The Progress Report

With the global economy in freefall thanks to the one-two punch of coronavirus and an oil price war we explore a very relevant subject in the months and years to come – AIMCo's investments in oil and gas companies that will likely go bankrupt and drop billions of dollars worth of environmental liabilities on the public.  We have Regan Boychuk of the Alberta Liabilities Disclosure Project on t...

The UCP government tried to stop us from reporting on their no-good, very bad 2020 budget. They called us an advocacy organization and tried to keep us out of the media lockup. But we didn't back down, we took the government to court and won and now Jason Kenney owes us $2000. We talk with Heidi Besuijen, Progress Alberta's lawyer, about the case and Jim and Duncan break down the worst parts of th...

How did reconciliation die? Arresting peaceful land defenders so a corporation could build a pipeline through unceded Indigenous territory at the end of RCMP-held assault rifles didn’t help but Jason Kenney played his part too. He stoked the flames of petronationalism for political gain and continues to use the time-tested settler tactic of divide and conquer. We get into the specifics of Kenney’s...

We talk with Scott Schmidt and Jeremy Appel of the Medicine Hat News. We learn how they carved out a space for themselves in the Alberta political discourse as two of the only members of the mainstream media willing to say that THERE! ARE! FOUR! LIGHTS! when it comes to Jason Kenney’s regime. For the full show notes, head to www.theprogressreport.ca/the_news_boys

Everybody's talking about it. It's the latest, best policy idea to come from the left since public healthcare and public education – it's free (and good!) public transit. We don't pay to go to the park, we don't pay to ride elevators, we don't have toll roads – so why do we pay for public transit? We already pay for most of the costs of public transit, "free" transit is just properly funding trans...

Progress Alberta speaks with the only person to provide even a halfway amount of drama in Alberta during the last federal election – Michael Kalmanovitch. He was the Green candidate for Edmonton-Strathcona who, just days before the federal election, threw his support behind NDP candidate Heather McPherson the only non-Conservative elected to parliament in Alberta. We talk about why he did it, what...

Jason Kenney’s brutal class warfare on Albertans on behalf of the rich means people want to fight back. And one of the biggest tools working folks have to fight back is the general strike – but it’s not to be undertaken lightly. We talk to Sam Gindin about the lessons learned from the Days of Action in Ontario in the ‘90s fighting Mike Harris and what folks who are considering a general strike tod...

Documents from the Glenbow Museum Archives show that Imperial Oil, a subsidiary of Exxon, knew about the catastrophic effects of climate change before anyone. Instead of telling the world and transforming their business they suppressed their research, started a climate denial PR war and started building dossiers and surveilling climate activists. We talk to Murtaza Hussain of the Intercept about h...

Stanned by Herald columnists, protected by the old boys' club, and allegely able to disintegrate a grown horse with a single strike: on today's pod Duncan and Mav Adecer delve into the wild history of UCP deputy house leader Jason Nixon. Further reading: "Judge bars media from accessing video of UCP MLA Jason Nixon, siding with party lawyers" Sundre horse shooting trial adjourned Sundre man not gu...

While Albertans suffer from brutal austerity corporations in Alberta will collectively pocket $4.7 billion dollars from Kenney’s corporate tax cut - at least that’s what the government of Alberta and the media is telling you. But when you dig into what these companies are telling their shareholders you find something else entirely. To help us sort through this we have Angella Macewen, senior...

Meet Frank Oliver, the man who tried to block black people from coming to Canada, created modern western Canada by stealing massive amounts of land from Indigenous people and personally profited from the whole thing. If you like our podcast and want to support it head to https://www.theprogressreport.ca/patrons and become a monthly patron :) Further reading: First Nations Land Surrenders on the Pr...

Don Cherry is finally off the air. We run through some of his greatest hits Rock‘Em Sock‘Em style but instead of brain damage and sweet goals it's racism, misogyny and climate denial. And to help us process the news of this hockey commentator cut down in his prime we turn to comedian Mav Adecer and writer and hockey dad Tej Swatch.

There's a group of Canadian veterans often overlooked on Remembrance Day--the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion who fought the fascists in the Spanish Civil War. Kaarina Mikalson of the Canada and the Spanish Civil War Project joins us on the pod to tell us the story of Canada's original anti-fascists. Further reading: Canada and the Spanish Civil War Quill and Quire: Generals die in bed Jim/Jean Watts

Alberta has deliberately designed its economy to be reliant on oil and gas production--which means the international climate change crisis matters here more than almost anywhere else. But you won't hear much on that subject from Alberta's monolithic, corporate media establishment. On this special episode of the Progress Report, taped live at the University of Calgary on November 4th, we interview...

Outside of the Ukrainian Youth Unity Complex in north Edmonton is a statue of Roman Shukheyvych--a Nazi collaborator who took part in the mass murder of Jews. Local activist Paula Kirman and host Duncan Kinney discuss Shukheyvych’s historical legacy with Per Anders Rudling, an expert on the Ukrainian far right.

The UCP have dropped their first budget and it's the cruel and brutal austerity they promised. Producer Jim steps out from behind the mixing board to join us as we sift through this awful budget to bring you everything you need to know.

The $30 million war room. A $2.5 million public inquiry. And untold amounts of hate and fear whipped up by Jason Kenney. All based on a lie. Climate activists have not sabotaged Alberta’s economy or landlocked Alberta’s oil - in fact Alberta barely rates as a blip on the worldwide global climate activism stage. And it took Sandy Garossino to debunk it. We have her on to discuss her National Observ...

Greta Thunberg is coming to Alberta. And while she’s been the centrepiece of a massive youth led climate uprising no one does this work alone. There are Greta Thunbergs all over the place and we were lucky enough to speak with a couple of amazing young Alberta based climate activists this week on the podcast. If you like our podcast and want to support it head to https://www.theprogressreport.ca/p...

When something terrible and racist happens you often see well meaning folks go on about how “This isn’t us,” or “This isn’t Canada.” But when you scratch the surface and dig into the history of Canada you quickly find that’s not the case. In this episode we dig into Alberta’s not-so-secret and extremely problematic past with guest co-host Bashir Mohamed. Further reading: St. Albert Fire and Rescue...

Justin Trudeau sucks, folks. Author Martin Lukacs' recently released book The Trudeau Formula: Seduction and betrayal in an age of discontent , is a fantastically written and well reported exploration of how Justin Trudeau's style of individualized, hyper image-driven, symbolic statecraft is just a fig leaf for maintaining the status quo for Canada's rich and powerful. From Trudeau's complici...

Despite what Jason Kenney (and Rachel Notley) say, our neighbors in BC are not our enemies. There has been so much hype and misinformation around the pipeline debate that we reached across the Rockies to dispel some of the myths. Kai Nagata of Dogwood speaks with us about left wing populism, why he's fighting the Trans Mountain pipeline and the political realities on the ground in B.C. Further rea...

We’re breaking down organized white supremacy like a beat-em up side scroller – starting with the easiest baddies and moving on to the biggest and scariest villains at the end. We’ve also got a healthy dose of media criticism as we discuss the baffling decision by the Globe and Mail to platform Ezra Levant and the troubling trend of mainstream media getting played like a fiddle by Nazis.   Fu...

Ricardo Acuna and Sandra Azocar visit the pod to tell their stories of the CIA-backed coup by brutal Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet--the other 9/11. The one that America did. Further reading: CIA still refuses to reveal everything it knows about Pinochet coup in Chile Canada’s support for the right wing coup in Chile   Allende’s last words to the people of Chile Documenting U.S. Role in De...

The overdose epidemic killed 2 people a day in Alberta last year. It's an emergency akin to a house on fire but instead of helping the people caught up in it Jason Kenney has frozen three planned safe consumption sites and brought in a new panel to review the "socio-economic impact" of these life-saving facilities. In this episode we examine the causes of the overdose crisis and the history of civ...

With guests Bruce Fafard and Saba Mossagizi In this episode we give you a look at how real union organizing works with two organizers who worked on successful certifications for two different worksites in Calgary. If you don’t know what card check or CLAC means or how to help workers build power you will by the end of the episode. Further reading:  Unifor grows in Kenney’s Alberta YYC securit...