I had a recent appearance on Hard Knox Talks, where we got into how policy manifests at street level, how government propaganda drives what we are told to call 'polarization,' and why people across the political and drug policy spectrum should unify around reallocating excessive wealth at the
I was arrested at the University of Calgary anti-genocide protest on May 9 after standing with the students assaulted by Calgary Police. The move reflected an old but expanding reality in Alberta, where threats to the safety of the state dictate police violence. One week ago, I was sitting in
Compassionate Intervention Act
A revealing LinkedIn announcement by the newly hired Manager of Compassionate Intervention Implementation confirms the government's intention to force people who use drugs into addiction treatment.
youth treatment
American journalists, researchers and survivors of abuse in youth residential addiction treatment centres describe blood-curdling stories of widespread sexual and physical abuse that hint at a potential outcome of the treatment infrastructure under construction in Alberta.
Newsletter
A man is dead after being chased by the Edmonton Police Air-1 helicopter onto dangerous ice of the North Saskatchewan River. In July 2022, a similarly over-the-top deployment was caught on film in Calgary's Sunalta neighbourhood. Just two weeks after being directed to investigate, the Alberta Serious Incident
How a group of fundamentalists is constructing a great wooden horse standing tall on carcerality, profiteering and propaganda to deliver Compassion unto the people. The Emerald City is, on the surface, a beautiful place built from bounties buried deep in the Earth's crust, where most everyone believes in
Alberta model
If exploitation is the driving force of drug prohibition, privatized 'treatment' is the paved road it rolls on: a look at the business challenges faced by these organizations.
Media Criticism
The Alberta government is scrambling to glue together its narrative that overdose deaths can be solved through a limited scope of privatized rehab. But a live interview on CBC Calgary pulled the curtain on the strategy's naked truth.
Recovery Capital Conference has informed world-renowned recovery and harm reduction advocate Guy Felicella that he is not welcome at this year's conference. The move fits the Alberta government's pattern of controlling public drug policy discourse and stifling dissent against its abstinence-only strategy. See also: Part 1
Over a year after inking the deal, the Alberta Ministry of Mental Health and Addiction has yet to disclose the recipient of its largest contract. The recipient appears to be ROSC Solutions Group, whose owner and top staff are connected to the Premier's chief of staff and were
Alberta model
The upcoming Recovery Capital Conference in Calgary serves three main functions: mobilizing Alberta government policy through credible actors, repaying these actors with public funding, and recruiting for the far-right. Part 1 examines the first of these, and what happens when credibility falls short. See also: Part 2 and Part 3.
Calgary Police Chief Mark Neufeld spun the 2022 CPS workplace census as evidence that CPS reflects the community. But the census data tell the opposite story, revealing an impassable canyon between the demographics of Calgary Police and the city that pays their salaries. An oft-repeated principle of policing is "