It’s been eight months since the family of Syrian refugees sponsored by HSAA arrived in Calgary. From the depths of winter, through summer to Labour day, how has the family fared? Ayed Saad, member of HSAA’s Social Justice committee and the chair of the refugee sponsorship ad hoc committee that worked on bringing the family to Alberta, provides this update. Health: The oldest son, now aged six, had an infected tooth when the family arrived in…

Brian Jean says he wants to “reduce job-killing government red tape by 33 per cent, and put in place a one-for-one rule after that where any new regulation has to have one at least as onerous taken away.” Doug Schweitzer says he “would eliminate two existing business regulations for every new business regulation.” I suggest that these two candidates for the leadership of Alberta’s new United Conservative Party (UCP) try saying that in Royal Borough of…

This letter of recognition is for all you. It is hard to express in words the deep gratitude my family feels for the service you provide. But we cannot miss this opportunity to try to express our feelings on paper because I am sure a lot of the work you do might go unnoticed. Maybe not intentionally but just as a function of our hectic lives and the rapid change of circumstances you deal with. Hopefully…

This article was published in the Summer 2017 edition of Public Interest Alberta’s newsletter, The Advocate. If you want proof that a lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting its shoes on, look no further than residential schools in Canada. For more than 130 years we’ve been hearing the lies about these infamous institutions – that they were created to integrate Indigenous Canadians into the mainstream society, that they were…

As I sit in front of my computer I find myself struggling to communicate the necessary words to describe my experience with residential schools. The only words I have are … I thought I understood. My uncle, my mother’s brother, was sent to a residential school so I thought I understood. His time at the residential school was never spoken of, so I thought I understood. My uncle, on my wife’s side of the family, taught…