Petra Schulz

Danielle Smith announces a raft of referenda, seemingly designed to advance the UCP’s separatist agenda - Alberta Politics Alberta Premier Danielle Smith yesterday announced a raft of referendum questions for Oct. 19 demanding provincial intrusion into federal jurisdiction, cutting services to new Canadians and other anti...

Danielle Smith announces a raft of referenda, seemingly designed to advance the UCP’s separatist agenda. albertapolitics.ca/2026/02/dani...

Prince George RCMP drug seizures ignite safe supply debate between Poilievre, Smith, Eby | CBC News Prince George RCMP seized thousands of prescription drug pills, some diverted from the province's safe supply program, alongside illicit drugs in two separate local investigations. The announcement ca...

Remember all this? It was all bullshit, and the BC govt knew it.
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

This should be a major scandal in BC, except the blame is too thick on too many powerful institutions.

How many hundreds of people have died directly as a result of the government’s caving to safe supply disinfo from police, private treatment and rw politicians?

"We can help": How Recovery Alberta facilitated consumption site closures by Ministry (Part 1) "No other sites shutting down," Recovery Alberta leaders told staff in late 2024, as the Red Deer site closure was announced. A year later, the Royal Alex Hospital site was closed. New documents revea...

So basically, it looks like the people in charge of the health service that oversees supervised consumption sites in Alberta have been quietly manoeuvring to have them shut down.
drugdatadecoded.ca/we-can-help-...

Separatism By Any Other Name... Danielle Smith's address to Albertans is as much about the subtext as it is what she said out loud

Danielle Smith's address to Albertans is as much about the subtext as it is what she said out loud...

Our analysis on our substack is live now!

#abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli

open.substack.com/pub/thebreak...

"We can help": How Recovery Alberta facilitated consumption site closures by Ministry (Part 1) "No other sites shutting down," Recovery Alberta leaders told staff in late 2024, as the Red Deer site closure was announced. A year later, the Royal Alex Hospital site was closed. New documents revea...

Incredible amount of ink spilled over this in 2021-22 as the Province forced this belligerent rule into supervised consumption sites.

Even more spilled since by government 'analysts' trying to figure out how to use PHNs to show the sites don't work. Worthless.
drugdatadecoded.ca/we-can-help-...

"We can help": How Recovery Alberta facilitated consumption site closures by Ministry (Part 1) "No other sites shutting down," Recovery Alberta leaders told staff in late 2024, as the Red Deer site closure was announced. A year later, the Royal Alex Hospital site was closed. New documents revea...

It turns out the collection of personal health numbers at supervised consumption sites is total bust: six percent of site clients who died over a study period *visited sites again later*.

Site clients don't respect the rule, so they swap around PHNs. Wouldn't you?
drugdatadecoded.ca/we-can-help-...

Blue-filtered photo of a health care worker pushing a seniors' wheelchair. Text reads, "Real Changes Needed for Continuing Care in Alberta"

Yesterday the AB government announced a new navigation portal for continuing care. But a portal can't fix the many structural problems in our system: short staffing, lack of capacity, degraded care standards... the list goes on!

Seniors deserve real change.
www.friendsofmedicare.org/change_neede...

Driven to Distraction Separatism in Alberta distracts from a memorial for a loved one and ends up blackballing a media outlet (briefly)...

New Substack!

How the coverage of separatism in Alberta distracted from a memorial for a loved one and ended up blackballing a media outlet (briefly)...

And why Albertans should be paying attention to it.

#abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli

open.substack.com/pub/thebreak...

while the BCNDP was caving to the diversion moral panic and severely limiting its safe supply program, the public safety ministry was acknowledging in budget preparation documents that hydromorphone only accounted for 0.3% of VPD drug seizures by weight

When government is silent on data that could save lives, and instead makes deadly politically driven policy decisions, it has blood on its hands.
#bcpoly
@davidebybc.bsky.social
@josieosborne.bsky.social

Documents Show BC Knew Safe-Supply Diversion Was Negligible - Filter Even as British Columbia’s Ministry of Health was caving to right-wing panic over “diversion” of safe supply drugs, its public ...

filtermag.org/bc-knew-safe...

“Rather than publicize the evidence early in 2025 to correct loud claims of safe supply diversion flooding communities, the BC government opted to sit on the information and retreat from safe supply as a policy.”

#bcpoli #harmreduction #medsky

B.C. budget’s hidden austerity and tax increases put fiscal burden on low-income households - CCPA BC's Finance Minister says "this is not an austerity budget." Let's look at the numbers and see for ourselves.

My and Andrew Longhurst's review of BC budget 2026, the budget that pissed off everyone! Mostly, I think the hysteria about deficits and debt is way overblown and I'm disappointed the government got captured by that narrative.

www.policyalternatives.ca/news-researc...

@alonghurst.bsky.social & I have a few things to say about that ...

His research on the ASI shows surgical privatization has *already* siphoned resources from public hospitals, reduced public volumes, and increased waits for critical surgeries.

A 2-tier system will entrench these dynamics.

Fact check: Alberta’s new two-tier system is not “European” health care - CCPA The Alberta government is engaged in the most significant challenge to single-payer health care in Canada since the creation of public medicare

Fact check: Alberta’s new two-tier system is not “European” health care

www.policyalternatives.ca/news-researc...

#abpoli #cdnpoli

The BCgov’s pilot of drug decriminalization ended last month and added restrictions to the safer supply program. Even as toxic drug poisonings continue, govt has backed away from harm reduction in favour of abstinence models & forced treatment beds—approaches that are not evidence-based 6/
#bcpoli

💯

If every tenth bottle of Jameson whisky or one can in every 6-pack of Old Style Pilsner was laced with fentanyl, I’ll guarantee that these UCP arseholes would switch policy from “forced treatment centres and abstention” to “safe supply is critical” in a heartbeat.

YouTube video by Manitoba Harm Reduction Network Imagining Safety Winnipeg

“A safe regulated supply could’ve saved my son”
States my friend Arlene Kolb.
Mine too. 💜
Please watch and share this powerful video about the need for harm reduction.
#DrgSky
youtu.be/Pk-UPRodNJA?...

BREAKING!

Smith says that while she will ensure the public system doesn't decrease the amount of surgeries under her two tiered private system...

She's not going to require any growth.

This is how you create a private market with a growing population.

#abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli

In Vancouver's DTES, Harm Reduction Moves Forward Without Decrim - Filter In a small but sunny kitchen in the Downtown Eastside (DTES), a vat of cooked pasta and some surplus vegetables ...

filtermag.org/vancouver-do...

FOM's Chris Gallaway sat down with Alberta Primetime to talk about Bill 11 & the threat it poses to our health care.

The AB government isn't just undermining our equitable access to health care, it's also putting our international trade agreements in jeopardy.

www.ctvnews.ca/edmonton/vid...

“This is a decisive shift towards U.S. health care based on greed and profit-taking, not “European” health care based largely on principles of social solidarity and universality.” @policyalternatives.ca

Quick and easy read. Great graphs!
www.policyalternatives.ca/news-researc...

Green-filtered photo of a stethoscope on a map of north America. Text reads: "New Report Debunks Claim That Bill 11 Is "European" Health Care. Read our response: friendsofmedicare.org/news"

The Alberta government keeps trying to defend & downplay the impact of Bill 11 by cherry-picking examples from Europe & elsewhere. But a new report from @alonghurst.bsky.social at @policyalternatives.ca debunks all that.

Bill 11 = Americanized health care!

www.friendsofmedicare.org/debunks_bill...

Three more townhalls this week!

Don't miss these urgent conversations: www.friendsofmedicare.org/urgentconver...

No one deserves to starve.
No one deserves to be homeless.
No one deserves to be abandoned or mistreated.
Recovery taught me something powerful: People can’t heal while they’re hungry, homeless, and hurting.
Food. Housing. Healthcare.
These aren’t luxuries, they are human rights!

Donovan Vincent: How does the media handle a mass shooting when the assailant is transgender? Media that didn't mention the shooter's sexual identity in the headlines make the correct decision.

Of 510 U.S. mass shootings...

<1% were committed by transgender assailats

1% of the population identifies as transgender

Reality check:
👉Transgender people are FAR likelier to have been assaulted.
👉The risk? 1 in 2

😰 🌈 🕊️

www.thestar.com/opinion/publ... via @torontostar

The cost of B.C.’s big mining push | The Narwhal British Columbia is pushing through mining projects as Premier David Eby confirms his desire to make changes to DRIPA and prioritize critical minerals

Premier David Eby wants to fast-track mining projects and amend Indigenous Rights legislation, raising questions about environmental oversight and who benefits from B.C.’s critical minerals agenda. thenarwhal.ca/bc-mining-pu...

YouTube video by The Breakdown AB Episode 8.09 - Alberta Recall Petition Panel!

New episode!

We sat down with 3 Alberta Recall Petition Organizers to take a look at the story behind the story on recalls, because there’s a lot more going on than just the number of signatures collected!

#abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli

youtu.be/URQ_LC1NaFo

This is why Marshall Smith’s drug policy plans succeeded.

Harm reduction hadn’t been allowed to reach far enough - even now, dehumanization of people who use drugs as “zombies” is mainstream.

People were so uninformed, framing the crisis around “addiction” — then profiting from it — was easy.