Women of ABpoli: Hot Flashes - Issue #23
This week in AB
Highly-criticized social studies curriculum finally going back to the drawing board
There's certainly no guarantee that the curriculum will come back better than it is now, and the Northwest Territories gave up entirely on the governing party's ability to take real corrective action with it, but at least it has been momentarily delayed from being forced on Alberta's students in September 2022.
With any luck, the UCP won't have the opportunity to hire any bigots to provide input to it at all after May 2023.
Bill 81 - the "private clubs shouldn't be the gatekeepers of democracy (but they are)" Bill
“What is Bill 81, Alberta’s newly passed election law? https://t.co/uZ8G9gUr9l”
This great primer was published after last week's newsletter and really would have helped explain, piece by piece, issues with Bill 81 that continue to turn me off the undemocratic and unchallenged power of political parties.
Alberta's Raging Grannies wish (most of us) Merry Christmas
While this might not be the last newsletter before Christmas, I can guarantee there won't be one on Christmas day. So, just in case our Christmas wishes come true and we are gifted with a very slow news week, Merry Christmas to all!
Kenney relaxes Christmas restrictions and other provinces follow with the exact opposite
Kenney: people want to do their part.”
I'm sad to inform you that the above tweet is only slightly paraphrased.
During the Covid update on Wednesday (which was postponed from Tuesday due to an emergency meeting about omicron with the premiers and the Prime Minister) in response to the question "we saw what happened when we opened too quickly for summer - Dr. Hinshaw addressed it - why risk a similar devastating outcome by allowing more households to mix over the holidays," from a reporter with CTV in Edmonton (at 34:00), which also noted the federal government and other provinces were advising against loosening restrictions as Omicron flares up, Kenney responded:
"Well, I don't accept the premise of that question whatsoever. What we're doing today means that Alberta continues to have the most strict restrictions on indoor socializing in Canada. Most provinces have limits of about 20-25 people, we have a limit of 10 - 10 adults; no other province has prohibited people from multiple households socializing, I think with the exception of Quebec where it's a three-household limit, I believe."
"So, this still keeps us with the most stringent rules, but, at the same time, we have to be mindful that after 21 months of this, the willingness of the public to actually comply with the rules - rules on paper that are not observed by the public are meaningless, pointless and just undermine confidence in the public health measures."
"So, the reality is that families are going to be gathering at Christmas, we want people to be mindful of, and follow these rules, we think that this is a more realistic approach, you know, for example, three or four individuals who are members of an immediate family but who live in three or four different households can get together safely (which is just a reiteration of Kenney's actual plans for Christmas). This is, we're providing clear guidelines on how to do so, we would not be taking this measure if we thought that it presented any significant additional risk."
Kenney then goes on to directly support the premise of the question, justifying the decision to relax restrictions in a way that is almost identical to the ones he gave before the third wave in the spring, and the fourth wave (that we're still in), saying "we're broadly, look we were very much hoping to have, to be able to relax more broadly our public health measures, going into this Christmas, because Albertans have really stepped up to the plate, made enormous sacrifices to get the fourth wave under control, we are now down to about 60 Covid-19 patients in intensive care, we have seen active case counts go from, total active case counts go from 24,000 to about 4,000, we have seen significant declines in the positivity rate, many days when we were below 300 (new daily) cases."
"I want to thank Albertans once again for the way that they have made sacrifices, and we need to acknowledge that as we go into Christmas (at the start of a new variant outbreak in the province). We need to maintain, as I say, public support for the measures that are in place (viruses don't care whether the public supports the rules, only premiers who need support in a leadership review do); we (not including Dr. Hinshaw, who is still Alberta's Chief Medical Officer of Health) believe this is a reasonable, very modest, change that allows people to have small, responsible, family gatherings in line with what the rest of the country is doing, in fact it's even more stringent than the rest of the country (well, it was - until two days later)."
To which the reporter followed up with "based on what you've just said, and other comments in previous weeks about Albertan's tolerance for measures, why are you confident that Albertans, vaccinated or unvaccinated, will follow the measures that you've outlined here today?"
"I think most people want to do the right thing," Kenney replied.
And now, in Alberta, the "right thing" will allow more people to participate in the foot-shooting and still be within the rules, because: political aspirations.
Women of ABpoli
We continue to be so very grateful to all of the women who have offered us their time, laughter, expertise, and honesty. Thank you so very much to all of them for helping make Women of ABpoli's first year a fantastic one!
Our latest episode, She blinded me with science, is out and next week's Loving, Losing, and Living is already available for subscribers.
Thanks to all who support our work - whether by giving or sharing - you're helping lift these amazing women's voices right along with us!
Canada
Some of Canada's largest cities are funding a legal challenge against Quebec's discriminatory Bill 21
This makes me feel all warm and fuzzy - and proudly Canadian - inside. So far, Calgary, Winnipeg, and Toronto have answered Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown's call to join forces and help challenge Bill 21.
Final thought...
Cover photo courtesy of @abpressrelease