not personal preferences or activities,” the RCMP told the National Post.

Some Trudeau trips could require as many as four officers, with concerts potentially requiring advance scouting and threat assessments, according to media reports.

Since leaving politics, Trudeau has travelled the world, including extravagant junkets to Switzerland, Italy, Chicago and Davos.

His relationship with Katy Perry has also taken him from Paris and Japan to Coachella and European festivals, with the couple seen most recently in southern France on vacation.

It remains unclear which of those trips, if any, involved RCMP protection.

Former RCMP deputy commissioner Pierre-Yves Bourduas said Trudeau’s high-profile relationship could complicate his protection, while Perry’s private security cannot replace the RCMP.

“We must take full responsibility for the protection of the former prime minister,” Bourduas said.

Sitting prime ministers receive 24/7 RCMP protection through its VIP Protection Detail, while former prime ministers are offered security they can decline. Any RCMP salaries, overtime, and travel costs are taxpayer-funded.

CBC reported in 2023 that protecting Trudeau and his family cost more than $30 million annually — over twice the inflation-adjusted cost for Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin.

Former prime ministers have been offered RCMP protection since Trudeau’s father, Pierre Trudeau, left office. Protection is determined according to assessed threats and security requirements.

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Author: Clayton DeMaine

Over two-thirds of Albertans believe drivers in the province should have a full Alberta driving licence for at least two years before being able to operate commercial vehicles like tractor-trailers, according to a Scope Research poll.

According to Scope Research, 806 respondents aged 18 or older completed the survey via SMS. The results were weighted by age and gender using data from the 2021 Canadian census to ensure the sample reflects Alberta’s demographic makeup.

For a comparable probability-based sample, the margin of error would be three per cent 19 times out of 20.

The poll was conducted from July 30th to August 4th.

Respondents were asked to rate their level of agreement with the statement “drivers should have an Alberta driver’s licence (Class 5) for at least two years before being able to operate commercial vehicles like tractor-trailers.

Nearly 70 per cent of respondents said they agreed with the proposed restrictions on commercial drivers in the province. Only 15 percent said they disagreed, while the remainder either “didn’t know” or had no opinion.

When those without an opinion one way or the other were removed from the results of the study, about 82 per cent agreed on the proposed restrictions for commercial driving.

The survey comes as Alberta cracked down on dangerous commercial drivers. Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen, just days after the survey concluded, announced the province had removed 20 unsafe carriers since October, including 13 “chameleon carriers accused of changing names or operations to evade regulators.

The move is part of a wider initiative to ensure the roads are safe from rogue truck drivers and fraudulent instructors.

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Author: Quinn Patrick

An Alberta couple says that the government allegedly violated their privacy rights after they were forced to complete a long-form census, which required them to answer questions about their sexual orientation, physical and mental disability, and history of homelessness, among other things.

Bradley and Linda Osborne of Foothills County launched a Charter challenge in June after being mandated to complete the long-form census, and were forced to divulge the information or face a potential $500 fine.

According to their statement of claim, the questions tended to “reveal intimate details of their lifestyles and personal choices.”

“Canada’s census serves an important constitutional function, including ensuring fair democratic representation,” said Constitutional lawyer Hatim Kheir, who is representing the couple.

“But a constitutional requirement to count people does not automatically authorize the state to compel disclosure of intimate details about health, personal identity, daily routines, and private life.”

While roughly 75 per cent of Canadians receive the short form census, there is a cohort of people who receive the long form version, which has been a bone of contention for decades.

The controversy is rooted in the questionnaire, which requires people to fill out a host of detailed answers on a range of topics.

In 2010, former prime minister Stephen Harper pledged not to use the long-form census the following year. Ottawa refrained from distributing the long-form census for six years until the decision was reversed under the Trudeau government.

The controversy is rooted in the questionnaire, which requires people to fill out a host of detailed answers on a range of topics.

The 2026 long-form census included questions about a person’s ethnic background, religion, language, sexual orientation and gender expression, disability and experiences of homelessness.

The Osborne’s lawsuit alleges several of those questions violate Charter rights to life, liberty and the security of the person, as well as the right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure.

Representation for their legal challenge is being funded by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms.

The court application seeks declarations that portions of the questionnaire were prescribed beyond the authority granted under the Statistics Act.

The JCCF noted that requiring Canadians to answer certain questions infringes sections 7 and 8 of the Charter, protecting liberty and privacy against unreasonable state intrusion.

“Privacy is not a minor administrative concern. The Charter recognizes that personal information goes to individual dignity and liberty. When government compels disclosure of sensitive information under threat of penalty, courts must ask whether that intrusion is actually necessary and proportionate.”

The applicants are not seeking damages or costs but rather clarification from the Federal Court on the “constitutional limits of mandatory census collection and the protection of personal privacy in an age of growing digital data retention.”

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Author: Melanie Bennet

Elections Alberta is turning to election agencies outside the province for experienced personnel as it prepares to manually count millions of ballots from Alberta’s Oct. 19 referendum within just 48 hours.

The outside assistance comes as the agency undertakes what it has described as one of the largest referendum recruitment efforts in Canadian history, requiring at least 60,000 workers. Only about 13,000 were hired for Alberta’s 2023 provincial election.

According to the Globe and Mail, Elections Alberta had received approximately 24,000 applications as of early August, leaving the agency well short of its target. Chief electoral officer Gordon McClure has previously said as many as 90,000 workers could ultimately be required.

The agency is also seeking experienced personnel from election authorities elsewhere in Canada to provide additional expertise, particularly during the continuous ballot count following voting day.

It remains unclear which provinces or territories have been approached, how many outside personnel will participate, or what duties they will perform during the count.

The scale of the operation is driven in part by the referendum’s format.

Albertans will answer 10 separate questions, each printed on its own ballot. Elections Alberta is preparing 45 million ballots. If turnout matches the 2023 provincial election, when approximately 1.7 million votes were cast, workers could have at least 17 million completed ballots to tally.

Every ballot must be counted by hand following the Alberta government’s 2024 prohibition on electronic tabulators.

The people hired to do that work do not necessarily have to be Canadian citizens.

Elections Alberta allows Alberta residents who are eligible to work in Canada to serve in most election officer positions, subject to age and other requirements. Some positions are open to applicants as young as 16.

That includes Counting Officers, whose responsibilities include interpreting ballots individually and determining whether they should be counted.

While Counting Officers are tasked with interpreting ballots, Elections Alberta’s referendum procedures give the Voting Officer final authority over how a ballot is treated during the count. Scrutineers may also attend the official count.

The citizenship rule is not new to this referendum. Alberta changed its Election Act in 2018 following legislation passed by the former NDP government. Previously, a broader range of election officers were required to be electors. The changes left that requirement in place for Returning Officers and Election Clerks while allowing people who are not electors to hold other election positions.

The referendum nevertheless puts those rules to work on an unprecedented scale.

Elections Alberta must recruit tens of thousands of workers, conduct a province-wide manual count and produce unofficial results within 48 hours.

Alberta law does not specify what happens if Elections Alberta fails to meet that deadline, according to the province’s Justice Ministry.

Elections Alberta has said fewer workers could delay the results but that the agency will complete the task with the applicants it receives.

With two months remaining before voting day, fundamental details about the outside assistance, including who is coming to Alberta and whether those personnel will actually handle or interpret ballots, remain unanswered.

Elections Alberta did not respond to a request for comment.

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Author: Clayton DeMaine

After an Alberta teacher promoted a loophole using Edmonton Oilers Pride flags to circumvent Alberta legislation against pushing ideology in K-12 schools, social media influencer “Berta Proud Dad” has launched a way for parents and students to report instances of activist teachers breaking the law.

Lawrence Magee, who runs the social media handle Berta Proud Dad, spoke with Juno News about an initiative he started in response to parents coming to him about teachers rebelling against the elected provincial government’s efforts to prevent ideological indoctrination in schools.

Magee was alerted by parents to an Alberta teacher, Peter Mackay, who was urging other teachers to sneak pride flags into schools by exploiting an apparent loophole in the government’s efforts to remove political flags from classrooms under Bill 25.

The bill, which received royal assent on May 14, 2026, aims to ensure instruction is balanced and neutral rather than presenting a teacher’s personal political or ideological views as fact.

Mackay shared a post on Instagram pointing out that the directive to schools on which flags were permitted to be displayed includes sports flags. He endorsed using an Edmonton Oilers Pride flag to circumvent the effective ban on Pride flags in the classroom.

Magee noted that the ban is to remove all political ideology from the classroom, including Palestine flags, antifa stickers, and anything else not connected to the province or nation’s history.

In response, Magee launched reportateacher.ca for parents to report any teachers “not following the rules that the government set out in Bill 25.

“They are going to be able to upload the images with the teacher’s name and school to this website, and I am going to go and hand it to the minister of education every week,” Magee told Juno News. “ I’m going to do follow-up with the Minister of Education as to what they’re doing about this, because they’re trying to circumvent the rules.”

He said his hope is that no teachers are reported using the website, as he ideally wants there to be no teachers pushing their ideology on children.

“It’s important for kids, especially, to go to school and learn, you know, arithmetic, mathematics, English, you know, the fundamentals of an education,” he said. “What we’ve seen over the years a rise in social activist teachers that have come out of universities, where we see activism is on the rise as well, and they’re trying to bring that into the classroom.”

He noted that many may view political stickers, flags, or articles of clothing that teachers may display as “non-threatening,” but that the prevalence of these symbols amounts to indoctrination.

“ It’s a slow drip over time, and we need our school systems to basically be a place of education and not indoctrination and brainwashing, which is exactly what’s been going on,” he said.

Magee said “not all teachers are bad” and that many conservative teachers have reached out to him thanking him for his advocacy as they feel that there’s not much they can do about their colleagues’ actions.

“There’s other conservative teachers who are afraid to speak out in meetings because you know it’s a very (entrenched) mentality amongst teachers that you must follow their ideology or else,” he said. “We’re giving those teachers a voice, but really giving parents a voice. They should actually know what’s going on in their kid’s school.”

He said the best way to ensure students receive the fairest education possible and to minimize “confusion” about “any kind of ideology” is to keep teachers’ political opinions out of the classroom.

“ I want to be clear. This is not about the pride flag. This is about all flags, all symbols, all ideologies, and just sticking to the basics of education,” Magee said. “I don’t want a single report to come to this website. I’m hoping that teachers go into the classroom, they do their job, they don’t try to circumvent the rules, and they actually follow what the government has put out there in Bill 25.”

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Author: Quinn Patrick

New federal records have revealed that the Trudeau government compiled a blacklist of Canadians sympathetic to the 2022 Freedom Convoy protest and privately permitted it to be circulated among thousands of private corporations.

Meanwhile, the RCMP compiled the names, birth dates, phone numbers, and other personal information of individuals and further distributed the blacklist as well by unencrypted email.

According to documents first obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter, regulators in Ontario circulated the blacklist to between 1,000 and 2,000 brokerages and other firms, with no restriction placed on distribution.

The blacklist was “shared with up to 50 financial institutions” as well as lobby groups like the Mutual Fund Dealers Association and Canadian Bankers Association. The blacklist was also shared with regulators like the Canadian Securities Administrators, Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada and Ontario Securities Commission that in turn forwarded the information to thousands of members.

It wasn’t just Canadian institutions either.

A 2023 Inquiry Of Ministry tabled in the Commons said the RCMP also sent the blacklist to Canadian agents of foreign institutions including the Bank of China, State Bank of India, BNP Paribas of France, Citibank of New York, Habib Bank of Pakistan, Hana Financial Group of South Korea, ICICI Bank Limited of India, Mizuho Financial Group of Japan and Wells Fargo & Company of San Francisco.

According to documents first obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter, regulators in Ontario circulated the blacklist to between 1,000 and 2,000 brokerages and other firms, with no restriction placed on distribution.

The records are in stark contrast to the claims made by then-finance minister Chrystia Freeland, who authorized the blacklisting but denied that there had been any broad distribution of the names included on it.

“It’s important for all of us to be very, very careful to get our facts exactly right,” she told reporters at the time. “The RCMP has given to the financial institutions names of leaders and organizers of the protests and of people whose trucks were part of occupations and blockades. That is the only information, according to the RCMP, that the RCMP has given to financial institutions.”

The list of Convoy supporters remains in the possession of an unknown number of individuals, and no account to date has documented the consequences faced by those named under the Proceeds of Crime and Terrorist Financing Act following a cabinet order that was ultimately ruled unlawful.

A total of $7.8 million in savings was frozen by the Liberals after the Trudeau government declared the protest a national emergency, affecting 437 bank accounts belonging to Freedom Convoy sympathizers, including bitcoin wallets.

However, the Federal Court of Appeal deemed the action unconstitutional earlier this year.

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Author: Quinn Patrick

Many Canadians are probably unaware, but this isn’t the first time Prime Minister Mark Carney has taken a crack at creating a sovereign wealth fund; he already tried it while serving as the Bank of England governor two years ago.

The UK government launched the National Wealth Fund in 2024, which was also presented as a sovereign wealth fund and based on a report compiled by the Green Finance Institute, of which Carney was a drafter.

The fund promised to raise three dollars of private investment for every dollar invested using taxpayers’ money. However, after two years in action, the fund’s performance is far from inspiring.

“Two years before selling this model to Canadians, Mark Carney recommended it to the British, who implemented it,” said Bryan Cheang, research fellow at the London School of Economics and senior fellow at the Montreal Economic Institute. “Given the losses it has incurred since then, Canadians are right to think twice before supporting such a model.”

Last month, the MEI conducted a poll to gauge support for Carney’s sovereign wealth fund, which found 58 per cent of Canadians opposed borrowing the $25 billion to finance it, compared to only 20 per cent who were in favour.

As a new MEI report points out, the British government presented its NWF AS a sovereign wealth fund was but it was really just a simple reorganization of the U.K. Infrastructure Bank.

That state-owned lending institution was launched in 2021 before later being rebranded. However, unlike Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the NWF employs equity, debt and loan guarantees: all of which are traditional tools of a bank.

Last October, the U.K.’s House of Commons Finance Committee concluded that the NWF “is not a conventional sovereign wealth fund,” and that its very name risks “misleading the public.”

Additionally, the NWF recorded losses in three of its four years in operation.

In the 2023-2024 fiscal year (the first year of its rebranding), the institution reported a loss of $162 million, and in 2024-2025, its losses reached $288 million.

Those figures represent rates of return of –10.7 per cent and –14.2 per cent, respectively.

The MEI says that Carney’s new sovereign wealth fund for Canada “bears a strong resemblance to the National Wealth Fund.”

“It is based on borrowing money, it is designed to finance private projects in specific sectors favoured by the state, and it involves no commitment to adhere to the globally accepted governance principles established for sovereign wealth funds,” wrote the economic think tank in a study published on Thursday.

“Though Mr. Carney likes to present his project as a sovereign wealth fund, the details currently available make it look much more like an industrial policy fund,” said Cheang. “Canadians deserve to know about the underwhelming results of the British model before Ottawa commits $25 billion of borrowed funds to it.”

The institute also noted that there was little surprise about the U.K.’s sovereign wealth fund results considering the history of industrial policy, particularly the notion that the government should guide economic growth via subsidizing specific industries, companies or technologies.

The report cited examples of past failings, such as the Concorde and the National Enterprise Board in the U.K., as well as those of the electric vehicle sector in Ontario and Quebec.

“Industrial policy not only costs taxpayers a great deal, but it also harms small business owners by diverting significant resources to a handful of favoured sectors. From the Concorde to Northvolt, the logic behind the subsidies remains the same, and the results have been no more successful,” said Cheang.

“Doing the same thing on a larger scale with a fund like the one proposed by Prime Minister Carney is likely simply to lead to even greater losses.”

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An Alberta judge has rejected an attempt by investor Kevin O’Leary’s company to stop a Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation legal challenge over a water licence connected to a planned $70-billion artificial intelligence data centre in northwest Alberta.

Court of King’s Bench Justice P. K. Johal dismissed an application from O’Leary Digital Limited in its entirety on Thursday, allowing the First Nation’s judicial review to move forward.

Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation is challenging a water licence issued to the Municipal District of Greenview that permits the diversion of six million cubic metres of water from the Smoky River. The Nation has Treaty 8 reserve lands near the river and argues Alberta failed to adequately consult with it before the licence was issued.

The judicial review is also challenging the provincial decision that consultation with the Nation was not required.

O’Leary Digital had argued it should have been served with the judicial review within the required timeframe because it claims a contractual interest in the water licence. The company also sought permission to participate in the case as an intervenor or be added as a respondent.

Justice Johal rejected those requests.

The judge’s decision noted that O’Leary Digital’s connection to the water licence is based on an agreement with Greenview involving the planned data centre and industrial development. The licence itself, however, was issued to Greenview.

The decision means the underlying judicial review can proceed, with the case expected to be heard in December.

Protests planned as Alberta holds data centre town halls

The court decision comes as opposition to large-scale AI data centres continues to grow in Alberta.

Ben Baril, a 20-year-old Sturgeon County resident and business student at the University of Alberta, helped organize a protest against Meta’s planned data centre in Morinville on Aug. 2. The demonstration drew hundreds of people, according to reports from the event.

Baril and other protesters are now planning to attend an Aug. 20 provincial town hall in Sturgeon County, where they intend to press the government over its approach to data-centre development.

Baril has argued that public input should have been sought before projects received approvals.

The Sturgeon County meeting is one of four town halls the province is holding on AI data centres. The first is scheduled for Aug. 19 in Ponoka, with Technology Minister Nate Glubish hosting the sessions.

The government has said the meetings are intended to answer Albertans’ questions about the facilities, including their potential effects on power, water and local communities.

EXCLUSIVE: Alberta tech minister Nate Glubish addresses concerns about AI Data centres

Clayton DeMaine

·

Aug 3

Alberta’s tech minister is advocating for the province to allow the construction of AI Data centres in industrial zones. In an exclusive interview with Juno News, Nate Glubish addresses several major concerns that Canadians and Albertans have about AI data centres.

Read full story

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Former Reform Party leader Preston Manning is stepping into Alberta’s referendum debate with a new virtual forum aimed at examining the province’s long-standing concerns with Ottawa and the future of the Canadian federation.

The Alberta and the West Assembly is scheduled to take place online on Sept. 19 and 20, with Manning serving as co-chair alongside former British Columbia premier Gordon Campbell.

The two-day event will be livestreamed from Calgary and will bring together speakers to examine issues surrounding Alberta and Western Canada’s relationship with the federal government, including different options for addressing those concerns.

The organizers have described the assembly as an educational exercise rather than a campaign for one particular outcome.

Manning has said the goal is to give participants an opportunity to hear competing perspectives and examine possible responses to dissatisfaction with the current federal system.

He also added that the assembly could serve as an example to younger Canadians who are losing confidence in democratic institutions.

“People don’t see that process operating in legislatures today. They don’t see it operating in the House of Commons. What they see there is instant polarization on issues,” Manning said.

The timing puts the event directly ahead of Alberta’s Oct. 19 referendum, when voters will be asked to weigh 10 questions covering issues including immigration, provincial authority and constitutional reform, as well as whether Alberta should remain a province of Canada.

The assembly is expected to continue after the referendum, with organizers planning a follow-up session in October and recommendations that could eventually be presented to policymakers across Western Canada.

Manning has said the concerns being examined extend beyond Alberta and are shared by other provinces in the West.

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More than 1,000 Canadians have applied online to testify about serious health problems they say they experienced following COVID-19 vaccination, according to organizers of an upcoming inquiry led by Conservative MP Dean Allison.

The Allison Inquiry is a non-partisan preliminary inquiry intended to give Canadians who report being injured by COVID-19 vaccines an opportunity to share their experiences.

The hearings are scheduled to take place on Parliament Hill from September 8 to 11, with approximately 50 Canadians expected to testify.

Allison, the MP for Niagara West, provided an update on the inquiry during a press conference in Ottawa on Thursday, saying the response from Canadians has been far greater than organizers anticipated.

“More than 1,000 people have now applied online asking for the opportunity to have their voices heard,” Allison said.

Allison said many applicants have spent years struggling with their health, looking for answers and attempting to navigate a medical system they believe has failed to address their concerns.

While only about 50 people will testify during the hearings, Allison stressed that their stories represent thousands of others who have come forward or have never reported their experiences.

“The 50 people who testify are not the only stories that matter,” Allison said. “They represent more than the 1,000 people that have contacted us and the many, many more Canadians across the country who have never come forward.”

“These are not statistics,” he added. “They are mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, friends and neighbours.”

Allison also mentioned the case of Scott Gorry, a former parliamentary staffer who died in July after developing myocarditis.

According to Allison, Gorry had told his sister that he wanted his story to be told and is expected to testify at the upcoming hearings on behalf of her late brother.

Dr. Charles Hoffe, a British Columbia physician who has previously raised concerns about COVID-19 vaccines, also spoke at Thursday’s press conference.

Hoffe recounted his concerns from the early stages of the vaccine rollout, saying he had warned provincial health officials that he believed the injections posed significant risks.

“I pointed out to her that it was clear to me that the COVID injections were more dangerous than COVID,” Hoffe said, referring to a letter he said he sent to B.C. Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry.

Hoffe also disputed the claim that COVID-19 vaccines saved millions of lives, pointing to what he described as changes in all-cause mortality following the vaccine rollout.

He argued that Canada’s system for reporting vaccine injuries had failed to adequately capture adverse events.

Hoffe said he personally submitted 14 vaccine injury reports and claimed that all 14 were rejected by public health authorities.

Lawyer Shawn Buckley, who is involved with the inquiry, additionally spoke, focusing on the experiences of Canadians who have reported vaccine injuries and their attempts to obtain medical care and compensation.

Buckley said that when interviewing people who report serious injuries, he asks them what has been the most difficult part of their experience.

He said he expects people to point to physical disabilities, chronic pain, financial hardship or the impact their conditions have had on their families.

Instead, Buckley said many identify their interactions with the medical system as the most difficult part.

He said many of the people he has interviewed use the term “gaslit” to describe their experiences, claiming they have been told that their symptoms are psychological or unrelated to vaccination.

The inquiry has already faced criticism from Liberal MP Mark Gerretsen, who mocked its name and questioned its legitimacy earlier this month.

Gerretsen argued the hearings were more about Conservative grievances surrounding COVID-19 mandates and the Freedom Convoy than establishing facts.

Allison responded by inviting Gerretsen to attend the September hearings, emphasizing that MPs from all parties were welcome.

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Author: Quinn Patrick

Prime Minister Mark Carney has tapped Evan Siddall to be the inaugural chair of Build Canada Homes, someone who has stated that he’s wary of why Canadians have “glorified this idea of homeownership”

While serving as the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s CEO, Siddall also spent $250,000 to study proposals to implement a home equity tax, a levy that would have taken major shares of proceeds when families sell their homes, leaving them with less to buy a new home or provide for retirement.

However, the pursuit was dropped after Blacklock’s Reporter made it public.

Build Canada Homes was a federal initiative launched last September to provide financial support, such as loans and contributions to various housing partners.

In 2021, Siddall resigned as chief of the CMHC. His departure came shortly after comments he made on a 2019 podcast resurfaced where he said, “We’ve glorified this idea of home ownership, haven’t we?”

When the podcast host said that home ownership had “become a driving source of inequality in Canada,” Siddall agreed, “For sure it has,” he said.

“The winners when house prices go down are people who want to get into the housing market,” said Siddall. “The losers are the people who have won so much already through the increase in house prices, the owners.”

Siddall’s efforts to research a home equity tax cost a total of $450,000 with promotion, resulting in a 2022 University of British Columbia report called Wealth And the Problems Of Housing Inequity Across Generations, which proposed a $5.8 billion annual tax on homes, complaining of “windfalls gained by many homeowners while they sleep and watch TV.”

However, public pushback made the Trudeau government walk back on the idea, with then-Conservative leader Erin O’Toole calling the proposal “outrageous and out of touch.”

“The family home is a bedrock of Canadian family savings,” he said at the time.

Before his involvement with the CMHC, Siddall worked for BMO Capital Markets. He also worked at Goldman Sachs and Irving Oil.

According to a federal release, Siddall will exercise the board’s powers unilaterally until a process to appoint at least eight directors concludes.

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Conservative MP Mike Dawson, who gained notoriety earlier this year for refusing to accept his automatic salary increase, has lost his judicial review in a Federal Court, with the ruling saying it would be illegal and inconvenient for him not to take the pay hike.

Dawson, who represents the riding of Miramichi-Grand Lake, N.B., filed an application for judicial review in June, attempting to stop Parliament from awarding him the $8,800 raise.

However, according to an affidavit filed by House clerk Eric Janse, all members of Parliament must be paid the amounts set out in legislation, forcing Dawson to accept the raise, which he called “frankly distasteful” at a time when Canadians were suffering financially.

“The House Administration is of the view that the applicant’s sessional allowance must, as a matter of law, be paid in the amount prescribed by the Parliament of Canada Act, including all applicable annual adjustments,” reads Janse’s affidavit.

He further argued that allowing Dawson to turn down the increase would also require House staff “to undertake administrative measures” for the MP alone “to establish and maintain a separate calculation of the Applicant’s sessional allowance” every year for as long as he sat in the House of Commons.

Last year, the base salary for MPs was $208,900, which increased to $217,700 on April 1.

Meanwhile, a minister collects $321,300, and the prime minister takes home a $435,400 annual salary.

The pay hikes are tied to a formula based on private-sector salary hikes and enforced under federal legislation.

“We seem to be all right to put somebody on the moon, but we can’t stop a pay raise,” Dawson told CBC News on Tuesday. “Everything’s electronic for pay. It’s just a matter of clicking a button.”

He added that as a business owner, it should be no more complicated than deducting federal taxes from his employees’ pay, which he’s obliged to do annually.

While Dawson has been donating his raise to charity, he noted that he should be permitted to object to it altogether.

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