On Tuesday, August 5, we posted about the Edmonton Police asking people to report “non-criminal actions” so that Edmonton Police can use their limited resources to investigate speech that is legal and protected by section 2(b) of the Charter: “verbal insults, name-calling, offensive jokes, slurs and insulting language.”
The Edmonton Police have now removed “verbal insults, name-calling, offensive jokes, and insulting language” from their website.
Unfortunately, Edmonton Police continue using their limited resources to accept reports about non-criminal “offensive symbols and racial comments or slurs”:
https://t.co/bJR4LNSRi7.
In the United Kingdom, what began as police tracking “Non-Crime Hate Incidents” resulted in citizens being charged and jailed over expressing political opinions on social media. Police should not be asking Canadians to report non-criminal behaviour to police websites.
Two votes.
The nineteenth of October asks Albertans whether they want a second, binding one. That is the whole ballot. Everybody is arguing about the politicians. Look at the balance sheet instead.
The money leaving.
From 2007 to 2022, Albertans sent Ottawa $244.6 billion more than came back. British Columbia, the next largest net contributor, sent $46.9 billion. Ontario sent $41.9 billion. Three provinces pay in. Alberta pays more than the other two combined, five times over.
Alberta has not received an equalization payment since 1964. Not a reduced one. Not a small one. None, in 62 years, out of a program running $27.2 billion next year.
The pension.
From 1981 to 2022, Albertans paid $53.6 billion into the Canada Pension Plan beyond what Alberta retirees drew out. Roughly six times British Columbia's net contribution. Seven of the nine participating provinces take out more than they put in. Quebec already runs its own plan and nobody calls Quebec a separatist for it.
Employment insurance runs the same direction. From 1981 to 2023, Alberta workers paid in $23.9 billion more than Albertans collected.
Alberta is young, working, and employed. That is not a talking point, that is the actuarial reason the transfers run one way.
The waiting.
Median wait from referral to treatment in Canada hit 28.6 weeks last year, the second longest in the history of the survey. Fifteen weeks to see the specialist, thirteen more to be treated. Alberta ranks third in the country for what that delay costs a person individually, because Albertans earn more per hour they spend waiting.
And the province cannot fix it alone, because federal health transfers arrive attached to rules, and a province that innovates outside them loses the money.
The fund, and here is where I am going to be straight with you.
Alberta created the Heritage Savings Trust Fund in 1976. Norway started saving in 1990, fourteen years behind. Alberta's fund holds about $31.5 billion. Norway's holds over $1.6 trillion.
That gap is not Ottawa's fault. Contributions were slowed in 1983 and stopped entirely in 1987, and earnings were pulled into general revenue for decades. Per Albertan, the fund was worth more in 1983 than it is now.
A University of Calgary economist ran the counterfactual. Had Alberta followed Norway's rules, banking the resource revenue and withdrawing four percent a year, Albertans would be sitting on roughly $575 billion.
So the honest case is not that Ottawa stole the fund. The honest case is that a jurisdiction sending out a quarter trillion dollars while its own savings account withered has two problems, and only one of them is in Ottawa.
Independence does not fix the second one. It just removes the excuse.
That is the actual argument on that ballot. Not flags. Not grievance. Royalty rates set where the oil is. A pension invested instead of averaged. A health system allowed to try something. A savings account that finally gets fed.
Fourth largest proven reserves on earth, and a savings account smaller than a mid sized pension fund.
This is not the beginning of the end.
It is the end of the beginning.
🦋
Marcus Aurelius taught that if someone can prove you wrong, you should gladly change your mind because the truth never harmed anyone. What harms us is persisting in self-deception and ignorance.
Canada desperately needs that attitude.
Mark Carney arrived wrapped in credentials, prestige and the confidence of the establishment. But no résumé places a leader above scrutiny. No expert title turns political judgment into unquestionable truth.
A healthy government welcomes criticism, admits mistakes and changes course when its policies hurt ordinary Canadians. An arrogant government dismisses disagreement, protects its approved narrative and treats critics as ignorant or dangerous.
The Stoic test is simple: forget the image, the speeches and the titles. Look honestly at the results.
Truth does not fear debate. Ego does.
Many police are defending Flock cameras & other AI tools saying, “It makes our job easier.”
News flash: Your job isn’t supposed to be EASY! It’s supposed to be restrained, heavy, and encumbered by the burden of proof, probable cause, the presumption of innocence, and always subject to OUR civil liberties!!!
A free society is not about making things convenient for the state, it’s about protecting the individual FROM the state. So many people have forgotten this.
When the Covid shots rolled out, the deaths were super obvious, especially working on a native reservation. They vaccinated basically everyone at the same time, so the injuries were impossible to miss.
While intubating our nurse manager who collapsed in the ER from pulmonary embolisms, another nurse was crying because she’d just lost her husband and brother-in-law to heart attacks a week apart.
So when I see doctors today still praising Fauci and the “covid vaccines,” it angers me for damn good reason.
That being said, if any government ever tries to make any medicine mandatory again, that should be considered an act of war.
If we haven’t learned this lesson by now, we never will.
Harry Fisher
American Paramedic
God bless
Saying, 'deportation now!' isn't online hate, it's respect for the LAW.
You're supposed to honour the Law, not call it 'hate'.
Free speech isn't 'hate' ..