The Progress Report

Where did Kevin J. Johnston come from? Independent journalist Kevin Metcalf digs into the history of this infamous Ontario and relatively recent Calgary transplant who has recently been locked up for a series of increasingly dangerous and aggressive anti-lockdown stunts.

Edmonton Public school board trustee Bridget Stirling and Speaking Municipally co-host Troy Pavlek join us to talk about the city council and school board elections in Edmonton coming later this year. With massive turnover coming to both institutions what are the races to keep an eye on and what kind of campaigns are we likely to see? And yes, two-thirds of the panel is on team Breezy Brian Gregg for mayor.

Euan Thomson from drugdatadecoded.ca joins us on the pod once again, this time to tell us about his investigation into the Calgary police's use of facial recognition technology. * Premier's Office spent nearly $20K on PragerU fundraiser gala [https://www.theprogressreport.ca/premier-prageru-fundraiser] * 'MAGA performer' booked to perform at the Legislature is a far-right associate of Artur Pawlowski and the Proud Boys [https://www.theprogressreport.ca/_maga_performer_booked_to_perform_at_the_legislature_is_a_far_right_associate] * Calgary police "image recognition" software identifies individuals in photos & videos posted online [https://drugdatadecoded.ca/calgary-police-image-recognition-software-identifies-individuals-in-photos-videos-posted-online/] The Progress Report podcast is listener-funded and runs no ads—please consider becoming a patron at www.theprogressreport.ca/patrons [http://www.theprogressreport.ca/patrons]

In the grip of anti-vax culture and governed by an anti-vax premier, Alberta is now the site of the world's second-worst active measles outbreak, with more total cases than the entire United States of America. Former Alberta NDP health minister Sarah Hoffman joins us on the pod to discuss the causes of the outbreak and what the opposition thinks Alberta should be doing about it. Then, for a palate cleanser, a bit about Hoffman's new hobby as a stand-up comic. For more from The Progress Report, find us at theprogressreport.ca and bsky.app/profile/theprogressreport.ca. The Report is entirely audience-supported; if you'd like to pitch in, subscribe at theprogressreport.ca/patrons

Jeremy recounts the harrowing tale of his visit to a separatist rally on Canada Day in Mirror, Alberta. Check out Jeremy's original article on this event on his blog The Orchard at www.readtheorchard.org/p/canada-day-with-the-separatists. To support the Progress Report podcast and keep us free of advertisements for mattresses and nutritional supplements, head over to theprogressreport.ca/patrons.

Jim and Jeremy interview Michael Janz, councillor for Edmonton's Ward Papastew, about his election campaign, the value of fighting to change public opinion, whether political parties at the muni level are good, and more. Support the Progress Report at theprogressreport.ca/patrons. For more from the Janz campaign, see the councillor's site at michaeljanz.ca.

Press Progress's Stephen Magusiak joins Jim and Jeremy to talk about this week's G7 conference—and not about the unimportant parts, like global geopolitics, but about what really matters: what Albertans were doing. Who was organizing around G7 locally and were they successful? The fellas get into it. Support the Progress Report pod by becoming a patron at theprogressreport.ca/patrons :) Stephen writes for Press Progress, which you can find at pressprogress.ca

Jim and Jeremy speak with participants in an ongoing 40-day fast for Gaza about the present situation in Palestine, organizing back here in Edmonton, and the difficult task of grappling with power from a disempowered position. Please consider supporting this pod and/or subscribing to the newsletter at https://www.theprogressreport.ca/

The 20-year president of the Alberta Federation of Labour is up for re-election this Sunday. Jim and Jeremy take a look at the present situation, check out some Gil McGowan campaign literature, and speak to the AFL leadership candidate who didn't ignore our interview request.

2025's federal election is set to up-end politics in Western Canada and yet at the same time the campaign period has been both short and uneventful. So we tapped a couple of smart guys to un-boring it: first Dave Cournoyer, one of Alberta's most knowledgeable political commentators. Then we talk to Blake Desjarlais, one of the rare electeds worthy of our rascal respect. More of Dave's work is available at www.daveberta.ca.

Through projects including the national business coalition Each+Every and his publication Drug Data Decoded (www.drugdatadecoded.ca), Euan Thomson has put his heart and soul into combatting the ongoing drug poisoning crisis, and he joins us on this episode of the Progress Report to bring everyone up to date with the crisis's current status. But Euan of late has also been an ally to the Palestinian solidarity movement and it's in that capacity that he took a beating from police during last year's violent crackdown on demonstrators at the University of Calgary. In this episode Euan and Jeremy also discuss the crackdown, and why one Calgary Liberal candidate in particular is implicated in the story in a bad way. Full show notes and our other content is available at www.theprogressreport.ca. Jeremy's article for The Maple on the U of C situation, mentioned in the episode: https://www.readthemaple.com/liberal-star-candidate-helped-shut-down-pro-palestine-encampment/

Journalist Susan Thompson joins us on the pod with the latest from Valleyview, where the local library is under political siege from a batch of odd characters including a UCP VP of comms and a white nationalist who worked for the local MLA. Full show notes at https://www.theprogressreport.ca/pod_the_battle_for_the_valleyview_library Support the Progress Report by donation at https://www.theprogressreport.ca/patrons Read Susan Thompson on Medium: https://medium.com/@susanvhthompson/valleyview-library-board-rocked-by-controversy-cuts-weekly-staff-budget-c2baab48fde2

Dr. Wing Li from Support our Students and Chris Gallaway from Friends of Medicare join us to analyze Alberta's weird, complicated, anti-worker 2025 budget. Full show notes at https://www.theprogressreport.ca/pod-analyzing-the-2025-budget We are grateful for any support you would like to provide to this independent media project. To become a Progress Report patron, head to https://www.theprogressreport.ca/patrons

Labour journalist Kim Siever (The Alberta Worker) joins Jim and Jeremy on the pod today to chat about the AHS procurement scandal, the province's ongoing education strike, and his experience working the labour beat here in Alberta. Links and full show notes for this episode available at https://www.theprogressreport.ca/kim-siever-alberta-worker

After nine years as Progress Alberta's executive director and the editor of the Progress Report, Duncan Kinney is moving on to stabler, more raise-a-family-able things. Join us as we reminisce about some of our greatest hits during Duncan's tenure and talk frankly about the issue of 'activist journalism.'

Jeremy and Duncan review the state of the ANDP leadership race, offer their predictions, and tell you how they'd fill out their ballots today.

Joel Laforest, policy advisor to Calgary councillor Courtney Walcott, joins us on the pod to go over the politicking around the city's efforts to fix its zoning laws, the housing crisis, and how it all relates to the UCP's Bill 18 and Bill 20.

In the first of our interviews with Alberta NDP leadership candidates, Duncan chats with Sarah Hoffman. Then, some analysis with Jim. Show notes and more content, including our ANDP leadership tracker, can be found at our website, The Progress Report [https://www.theprogressreport.ca/]

Jeremy Appel joins the pod to talk about his newly published book, Kenneyism: Jason Kenney's Pursuit of Power. We discuss how Jason Kenney's ghost continues to haunt us still and the effects his time in politics have wrought at the federal and provincial level.

Law professor Joshua Sealy-Harrington joins host Duncan Kinney to discuss how universities and police forces across Canada are cracking down on pro-Palestinian speech and the serious effects these actions are having on Canada's very broken and barely functioning democracy.