Edmonton Employment Law

I'm going to move this discussion into Blog format, because I'm running into issues dealing with it via Twitter. One of the UCP's favourite lines of attack is to try to paint the Alberta NDP and the labour movement - all the unions and labour organizations in the Province - as one singular monolith. Their hands-down favourite target is CUPE Alberta, because Rachel Notley's husband, Lou Arab, is a member of their communications team. So they like to pretend that CUPE is just an extension of the NDP, that all their communications are just Notley's husband advocating for the party - instead of, you know, operating under the oversight and instruction of CUPE's internal management, in service of their membership interests. Now, the UCP has written to Elections Alberta complaining about political involvement of CUPE, the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL), and the Alberta Teachers Association (ATA). The first UCP letter is actually a useful read , because it helps hig...

Artur Pawlowski was charged in connection with the Coutts blockade, where he delivered a speech to fire up the protesters, telling them to hold the line even against the police, and comparing the blockade to the Alamo (where a group of fighters seeking Texan independence famously fought against the Mexican army and were massacred, and became a rallying cry to others to join the cause). His charges included mischief, breach of a release order, and a violation of Alberta's Critical Infrastructure Defence Act . So both Criminal Code  and Provincial charges. Today, he was convicted of mischief and breach of release order. The judge has delayed ruling on the CIDA  charge because Pawlowski is making a constitutional challenge against it. (You may recall that CIDA  was famously and controversially Jason Kenney's flagship legislation.) This is timely, in respect of the election, because this is the same person who Smith tried to help with his case in the now-infamous recording. S...