Alberta NDP leader says UCP government is ‘largely incompetent’ after fall sitting

The UCP are deliberately attacking systems of government to keep Albertans fractured and occupied so they can rob it.

Michael Higgins: How do you feel about the recall petition targeting the premier, and her response?

Naheed Nenshi: It’s Christmas time and I want to be generous, but the hypocrisy there is off the charts. This is her legislation. Her government put forward this legislation. When it was used against Mayor Gondek in Calgary, (the premier) was an enthusiastic cheerleader for it.

Now it’s being used against all these UCP MLAs, so people are misusing it. She has compared grandmas going door to door in Bowness in Calgary with militants overthrowing her government. If in fact she believed recall should only be used in these extreme circumstances, she ought to have written the legislation that way. The legislation is very clear that anybody can launch a recall against any MLA.

The boundary for the number of signatures you need is very high. It’s incredibly flawed legislation, but it is the UCP’s legislation. For them to lash out against citizens using their legislation, I think is a bit rich.

Alberta teachers’ union files labour complaint, alleges province engaged in ‘bad-faith bargaining’

The UCP used the Notwithstanding Clause to take away teachers rights to negotiate for better working conditions, and to enable them to negotiate in bad faith.

I think this bad faith is similar to the UCP’s use of legislation to punch a hole in Canadian retirement funds when AIMCo gambled away around $1.3 Bln. Links below.

Jason Schilling, the president of the ATA, said at a news conference on Friday that he believes the government is attempting to “rewrite its own commitments,” and that the ATA wants clarification on what was agreed to at the bargaining table regarding the plan to bring in additional teachers.

“What was told at the bargaining table and then was commented afterwards, it seemed to be two different things and we need clarity on them,” he said.

“What will come out of the complaint is hopefully that we hold the government [accountable] for what they said.”

…

In the ATA’s recent email to its members, it said the “ATA understood — and TEBA’s bargaining conduct implied — that these 3,000 teachers were additional to the staffing already funded and announced in Budget 2025.”

Schilling said the government “insists” that the phrase “net new” meant any increase in teachers over the prior year, even if those positions were already funded by Budget 2025.

“If that was their interpretation, then nothing was new at all,” he said.

“The 3,000 teachers they pointed to during the bargaining were already announced, already budgeted and already counted in the 2025 budget.”

…

https://kopitalk.net/c/alberta/p/93282/alberta-tries-to-legislate-ban-on-lawsuits-about-aimco-losses

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-aimco-bill-12-9.6992283

Alberta legislature passes bill invoking Charter override for fourth time

Speaking to the bill earlier in the evening, NDP critic Kathleen Ganley called it “offensive to the rule of law and to our entire democracy” to use the overarching power of the notwithstanding clause on transgender youth who are “already at a higher risk of suicide.”

“It was put in the Constitution to be used judiciously, to be used rarely, to be used only in exceptional circumstances,” Ganley told the house.

“I don’t think anyone ever envisioned the possibility it might be used four times in a month by a government.”

…

The Canadian Medical Association has challenged the law in court, saying it violates a doctor’s right to freedom of conscience.

The Alberta Medical Association has repeatedly said puberty blockers do not render a person infertile or sterile and protect transgender children from more permanent changes that come with puberty.

Some families of transgender kids involved in a separate lawsuit that challenged the health-care restrictions have said their kids will be devastated once the law comes into effect, and some have said they will need to leave the province for the safety of their child.

Danielle Smith’s Dangerous Attack on the Courts | The Tyee

Did the premier of Alberta attack the constitutional role of the courts in Canada’s democracy? Yes, she did, and in no uncertain terms.

“The will of Albertans is not expressed by a single judge appointed by Justin Trudeau and never faces any kind of recall campaign, never faces any kind of election,” stated Danielle Smith on Dec. 6.

She continued by saying, “The people have told us through our consultation, through our elections, the kinds of things they want us to do, and then we go and do them, and then the court can override it. And again, most of the judges are appointed by Ottawa and not by us. An unelected judge is not synonymous with democracy. Democracy is when elected officials who have to face the electorate every four years get to make decisions. That’s what democracy is.”

If you listened only to Smith, you’d think Canada is ruled by a shadowy cabal of “unelected judges” bent on bending “the people” to their progressive whims.

Who is Sam Mraiche? Inside Alberta’s health care controversy

https://archive.is/i5cR3

The Globe and Mail’s Tom Cardoso, Carrie Tait, Mark Mackinnon, and Stephanie Chambers have the deep dive on Sam Mraiche. I’ll include some highlights, but this deserves a good read because it provides an overview with additional information about some of the relationships between Sam Mraiche, Danielle Smith, Jitendra Prasad, and Mickey Amery.

Her former chief of staff, Marshall Smith, hired multiple relatives of Mr. Mraiche at the same time as he was living in a home owned by one of Mr. Mraiche’s sisters.

…

“All of my family is in Canada now,” said Jamil Omairi, a pharmacist in the nearby town of Lala, another springboard for people destined for Alberta. Mr. Omairi is related to Mickey Amery, Alberta’s justice minister, himself a long-time friend and relative of Mr. Mraiche.

“All the young people here, people between 16 and 20, they have two ways to go,” he said. “If they find work, they stay. If there’s no work, they travel, and Brazil and Canada are the first destinations.”

…

Mraiche may be a capable import/exporter, but his world view could be mercenary. An exchange between Mraiche and BTNX, a supplier of COVID rapid tests, highlights this view.

The following week, Mr. Mraiche proposed a solution: He did “a lot of business” in Turkey, he explained, and suggested the BTNX executive use those contacts to obtain additional tests.

Mr. Mraiche also returned to the idea of diverting tests, this time from the federal government. “They’re really going to notice that a million is missing?” he asked.

“They will, yes,” responded Mr. Sunderani.

As deliveries fell further and further behind, Mr. Mraiche, who told Mr. Sunderani he was under intense pressure from Mr. Prasad, became increasingly frustrated.

“Do you know what you’re doing to me, Iqbal?” Mr. Mraiche said in an early February call. “I don’t only sell rapid test kits. I’m one of the biggest constructors here, too. Do you know what you’ve done to me? I’ve had so much mud thrown on my face, it’s not even funny.”

“You better hope there’s another wave that needs rapid tests,” he continued later in the call.

“Sam, that’s – that’s a bad thing to hope for,” Mr. Sunderani said.

“Is it? Me and you are in the business.”

“Sam, you know what? At the end of the day I don’t know about you, but I’ve made enough money. I don’t want to wish –”

“Has Jeff Bezos made enough money yet?”

“I don’t care who Jeff Bezos is,” Mr. Sunderani replied. “He has – I mean, I don’t want to wish –”

“No one’s wishing anything. It’s just going with the flow,” Mr. Mraiche said.

A month after that call, BTNX sued MHCare for $7.5-million, alleging Mr. Mraiche’s business failed to pay for more than 200,000 test kits and refused to pay for a truckload it received in error. MHCare countersued for $62.5-million, alleging BTNX overcharged, caused the company to lose money and tarnished its reputation. The two companies remain locked in litigation, and neither party’s allegations have been proven in court.

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By the spring of 2022, the government’s response to the pandemic left Premier Jason Kenney battered. A scant majority of United Conservative Party members supported him in a leadership review in May, 2022, and he agreed to step down after the party selected a replacement.

Danielle Smith, then a party leadership hopeful, campaigned on COVID-19 grievances, railing against mask mandates and vaccine passports. Within a few months, she’d established herself as a front-runner.

A copy of Ms. Smith’s private calendar obtained by The Globe shows she took meetings during the campaign with everyone from physicians to executives – including Sam Mraiche.

In August, 2022, she was scheduled to dine at his north Edmonton home, the calendar shows.

Five days later, she was booked for a 30-minute Zoom call with Mr. Mraiche and Mr. Prasad, who retired from Alberta Health Services in the spring but stayed on as a consultant.

Ms. Smith, Mr. Prasad and Mr. Mraiche did not respond to questions about the meetings.

Sam Mraiche was investigated by Elections Alberta over alleged illegal political donations

https://archive.is/w03hg#selection-2755.80-2755.96

The elections regulator’s director of compliance and enforcement said in an affidavit that Mr. Mraiche was being investigated in connection with an alleged straw donor scheme – an illegal practice in which an individual circumvents donation limits by providing money through others.

“Mr. Mraiche is alleged to have given funds to other people for the purpose of having those people make contributions to a registered party,” Diane Brauer, the official, said. The alleged donations were made in the two months prior to the May, 2023, provincial election, according to her affidavit, which was filed in support of the contempt request.

Besides Mraiche joining the UCP’s Smith in a hotel suite to watch provincial election results in May 2023, and the Edmonton Oilers hockey games with the notorious skybox photo, keep in mind that Mraiche has also allegedly been tied to McFee, Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis, and Dr. Jayan Nagendran.

https://thetyee.ca/News/2025/02/14/AHS-Scandal-How-Tight-Dale-McFee-Sam-Mraiche/

https://thetyee.ca/News/2025/02/26/UCP-Mraiche-Business-Partner-Edmonton-Police-Commission/

Alberta’s Smith says courts should not be gatekeepers on constitutional questions

The UCP continues its open siege of Alberta’s government system. I’m not the first to say so, and I’ve said it before, Canada faces an unprecedented threat to its democracy due to the lack of regulation on the Politicians. Canadians, don’t look away at what’s happening in Alberta. Our system of checks and balances between the three branches of government is under attack. Once one branch fails, the others fail together.

The UCP has been captured. Canada has no formal check on the unbridled power of a renegade political party. Operation Total Recall is not just a union movement for fair wages and working conditions, but one to protect the democracy we have left. This is not business as usual. We are facing exactly the egregious, unethical conduct that even Kenney claims the Recall mechanism was intended for.

The UCP has attempted to silence the Justice system, disarmed Elections Alberta and the Ethics Commissioner, and has essentially removed any check on its own power.

We have to understand that the UCP has literally taken the mask off to reveal the dictator within.

Judge says proposed referendum on Alberta independence would be unconstitutional

The UCP was called out by the Court for trying to silence the Justice System on the issue of the proposed referendum on Alberta separating from Canada.

An Alberta judge says a proposed referendum question on Alberta separating from Canada is unconstitutional, in a decision given less than 24 hours after the provincial government introduced legislation that would have ended the court proceeding.

Once Bill 14 came into force, the court action would have been discontinued, preventing Court of King’s Bench Justice Colin Feasby from issuing a decision, even though several days of arguments had already been presented.

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He added what he called an “epilogue,” which specifically addressed the impact of the proposed legislation.

“The legal consequence of discontinuing this proceeding prior to a decision would be to silence the Court,” he said.

The judge called the move to change the legislation antithetical to the rule of law and democracy.

“The public is entitled to the fruits of this process that has been conducted largely at their expense so that if they are asked to vote on Alberta independence, they have a tool that may help them make sense of the legal dimensions of the secession of Alberta from Canada.”

Feasby noted that the court case had been prioritized at the expense of other justice system participants waiting for their cases to be heard.

“Alberta’s cavalier disregard for court resources and lack of consideration for the parties and First Nations intervenors who participated in this proceeding in good faith is disappointing to say the least.”

https://kopitalk.net/c/alberta/p/106350/judge-says-proposed-referendum-on-alberta-independence-would-be-unconstitutional

Details of Premier’s ties to businessman underscore need for public probe, Alberta NDP says

https://archive.is/YP3IY

The Globe and Mail’s Carrie Tait, Tom Cardoso, and Matthew Scace, reveal that Sam Mraiche, an alleged central figure in the CorruptCare scandals, had deeper ties to Premier Smith than previously acknowledged. I’ll include the highlights from the article, but it’s worth a read.

The Globe’s investigation, published Saturday, revealed that Mr. Mraiche’s connections to the governing United Conservative Party are more extensive than previously reported.

…

Ms. Smith, speaking to reporters at the United Conservative Party’s annual meeting in Edmonton on Saturday, maintained that she treated Mr. Mraiche just as she would any other executive.

“I have always said that I have seen him socially a handful of times, as I have with many, many individuals who want to do business with our government.”

…

In a letter MHCare sent to the government in April, it said: “The unspectacular truth is that Mr. Mraiche’s interactions with government, those in elected office and senior staff fit entirely within the established parameters of typical government relations for the CEO of a commercial entity.”

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The investigation, for example, found that Mr. Mraiche joined Ms. Smith’s inner circle in a hotel suite to watch the provincial election results in May, 2023.

“When you are waiting for the results to come in, especially in a close race like it was in 2023, you are surrounded only by [your] absolute closest advisers,” Mr. Nenshi said in an interview Sunday. Calgarians elected Mr. Nenshi as their mayor three times before he became leader of the NDP last year.

…

The Globe’s story on Saturday revealed that Ms. Smith’s schedule included a dinner at Mr. Mraiche’s home and a Zoom call with him and a former Alberta Health Services procurement official before she became Premier.

Further, newly obtained photos show Ms. Smith, five cabinet ministers, and senior political staff with Mr. Mraiche in a box suite during the Edmonton Oilers playoff run in 2024.

Alberta tries to legislate ban on lawsuits about AIMCo losses

If hardworking Canadians wanted to gamble their earnings at the casino, I think they’d prefer to do that on their own terms. They certainly don’t need their savings taken by an AIMCo to do that for them.

Also, if the UCP don’t want Alberta to cover the losses and restore the retirement monies of Canadians, then what’s the point of AIMCo? I thought the whole idea of managed retirement funds was to INVEST money set aside for Canadian workers so they had some money to live on when they are old and retired. If the UCP feel that Alberta did nothing wrong to owe this lost retirement money that was gambled away, then lay criminal charges and lay claims against AIMCo’s Officers and Managers.

With my thoughts upfront, I want to make sure I understand this situation correctly, AIMCo got to play/manage with money earned by hardworking Canadians. They were able to take an investment strategy that bet on market stability - called VOLTS - which clearly did not manage risk appropriately for a fund handling retirement savings. When AIMCo finally finished gambling the money away, the house takes maybe $1.3 Bln, and AIMCo asks the Canadians saving for their retirement to HOLD THE BAG.

When Canadians say they want their money back, the UCP propose new legislation “to prevent public sector pensions from suing the Alberta Investment Management Corp., or AIMCo, for decisions made before November 2024.” So what is this exactly? The UCP want to shield Albertans? If we were to be protected, if our retirement monies were INVESTED, these gambling debts wouldn’t have been incurred at all. You’re protecting us after the fact from what exactly? Ourselves?

Maybe AIMCo? From “The blowback of AIMCo’s gamble with market volatility”, by Andrew Willis, other experts and observers of AIMCo believe that the fund persistently underperforms. Worse, at least in the view of one University of Alberta Economist’s review, the senior managers and CEOs of AIMCo have given themselves great pay bumps since 2008.

Performance is a continuing problem for AIMCo. The fund’s biggest customer is the $50-billion Local Authorities Pension Plan (LAPP), which covers health-care workers. LAPP recently said AIMCo failed to meet its performance benchmark for 46 consecutive quarters, or 11 years and six months. In 2016, the University of Alberta reviewed the decision to build one provincial fund manager. “The major beneficiaries of the transformation appear to be the senior managers and particularly the senior executives of AIMCo, whose pay has increased significantly [since 2008],” said study author Robert Ascah, an economics professor.

EDIT: Link

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-the-blowback-of-aimcos-gamble-with-market-volatility/

The UCP are covering up for an underperforming AIMCo, and there’s no reason for Canadians to settle for this level of underperformance. Worse, now that AIMCo was clearly seen as failing to manage risk (diplomacy speak for gambling), what’s the point of their existence?

Maybe my gambling reference is debatable. How about this? How many Canadians have to choose between medical bills, food, or housing in the future thanks to the chronic underperformance of AIMCo? If you’re going to prevent Canadians from laying claim against Alberta and AIMCo, then allow them the option of taking their money elsewhere at no loss or penalties