PressProgress Sources (PressProgress Sources)

Climate journalist Geoff Dembicki discusses his latest book The Petroleum Papers: Inside the Far Right Conspiracy to Cover Up Climate Change.

Drawing from internal oil industry documents spanning decades, The Petroleum Papers examines how major players in the Alberta oilsands suppressed their own research about the climate crisis, and created the playbook to spread climate change denialism in Canada and the US.

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Stephanie Carvin, a Carleton University international affairs professor and a former CSIS intelligence analyst, talks about the failure of police to anticipate the ‘Freedom Convoy,’ and how it was allowed to spiral out of control.

Evidence and testimony show signs of intelligence failure, communication breakdowns, erratic leadership, and an “insurrection from within” Ottawa Police.

While warnings from outside sources went ignored, an OPS unit produced a politically biased and “unprofessional” intelligence report that Carvin says reveals cultural issues within the ranks of the Ottawa Police.

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It’s an environmental problem that will cost hundreds of billions of dollars to tackle, and successive Alberta governments have lacked the political will to address it.

Hundreds of thousands of oil and gas wells exist across the province, many of which are inactive and at risk of abandonment.

For decades the Alberta Energy Regulator has allowed large producers to offload their cleanup obligations onto smaller ones, that then go insolvent or bankrupt.

Alberta’s new Premier has pushed a pilot program called the R-Star that will reward polluters for doing what they’re legally obligated to do anyway by letting them off the hook for billions in royalties owed to the province.

Smith urged the government to adopt R-Star while lobbying for corporate interests last year. It was rejected by Kenney's UCP.  Now, Energy Minister Peter Guthrie said he’ll make it a "top priority."

Researcher and industry watchdog Regan Boychuk joins host Stephen Magusiak to talk about what he calls the R-Star “scam,” and Alberta’s history of regulatory capture by the fossil fuel industry.

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A social technology company is working with police across Canada to create reports that justify the need for a new approach to the “social safety net.”

Helpseeker, a Calgary-based ‘social impact’ firm, has been hired to produce reports for police in Edmonton, Vancouver and Ottawa, raising questions about the involvement of police in the delivery of social services.

Many of the reports from Helpseeker have placed an inflated price tag on the “social safety net” in various cities, arguing for a reconfiguration of the funds invested into vulnerable communities.

In Edmonton, City Councillor Michael Janz says that Edmonton Police Chief Dale McFee has spoken at length about the “money in the system,” and the billions being spent on the delivery of social services. 

However, Janz notes that in Edmonton, the growth in the police budget has far exceeded the pace of growth in funding for any other civic department.

“Homelessness is not a crime problem. It's a mental health problem. It's an addiction problem. It's a trauma problem.”

Janz , Edmonton City Councillor for Ward papastew, joins host Rumneek Johal to talk about Helpseeker Technologies social services reports, as well as the broader trends across Canada to expand the scope of policing and increase police budgets.

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On the final episode of the year, the PressProgress team looks back on memorable headlines of 2022

Rumneek Johal, Luke LeBrun, and Mitchell Thompson join Stephen Magusiak to talk about the freedom convoy, far right astroturf in Vancouver, Stephen Lecce’s fraternity days and more.

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Is Canada going to have a Freedom Convoy 2.0 in 2023?

First, the convoy organizers said a reunion was happening in Ottawa.

But on Christmas morning, organizers had a surprise, announcing they had changed their minds and the convoy would be heading to Winnipeg.

Then on New Year’s Eve, a top convoy organizer announced the whole convoy was cancelled. The next day, another organizer announced the convoy would still be happening, only under a different name.

Sound confusing? You’re probably not alone. Elizabeth Simons, Deputy Director of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, joins PressProgress Editor Luke LeBrun on Sources to help explain what is going with these convoy organizers and where is Canada’s far-right heading in 2023.

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Following Doug Ford’s move to outsource 50% of Ontario surgeries to private, for-profit health facilities, PressProgress Ontario Reporter Mitchell Thompson joins Colleen Fuller for an in depth look at at the creep of for-profit healthcare across Canada. 

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International students are coming to Canada for their education and leaving in body bags. The government doesn’t seem to be tracking the issue. 

Discussing the web of exploitation surrounding Indian international students who are dying at high rates across Canada from drug overdoses, suicides, and more with Jindi Singh, National Director Khalsa Aid Canada.

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We read Justice Roleau’s final report on the Emergencies Act Inquiry in its entirety so you don’t have to.

Tune in to learn about the convoy’s origins on TikTok, the infighting among occupiers, as well as among Ottawa police, as well as some of the strange and surprising details buried in the Emergencies Act Inquiry’s final report..

PressProgress Editor Luke LeBrun joins Stephen Magusiak to highlight the important, the overlooked and the utterly bizarre findings within.  

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How workers at an Amazon packing facility made history by unionizing, and lessons learned to pave the way forward, with Amazon Labour Union President Chris Smalls in his first trip to Canada.

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Today’s episode of Sources features an interview with Faiz Shakir, Executive Director of the labour news site More Perfect Union and Bernie Sanders' 2020 campaign manager. More Perfect Union was founded in 2020 to tell working class stories through video journalism. In just a few years, More Perfect Union has amassed hundreds of thousands of followers and millions of views. PressProgress talked to Shakir about the importance of labour journalism especially as inequality between the rich and poor grows more each year.

Follow More Perfect Union:

https://perfectunion.us/

Twitter.com/MorePerfectUS

Sign up for PressProgress’ Free Canadian Labour Newsletter:

PressProgress.ca/ShiftWork

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The PressProgress team is joined by investigative reporter Sam Harper with Pivot to talk about the common threads and the common funders behind the right-wing networks that stretch across Canada.

We talk conspiracy theories, astroturf campaigns, Alberta dark money in Quebec, secret societies, and where the right-wing think tanks like The Fraser Institute fit into the bigger picture.

This panel discussion was part of the 2023 Progress Summit in Ottawa.

Check out Pivot https://pivot.quebec/

Subscribe to our national labour newsletter Shift Work

Sources is edited by Eric Wickham

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Stephen Magusiak is joined by journalist Jeremy Appel to discuss what we know so far about the right wing group that appeared on the Alberta political landscape after the Coutts border blockade. 

Did Take Back Alberta come out of nowhere? We look at who their supporters are, who leads them, and what they’re trying to accomplish.

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As funding for charter schools in Alberta increases rapidly, public schools are under attack. 

Rumneek Johal is joined by Wing Li with Support Our Students to discuss the rapid expansion of Charter schools in Alberta under conservative governments, and how they almost exclusively cater to elites using public funds, at the expense of everyday Albertans.

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PressProgress Ontario Reporter Mitchell Thompson joins Stephen Magusiak to talk about the Toronto mayoral race, and one unlikely candidate who stands out in the crowded field of conservative hopefuls.

Though still a long shot, former Toronto Sun columnist Anthony Furey has seen some momentum in the polls with his right wing populist positions and some big endorsements from right wing media figures like Conrad Black and Jordan Peterson.

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Researcher Kurt Phillips with Canadian Anti-Hate Network joins Stephen Magusiak for a look at the recent wave of anti-LGBTQ2SA+ protests and hate crimes happening in Alberta and across Canada. From acts of vandalism, mobbing town councils and school board meetings, and chemtrail conspiracy theories, we take a look at what its about and where its coming from.

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Far-right groups are planning a convoy to Toronto to “Save the Children,” and it’s already spinning out of control.

 PressProgress Editor Luke Lebrun joins Host Stephen Magusiak to talk about the convoy movement’s latest conspiratorial obsession, and what they have planned for the fall if they can get along enough to organize it. 

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Dark money networks from out of province have set their sights on Manitoba.

Emily Leedham joins Stephen Magusiak to discuss her investigative series into the Canada Growth Council, a registered third party advertiser tied to Alberta and Saskatchewan conservatives, oil lobbyists, and an obscure religious sect known as the Plymouth Brethren.

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Social media companies are enforcing an Indian Law that censors social media content critical of the Indian government and its ongoing crackdown in the Punjab state.

Canadian Sikhs have found themselves in the crosshairs of this aggressive campaign of censorship, harassment, and intimidation. 

The campaign has escalated on Facebook since the assassination of BC Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada, which was tied to the far-right nationalist Modi government, with posts being blocked and accounts banned just for talking about it.

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Dr. Roberta Lexier joins Stephen Magusiak to discuss her recent OpEd in Medicine Hat News, where, as a Jewish Canadian, she strongly condemned the violence and oppression happening to Palestinians in Gaza.

In this episode we explore the narratives that dominate mainstream media and politics in Canada.

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Francis Hébert-Bernier, a reporter with Quebec’s independent news outlet Pivot, speaks about the historic public sector strikes currently underway in the province.

These strikes are part of the Common Front movement where multiple public sector unions are bargaining at once with Premier Francois Legault's government. These are the largest strikes in the history of Canada and North America.
 Read more from Francis Hébert-Bernier:

“The government is deliberately discouraging us from working in the public sector”

Quebec's common front of public sector unions launches 7-day strike

Backgrounder on the Common Front movement: Public Sector Workers in Quebec May Be on the Verge of a General Strike

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Canada’s spy agency is investigating the nomination of an Ontario Conservative MP, according to evidence from a recent investigation by PressProgress Associate Editor Rumneek Johal. 

Questions surround the nomination of MP Arpan Khanna, who was allegedly favored by the party establishment with ties to figures including Jason Kenney, Stephen Harper and Pierre Pollievre.

Rumneek joins Stephen Magusiak to talk about what happened with the Oxford nomination in 2019, and why CSIS would be looking into it now.

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You might know Ed Broadbent as the former leader of Canada's federal NDP.

But Broadbent was more than just a political party leader -- he also spent a lifetime seeking social and democratic change outside partisan politics in academia and civil society, both in Canada and around the world.

On this episode of Sources, PressProgress Editor Luke LeBrun is joined by Luke Savage, a contributor to Jacobin and co-author of Broadbent's book  Seeking Social Democracy, to explain and remember Ed Broadbent's life and his ideas.

Additional reading:

• Seeking Social Democracy

• How Ed Broadbent and His Democratic Principles Made an Impact on PressProgress’ Journalism (PressProgress)

• Ed Broadbent Was a Socialist Because He Believed in Democracy (Jacobin)

• Ed Broadbent state funeral (CBC News)

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Author and journalist Jeremy Appel joins host Stephen Magusiak to discuss (almost) all things Jason Kenney: his quest for power, his influence in building the Conservative Party of Canada, his undoing, and, most recently, the conclusion of a massive 5-year RCMP investigation surrounding his campaign to take over Alberta's United Conservatives.

Once a key figure in building Stephen Harper's conservatives, in the end Kenney failed to win over the grassroots in Canada's conservative heartland.

We discuss why there were no charges laid in the investigation into voter fraud and identity theft that plagued the 2019 election campaign, what happened with the infamous "kamikaze campaign," and also consult the crystal ball to speculate on what might be next for Alberta's former Premier.

Appel's recent book "Kenneysism: Jason Kenney's Pursuit of Power," published through Dundurn Press is available here. 

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Capital gains – what are they and why is everyone talking about them?

This year’s federal budget, released on April 16, is rolling out changes to the way capital gains are taxed in order to make wealthy Canadians “pay their fair share.”

According to Finance Canada, these changes are targeted at the wealthiest of the wealthy – Canada’s top 0.13%, a group of approximately 40,000 Canadians with average incomes of 1.4 million dollars.

As one can imagine, the capital gains tax changes are already generating pushback from business lobby groups and right-wing think tanks who want to maintain the status quo and say the changes will damage the economy and disincentivize investment.

But it’s also undeniable that the current capital gains tax rules disproportionately benefit people like CEOs and corporate executives, people who play the stock market or flip houses, because the way capital gains are taxed represents, if not a lucrative tax loophole, certainly a double-standard in how the tax code works.

DT Cochrane, Senior Economist with the Canadian Labour Congress, speaks with PressProgress Editor Luke LeBrun on this episode of sources to explain what capital gains taxes are and what these new changes mean.

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Canada has been seeing an unusual wave of anti-LGBTQ+ protests over the last year. These rallies and marches targeted drag storytime events at libraries, they targeted local school board meetings – in fact, they even targeted high schools and elementary schools in residential neighborhoods.

This organized wave of hate climaxed with a so-called “one million march for children” which took place in cities across Canada last September.

Now the pendulum is swinging the other way, and 2SLGBTQIA community groups are getting organized. Along with labour unions and civil society groups, they’re planning their own marches to protest against this recent wave of hate targeting queer and trans Canadians.

On this episode of Sources, Fae Johnstone, Executive Director of the Society of Queer Momentum, talks with PressProgress Editor Luke LeBrun about why she is organizing a Rainbow Week of Action across Canada this week.

For the full list of rallies and events taking during the Rainbow Week of Action, visit their website for more information: RainbowEquality.ca

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The foreign interference commission published its preliminary report — but the Sikh community in Canada says the inquiry largely overlooked India despite their role as a major threat of foreign interference in Canada. 

In the foreign interference commission’s final report it was revealed that "India directed foreign interference activities related to the 2019 & 2021 general elections.”

The commission also revealed that CSIS considered India a “clear second to (China) in terms of the level of (foreign interference) threat” and that Indian foreign interference was an “area of focus for more than one regional office.”

Following the arrests of Hardeep Singh Nijjar's killers and the release of the report, we speak with lawyer Prabjot Singh, legal counsel for the Sikh coalition, about what questions still need answers.

Prabjot Singh is a lawyer and the Founding Editor of the Panth-Punjab Project. His articles on Sikh political theory, public policy, and law have been published in a number of platforms including The Guardian, Baaz News, and the Manitoba Law Journal. He is participating in Canada's Foreign Interference Commission as Legal Counsel for a coalition of Sikh organizations.

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Canada’s expert on the rising costs at the grocery store (no, not that one) joins host Stephen Magusiak to discuss his latest project, the Grocery Tracker, which monitors the price of food staples

Eric Wickham is a data journalist for the Toronto-based Hoser. He co-hosts and produces the Big Shiny Takes podcast.

Wickham recently wrote about the Loblaws boycott. He also produces Sources.

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Residents of Jasper Alberta are finally returning to the town that made international headlines after it was devastated by a monster wildfire in July.

Nearly a third of the town was damaged or destroyed, and the spot is currently closed to tourists for the foreseeable future.

How do we prevent climate change disasters in the future? It’s complicated, according former Alberta Firefighter Matt Rieger, who spent years on the front lines battling blazes while stationed at bases across the province.

Rieger joins host Stephen Magusiak to talk about the cost, the manpower problems, and the scale of effort it would take to meaningfully mitigate the risk as these fires get worse and more frequent.

We also discuss misconceptions online about the causes and the response effort following the disaster.

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Duncan Kinney is an Edmonton-based journalist and editor of a digital publication focused on Alberta politics called The Progress Report.

From scrutinizing police budgets, shining a light on how police handle the city's unhoused population or drug poisoning crisis and exposing partisan connections between senior officers and Alberta's governing United Conservative Party, it's undeniable Kinney plays a role as a critical watchdog of Edmonton Police.

But Kinney has also been a thorn in the side of Edmonton Police Chief Dale McFee. In recent years, McFee has publicly butted heads with Kinney and Kinney accuses Edmonton Police of "arbitrarily" revoking his media accreditation.

Then in 2022, following a massive police surveillance operation involving over a dozen officers watching him and his family for seven months, Kinney was criminally charged with vandalizing a “monument to honour persons who were killed or died in consequence of a war” after the words "actual Nazi" were found spray painted on a statue honouring World War Two Nazi collaborator Roman Shukhevych.

Kinney, who pleads not guilty to the charges, could face up to 10 years in prison if an Alberta court convicts him of vandalizing a statue honouring a leader of a military unit that massacred Jews in Ukraine.

On this episode of Sources, Stephen Magusiak speaks with Progress Report Editor Duncan Kinney (not to be confused with PressProgress, which is a separate news organization) to explain his ongoing saga with Edmonton Police.

Kinney is currently raising funds for his legal defence.

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While Ontario is gearing up for Doug Ford’s early election, many Ontarians are struggling to make ends meet.

With one-in-three residents struggling to put food on their table, Kingston, Ontario just declared a food insecurity emergency — the third city in Ontario to recently declare this kind of emergency, following Toronto and Mississauga.

In their announcements, all three cities asked the provincial government to increase the amount of money the province gives recipients of social assistance. These calls were echoed in separate motions in Hamilton, Waterloo, Goderich, Owen Sound and Orangeville over the last two years.

On this episode of Sources, Tim Li, the Research Program Coordinator at PROOF, a group of academic researchers that investigate policy solutions to reduce food insecurity in Canada, talks to PressProgress Ontario Reporter Eric Wickham about Ontario’s growing food insecurity problem.

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Canada and the United States walked back from the brink of a full-blown trade war after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose 25% tariffs on products from Canada.

While Trump has granted Canada a temporary 30-day "pause" on his threatened trade war, if he makes good on his threats, Canada's economy could be facing an apocalyptic scenario with food and gas prices skyrocketing, hundreds of thousands of job losses and communities across Canada getting hollowed out as key industries shut down.

On this episode of Sources, DT Cochrane, Senior Economist with the Canadian Labour Congress, joins PressProgress Editor Luke LeBrun to explain how serious Trump's tariff threats would be on Canadian workers and why Canadian labour unions are calling on Canada to stand its ground and "hit back hard."

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As education workers in Ontario experience unprecedented levels of violence in the workplace, staff shortages and burnout, experts say education is in crisis under Doug Ford.

Educational assistants, custodians, secretaries, lunch supervisors, maintenance staff overwhelmingly agree there is not enough personnel in schools to do jobs properly and many now find themselves doing the work of multiple staff members.

But there could be a simple solution to the compounding issues affecting education in Ontario: Funding education properly.

On this episode of Sources, Joe Tigani, president of the Ontario School Board Council of Unions, joins PressProgress‘ Ontario Reporter Eric Wickham to talk about the compounding crises in Ontario’s education system.

Discussed on this episode

Ford government’s chronic underfunding of education is creating compounding issues for staff and students

Doug Ford Claims He’s Made the Biggest Healthcare Investments in the ‘History of the Country’. Nurses Say That’s ‘Misleading’.

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As Justin Trudeau announced that he’s stepping down as Liberal leader, and many are saying that a federal election is just around the corner, one community is getting organized to make sure they’re needs are heard by politicians.

A Mass Organizing Call for members and allies of the LGBTQ+ community in Canada is taking place on March 9. Its organizer is hoping that this event will help people push back against rising hate, and make sure their concerns are heard by politicians before the next federal election. 

On this episode of Sources, Fae Johnstone, Executive Director of Momentum joins PressProgress' Ontario Reporter Eric Wickham to talk about why the time is right to build organizing infrastructure for the LGBTQ+ community. 

Also discussed in this episode:

Mass Call to Action Meeting - Mar 9, 3pm ET

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Who is lobbying Pierre Poilievre? An interactive map from DeSmog shines a light on the links between Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre and various corporate lobbying interests and right-wing advocacy groups.

The map connects the dots between top figures in Poilievre’s Conservative party, including Poilievre's top advisor Jenni Byrne and Campaign Chair John Baird, with big names like Elon Musk, Stephen Harper and Koch Industries -- no wonder top Conservative Party officials voted down a resolution that would ban lobbyists from seeking top positions in the party.

Journalist Geoff Dembicki from DeSmog joins PressProgress' Alberta Reporter Stephen Maguisak on this episode of Sources to talk about his interactive map that pulls back the curtain on the lobbying connections inside Poilievre's inner-circle.

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