The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - April 08, 2023


Smith puts the CBC on notice


Episode Stats


Length

10 minutes

Words per minute

164.4653

Word count

1,764

Sentence count

113

Harmful content

Misogyny

3

sentences flagged

Hate speech

1

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has sent a legal notice to CBC News demanding they retract and apologize for a recent story under threat of a defamation suit. We also take a look at rising crime in both Edmonton and Calgary, and Calgary Mayor Jodi Gondik walks away from the podium when asked a tough question.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
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00:00:30.000 Hey everyone, welcome back to the Alberta Roundup. I'm your host, Rachel Emanuel.
00:00:44.320 I hope that you guys are enjoying your Easter weekend so far.
00:00:47.300 Thanks for taking a pause from your celebrations to join me today on the Alberta Roundup.
00:00:52.160 Here's what we're going to be looking at on today's show.
00:00:54.660 Alberta Premier Daniel Smith has sent a legal notice to CBC News.
00:00:58.460 We're also going to be taking a look at the rising criminal activity in both Edmonton and Calgary.
00:01:04.240 And Calgary Mayor Jodi Gondik had an uncomfortable moment this week when she walked away from the podium simply because she was asked a difficult question.
00:01:12.840 Finally, I have a follow-up for you guys from last week's story on election tabulators.
00:01:17.600 All that and more happening now on the Alberta Roundup.
00:01:20.200 Okay guys, our first story here.
00:01:22.180 Alberta Premier Daniel Smith's legal team is telling CBC News to retract and apologize for a recent story under threat of a defamation suit.
00:01:31.080 We covered this story extensively last week.
00:01:33.200 Of course, the story in question refers to contact Alberta Premier Daniel Smith's office has had with justice officials regarding charges stemming from the Coutts border blockade.
00:01:42.140 The letter, dated Sunday, gives notice of the Premier's intention to, quote, bring an action against the CBC.
00:01:48.340 Last week, we talked about a newly released call between Premier Smith and controversial street passenger and the former leader of the Independence Party, Arthur Pawlowski.
00:01:56.760 On the call, Smith tells Pawlowski she's been in weekly contact with justice officials over Pawlowski's charges.
00:02:02.960 CBC's report argues that the call reveals that Smith's conversations, quote,
00:02:08.380 with top Alberta justice officials about pandemic-related prosecutions were more frequent and specific than she has admitted publicly.
00:02:15.920 The Premier has, of course, already responded to the report.
00:02:18.900 She said she's been honest with the public that she's been in contact with her justice officials
00:02:22.760 and the Justice Minister about charges stemming from the Coutts border blockade and the COVID-19 pandemic.
00:02:27.980 She's been asking if these charges are still in the public interest and if there's a likelihood of conviction.
00:02:34.360 CBC has, of course, released a series of reports about these conversations the Premier has had with justice officials.
00:02:40.320 And Smith's lawyer is arguing that this latest report from CBC is seeking to, quote, revive a manufactured controversy.
00:02:47.700 The letter to CBC says, quote,
00:02:49.300 The CBC now again blatantly ignores the Premier's prior statements and recasts the harmful and defamatory narrative of unlawful interference and deceit by the Premier and her office.
00:03:00.260 CBC was given until April 28th to comply with the request of the letter,
00:03:04.020 which demands a retraction of the latest story and an apology under threat of further action under the Defamation Act.
00:03:10.160 CBC Head of Public Affairs Chuck Thompson said the CBC stands by its reporting on this story and, if necessary, will defend it in court.
00:03:18.280 Moving into our next story here, Premier Smith has directed officials in Edmonton and Calgary to hire 100 more police officers to be on the streets amid rising crime in both Edmonton and Calgary.
00:03:28.260 Between July 2022 and January 2023, Edmonton's LRT and transit centers have experienced a 75% increase in criminal activity.
00:03:38.540 The situation is similar in Calgary, where criminal activity at LRT stations increased by 46% between 2021 and 2022.
00:03:46.760 Premier Smith said the province is working on addressing addictions and homelessness, the root causes of this criminal activity,
00:03:54.260 but it won't compromise on the safety of Calgarians and Edmontonians, meanwhile.
00:03:58.580 At a press conference earlier this week, she said, quote,
00:04:00.860 Safety on public streets is never negotiable.
00:04:03.540 Edmonton Chief of Police Dale McPhee also had plenty to say about why more street officers are needed.
00:04:09.300 Take a listen to his comments.
00:04:10.340 Many ask, why do we need more frontline officers?
00:04:14.520 Well, let me share yesterday's highlights in the city of Edmonton to give you a bit of a perspective.
00:04:20.540 We arrested a person in transit carrying a replica handgun and a crossbow.
00:04:25.900 Two members went to a convenience store and were attacked by a man with an axe,
00:04:31.340 where non-lethal force was used to subdue him and arrest him.
00:04:35.220 Police attended a call shortly after with a male.
00:04:39.160 They arrived.
00:04:40.080 One of the officers was punched in the face.
00:04:42.980 And then we responded to a female that was in trouble being beat up. 1.00
00:04:48.020 And again, the person wanted to fight.
00:04:51.000 And moving into the controversy of the week at this same press conference,
00:04:54.360 Calgary Mayor Jody Gondek was asked a tough question about her record on the police.
00:04:59.260 While she was still a councillor in Calgary,
00:05:01.620 Gondek voted to reduce the police budget.
00:05:03.740 The editor-in-chief of the Countersignal, Kian Bextie,
00:05:06.300 asked Mayor Gondek to defend her record at that press conference earlier this week.
00:05:10.680 A question for Mayor Gondek, Kian with the Countersignal.
00:05:14.620 Just a few months ago, a handful of months ago,
00:05:17.180 you were fighting tooth and nail against increasing the police budget.
00:05:22.440 And you were actively supporting defund the police rhetoric.
00:05:26.600 I'm just wondering when you realized that police forces were not optional,
00:05:30.600 did it take, you know, the random stabbings, wives getting stabbed, 0.95
00:05:35.040 police officers getting killed to realize that it was important to fund police departments?
00:05:39.280 And how can Calgarians trust you when you flip-flop on basic issues like public safety?
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00:06:20.880 So, there you can see an absolutely shameful response from the mayor.
00:06:24.180 She's unwilling to even answer the question.
00:06:25.980 Meanwhile, women are being stabbed at LRT stations
00:06:28.400 and simply walks away from the podium.
00:06:31.280 Let's take a look at these numbers here.
00:06:32.700 The average crime severity index in downtown Edmonton has increased 29% to 116 in December 22.
00:06:40.760 That's up from 90 in July of the same year.
00:06:44.300 This is primarily caused by an increase in serial criminal offenses,
00:06:47.660 including second-degree murder,
00:06:49.720 assault causing bodily harm with a weapon,
00:06:52.320 robbery, and aggravated assault.
00:06:54.420 In Calgary, property crime occurrences nearly doubled,
00:06:57.100 increasing 95% to 463 in 2022.
00:07:01.660 That's up from 238 in 2021.
00:07:04.260 Meanwhile, public-generated calls for service to LRT stations increased to 5,012 last year.
00:07:10.620 That's up 20% from the year before.
00:07:13.300 Moving into our next story here,
00:07:14.700 Alberta Premier Daniel Smith said she has confidence
00:07:17.140 in Elections Alberta's plan to run the upcoming provincial election
00:07:20.520 because a recount will be possible if necessary.
00:07:23.480 That's because Elections Alberta will be keeping all paper ballots for three months
00:07:27.480 after the date of the election
00:07:29.100 or after the date of a recount should one be requested.
00:07:32.660 Those comments come after I reported about a group of motivated Alberta voters
00:07:36.460 who are concerned about tabulators being used in the upcoming provincial vote.
00:07:40.600 As I told you guys,
00:07:41.440 last week, Elections Alberta did confirm that they will be using electronic tabulators
00:07:45.420 for the advance vote only,
00:07:47.420 but they also told me that they plan to retain those ballots for three months
00:07:50.580 after the election should a recount be necessary.
00:07:52.640 I asked Premier Smith about this at a press conference on Monday.
00:07:55.580 Here's what that exchange sounded.
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00:08:14.140 Premier, I wanted to get your thoughts on election tabulators being used
00:08:17.720 in the upcoming provincial vote.
00:08:19.120 Elections Alberta has confirmed to me that they will be using tabulators
00:08:22.080 in the advance vote only.
00:08:23.940 I'm wondering if this is something that you're concerned about,
00:08:26.720 if you're hearing from Albertans who are concerned about it
00:08:28.580 and how you plan to deal with this matter.
00:08:30.220 I have heard some concern about it,
00:08:32.980 but I have confirmed through department officials
00:08:36.040 that all of the votes on election day will be hand-counted.
00:08:40.220 My understanding of how these voting machines work
00:08:43.400 is that it is a paper ballot,
00:08:45.520 and even though the tabulation takes place electronically,
00:08:48.240 we retain a paper ballot
00:08:50.320 so that if there is any issue of needing to do a recount,
00:08:54.240 we'll be able to go back to the paper ballots to do that.
00:08:58.140 So I've asked my department officials to look into it again
00:09:03.580 just to make sure that there aren't any concerns,
00:09:05.840 and they've come back to me and told me
00:09:07.600 that the hand count will take place the day of
00:09:09.740 and that we will retain paper copies
00:09:11.880 in the event that there is any issue that needs to require a recount.
00:09:15.440 Okay guys, and now let's move into our daily comment roundup.
00:09:18.620 Last week, we spoke at length about the CBC story.
00:09:21.300 At that time, the premier had merely hinted
00:09:23.280 that a defamation suit was possible,
00:09:25.320 but we didn't have an answer on that until early Monday morning.
00:09:28.040 User Mardon said,
00:09:29.460 Nope, Smith didn't direct the prosecution.
00:09:32.060 Last time I checked, asking questions wasn't illegal.
00:09:35.300 Whiskey Tango said,
00:09:36.520 If anything, the story around Smith only redoubles my support for her.
00:09:40.720 And in response to my story about the Independence Party of Alberta
00:09:43.560 turfing its former leader, Archer Pulaski,
00:09:46.460 user Tammy Tatlock said,
00:09:48.100 Turfed. 0.63
00:09:49.060 Very interesting choice of words.
00:09:51.220 Unsubscribing now.
00:09:52.440 Well, considering that Tammy wants to cancel me from my choice of words,
00:09:56.020 I'm guessing I just lost my only liberal subscriber.
00:09:58.860 Okay guys, that's all I have for you today.
00:10:00.520 Thank you so much for tuning in.
00:10:01.700 I hope you enjoy the rest of your Easter weekend.
00:10:03.780 As always, if you're able,
00:10:04.820 please consider supporting independent media.
00:10:06.460 You can do that over at donate.tnc.news.
00:10:09.300 Have a great weekend, and God bless.
00:10:13.560 We'll see you next time.