Almost a week after some of his officers violently cleared out a peaceful Palestine solidarity protest on the University of Alberta campus, Edmonton Police Chief Dale McPhee finally showed up Thursday to make his case at a police commission meeting.

But not before the doors were locked and the public was barred from the meeting because 100 or so still-peaceful protesters made the official participants nervous.

Notwithstanding the metal detectors and heavy security at Edmonton City Hall since a shooting in January, protesters were told they’d have to watch the proceedings online because, in the words of commission chair John McDougall, “we had our back to a very, very large crowd. Admittedly they were peaceful… but when you know you have angry people behind you and you can’t see what’s going on, that’s a bit of a challenge.”

Well, nobody likes criticism. I guess no one thought to suggest that if it made them that uncomfortable to have people staring at their backs and grumbling, they could always turn their chairs around. Really, people, you can’t make this stuff up.

For his part, McPhee can be heard on various news organizations’ broadcasts claiming that his officers “protect free speech and we protect the very essential right of free expression, when both police and protesters respect their rights and responsibilities.”

On Saturday, in the chief’s opinion, those protesters’ responsibilities, apparently, included not camping on the campus of a public university even though there’s plenty of legal opinion that in fact they had every right to do just that.

Last month Alberta Premier Danielle Smith tabled Bill 18, the Provincial Priorities Act, in the provincial legislature. If passed into law, the bill will give the Alberta government power to vet any agreements between the federal government and post-secondary institutions, and other “provincial entities.”

The proposed legislation could have a tremendous impact on whether scholars in Alberta can secure federal research funding. The bill would prohibit provincial entities like municipalities, post-secondary institutions and health authorities from making deals with the federal government unless they obtain approval from the province.

In terms of federal funding for Alberta universities, the Tri-Council agencies — the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council — are the main, non-partisan mechanism through which the Government of Canada funds research across disciplines.

Through these sources, faculty and graduate students obtain funding to conduct research in diverse fields that contribute to health, science and engineering and social sciences and humanities innovation and insight.

Universities across the country sign an agreement with the Tri-Council every five years on how to administer the funding.

Should the provincial government intervene in this process under Bill 18, some critics feel university research could be jeopardized.

Numerous research projects could be at risk of losing access to grants and awards, which thousands of research assistants and students rely on to support themselves and their research. It could also limit opportunities for teaching and training.

More than 6,000 residents of Fort McMurray, Alta., headed south to safety as a large, out-of-control wildfire drew closer to their community. Other areas in Fort McMurray remain on evacuation alert and residents need to be ready to leave on short notice.

The Winnipeg Police Service confirmed the DNA of four Indigenous women inside the home of their self-confessed killer, a court heard Thursday, along with the DNA profiles of an additional 12 women.

Police forensic identification officer Jan de Vries said he sent clothing, jewelry and blood stains from the apartment of Jeremy Skibicki for testing in May 2022 that positively identified Morgan Harris, Marcedes Myran and Rebecca Contois, three First Nations women slain in the spring of 2022.

The testing also confirmed the presence of Buffalo Woman, de Vries said of the 20-something Indigenous victim police have yet to identify.

Skibicki, 37, said in court he “unlawfully” killed Harris, Myran, Contois and Buffalo Woman, but is seeking to be found not criminally responsible due to mental illness.

The Crown alleges he is guilty of four, “racially motivated”, first-degree murders of vulnerable Indigenous women he picked up at city homeless shelters.

A man has admitted in court that he killed four women in Winnipeg, but his lawyers are asking he be found not criminally responsible because of mental illness.

Court of King’s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal said Monday the question of Jeremy Skibicki’s mental capacity and intent will now be the focus of the trial.

The Crown agreed the trial, which was supposed to be with a jury, will instead be heard by a judge alone because of complexities with this type of defence.

“Concluding this matter before a jury does pose some challenges,” said prosecutor Christian Vanderhooft.

The trial is to start Wednesday.

In January, the Federal Court found that the Trudeau government's use of the Emergencies Act to respond to the protests of the self-styled freedom convoy in 2022 was not properly justified — a decision the federal government is now appealing.

At the time, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre celebrated that ruling.

"Today, in a landmark victory for the freedoms of Canadians, the Federal Court ruled that Trudeau broke the highest law in the land," he said in a prepared statement, apparently referring to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

"Common-sense Conservatives will protect the Charter rights of Canadians, and as prime minister I will unite our country and our people for hope and freedom."

A few months later, Poilievre's support for the Charter rights of Canadians seems less than absolute.

Last week, the Conservative leader appeared before a meeting of the Canadian Police Association and outlined — or at least hinted at — his plans to use the notwithstanding clause to safeguard his government's laws from being overturned by the courts.

"All of my proposals are constitutional. And we will make sure — we will make them constitutional, using whatever tools the Constitution allows me to use to make them constitutional," he said. "I think you know exactly what I mean."

Would a Poilievre government use the clause to save mandatory-minimum sentences that the Supreme Court has found constitute cruel and unusual punishment? What if the court ultimately rules against the bail restrictions that Poilievre has said he would implement?

In 2011, the Supreme Court ruled that the previous Conservative government's attempts to block a supervised drug consumption site in Vancovuer — Insite — violated the Charter right to life, liberty and security of the person. Would the Poilievre government use the notwithstanding clause to implement elements of its response to the opioid epidemic?

I’m going to be blunt in this piece. As a resident of Alberta and someone trained to recognize threats to democracy, I have an obligation to be.

The United Conservative Party is an authoritarian force in Alberta. Full stop.

I don’t come by this argument lightly. It’s based on extensive evidence that I present below, followed by some concrete actions Albertans can take to push back against creeping authoritarianism.

There’s no hard-and-fast line between democracy and authoritarianism. Just ask people from autocracies: you don’t simply wake up one day under arbitrary rule.

They’re more like opposite sides of a spectrum, ranging from full participation by all citizens in policy-making at one end (democracy) to full control by a leader and their cadre on the other (authoritarianism).

Clearly, Alberta politics sit somewhere between these two poles. It is neither an ideal Greek city-state nor a totalitarian hellscape.

The question is: How much of a shift toward authoritarianism are we willing to accept? Where do we draw the line between politics as usual and anti-democratic activities?

At a bare minimum, we should expect our leaders to respect the rule of law, constitutional checks and balances, electoral integrity and the distribution of power.

Unfortunately, the United Conservative Party has shown disregard for these principles. They’ve breached them so many times that citizens can be forgiven for being desensitized. But it is important to take stock so we can determine how far we’ve slid.

Here’s a breakdown of those principles.

A patchwork of colourful tarps covered dozens of tents at a pro-Palestinian encampment at McGill University's downtown campus on Sunday, shielding protesters from both the heavy rain and prying eyes.

More than a week after the first Canadian pro-Palestinian campus encampment began in Montreal, organizers at McGill said they've become better prepared for the days to follow, thanks to donated materials and community support.

Protester Ari Nahman said Sunday that the Montreal encampment has become a "tiny city" complete with dozens of rainproof tents, a library, a stockpile of donated supplies and makeshift wooden sidewalks to keep the mud at bay.

Nahman, a student at Concordia University, said morale is high at the camp, despite several days of rain that have turned McGill's lower field into a slippery mess at times.

"I think we're much more equipped and prepared today for the various weathers that exist," said Nahman. "We're positive, the morale is good."

When Premier Danielle Smith put forth the ambition of building a multi-city passenger train network to link Banff, Calgary, Edmonton, and many other points, the questions came quick: Are you setting up Alberta taxpayers for a multibillion-dollar boondoggle or two?

Her answer wasn't typical fare from a conservative politician, let alone one with a libertarian symbol tattooed on her arm. Smith replied with a strong defence of government intervention.

"This is why people elect governments: To do the things that they can't do in the private sector, and that includes building massive new infrastructure that connects cities and requires this kind of major investment," Smith told reporters.

Never mind that Canada's founding passenger rail service was privately run, or that the construction consortium that pitched an Edmonton-Calgary high-speed line said they'd do it as a private-sector investment.

Smith has a vision to master-plan all future intercity lines, and mused this week about managing her provincial train network with a local version of Metrolinx, the provincial Crown agency created in 2006 by an Ontario Liberal government to run Toronto-region transit.

That would, of course, be on top of the Crown corporation Smith created this spring to research drug addiction recovery, or when Smith proposed potentially Crown-run natural gas plants as a "generator of last resort."

Add in her ambitions to potentially wrest more provincial management for pension and police from Ottawa, and plans for stricter control over the affairs of municipalities and post-secondary schools, and you might wonder what happened to the Danielle Smith who had long believed in shrinking the size of government.

A Quebec Superior Court judge has rejected a provisional injunction request that would have forced protesters at the pro-Palestinian encampment on McGill University's downtown campus to leave.

Protesters have been on campus since Saturday afternoon, saying they are determined to stay put until the university divests from companies with business interests in Israel.

Two McGill students, Raihaana Adira and Gabriel Medvedovsky, filed the request on Tuesday to have a judge forbid protests within 100 metres of McGill's buildings.

The request named five pro-Palestinian groups: Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights McGill, Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights Concordia, Montréal4Palestine, Palestinian Youth Movement Montréal and Alliance4Palestine.QC

None of the allegations have been proven in court.

Wednesday's question period was notably more subdued a day after the House of Commons erupted in a nasty war of words between Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and the prime minister that ultimately resulted in Poilievre's removal.

Poilievre spoke in a softer tone throughout the 50-minute session and largely ignored Justin Trudeau's claims that the Conservative leader was fraternizing with far-right elements and white nationalists when he visited an anti-carbon tax convoy in the Maritimes last week.

"The leader of the opposition refuses to say a simple thing — he condemns Diagolon, white nationalists and violent organizations. These are things that are concerning Canadians that he should answer for," Trudeau said.

It's that line of questioning that prompted Poilievre to call Trudeau a "wacko" yesterday.

[Content warning: This article quotes graphic, hateful language and describes a violent attack.]

Art Mortimer knew instinctively that if he didn’t take a chance and try to grab the four-foot iron bar wielded like a baseball bat by the enraged trucker, he would be seriously injured or killed.

Mortimer, a commercial transport inspector at a weigh station near Sparwood, B.C., had issued two tickets to the trucker and told him about a provincial rule that required him to shift the load.

The trucker circled his Mack semi-trailer truck around the station once, and then rammed Mortimer’s 1981 Datsun car into the side of the weighmaster building.

Armed with the bar, the trucker clambered onto the car’s roof and started smashing out the remaining glass in the building’s windows while yelling that he was coming for Mortimer.

Standing behind the counter as this surreal attack unfolded, Mortimer irrationally thought, “I can’t fight him in here, we just got new computers.” So he bolted out the front door.

“He caught me real quick,” Mortimer recalls. “He is a pretty big, tall fellow. He came at me with a batter’s stance like he was going to swing at my head and I thought, ‘Well, my only option is to close in on him and grab the bar,’ which I did.

“We wrestled over the bar for a while and he gave me a couple of hockey checks with it, tried to knee me in the groin, but he was quite a bit taller than me so I took it all belt high.”

Just days before the 2006 election Stephen Harper made an extraordinary statement. Seeking to assure Canadians a potential Conservative majority government would be restrained from accruing “absolute power,” Harper submitted that his party would face “limits” because of “checks,” naming specifically courts, civil servants and the Senate.

His words would prove prescient. The majority government Harper’s party eventually formed in 2011 was held accountable by various democratic actors and lost 15 significant court cases, mostly for violations of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The assurance was justified.

Current Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is offering no such assurance. In fact, he is doing the opposite; just this week Poilievre offered encouragement to protesters promoting extreme positions on the purpose of government.

This raises the stakes of the next election as Poilievre’s politics represent a radical departure from the norms of Canadian decency, decorum and democracy.

Jama said Thursday she isn't afraid of further repercussions from the legislature.

"The focus should be on the genocide, the fact that 40,000 people have been killed and there doesn't seem to be an end in sight against this violence," she said. The Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, at least two-thirds of them children and women.

In January, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to take measures to prevent and punish direct incitement of genocide in its war in Gaza and said it won't throw out genocide charges against Israel for its military offensive in Gaza as part of its preliminary decision. Israel has rejected the genocide claim outright.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre delivered a fiery speech Thursday that depicted the government's latest budget as a threat to the country's future, and suggested a number of new social programs will get a second look if he leads the next government.

He also claimed Ottawa's push into pharmacare could dismantle private drug insurance and leave Canadians with inferior coverage and higher taxes to pay for it all.

Health Minister Mark Holland, meanwhile, accused the Conservative leader of trying to whip up fear by raising "fake boogeyman" to distract from a program that makes contraceptives and diabetes treatments more affordable for everyone.

While he attacks the Liberals' spending plan, Poilievre is under pressure to explain what he'd cut to fulfil his stated promise to "fix the budget" if he's elected.

In an interview with Radio-Canada, Poilievre was noncommittal on whether child care, dental care and pharmacare would be dismantled by a government led by him — but he raised questions about the programs' effectiveness.

Abacus Data’s latest polling has the federal Conservatives out to their biggest lead in over a decade. Unless there is a drastic change over the summer, Canadians ought to prepare for a Conservative majority at some point in the next year or so.

At the Museum of Vancouver, ‘True Tribal’ explores the visual language of mark making from around the world. Reclaiming Wet’suwet’en Storytelling in ‘Yintah’ Reclaiming Wet’suwet’en Storytelling in ‘Yintah’

At this year’s DOXA, catch a new wave of Indigenous-led docs. A Q&A with Freda Huson and director-journalist Michael Toledano.

No one should be paying closer attention than Danielle Smith and the United Conservative Party.

A change of government in Ottawa would have a major impact on provincial politics in Alberta. With no whipping boy or scapegoat in Ottawa, the provincial UCP would need to shift focus and even rebrand.

At the same time, the Fair Deal strategy launched by the Jason Kenney government and accelerated by Smith has created a set of demands and expectations upon the next prime minister that may be difficult to walk back.

A recently-released Statistics Canada study of evicted tenants found that disabled people are overrepresented among recent evictees.

The study, released Friday, also found that no-fault evictions — including an owner moving into the unit, selling the unit, or performing major renovations — are the most common reason for a tenancy to be terminated across the country.

Multiple studies have previously shown that B.C. leads the country in no-fault evictions, with Metro Vancouver previously being named the eviction capital of Canada.

However, the study's finding that disabled people were overrepresented among evictees has one disabled policy analyst asking for accessibility to be put front and centre when it comes to building new affordable housing.

Canada reclaimed the women’s world hockey championship from the United States with a 6-5 overtime win in Sunday’s final.

Danielle Serdachny scored a power-play goal at 5:16 of overtime to end the showdown.

The Canadians earned some revenge in Utica, N.Y., for last year’s 6-3 loss in the gold-medal game to the U.S. on home ice in Brampton, Ont.

Canadian captain Marie-Philip Poulin scored her first two goals of the tournament.

The Alberta government has introduced legislation that would require provincial entities such as universities, school boards and municipalities to get approval before making any funding deals with Ottawa. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says the legislation would ensure federal funding is aligned with provincial priorities.