The Pulse: Feb. 18, 2022

The team behind a new anti-racism education tool hopes it will spur people's confidence to speak out about racism, as Edmonton prepares for another convoy of trucks to descend on the city in protest of COVID-19 restrictions.

The Stop Race-Based Hate website, a collaboration with local marketing agency Kick Point, offers statements and responses to help articulate why something is racist, as well as suggestions of everyday actions one can take towards becoming anti-racist.

"We've been working on this for months and we were getting ready to launch it. Then the convoy stuff happened and it just reaffirmed the need for something like this," said Linda Hoang, who started the campaign along with Carmen Cheng and Jessie Cayabo.

Hoang has received racist and threatening messages after speaking out online about the "Freedom Convoy." Other racialized Edmontonians have also felt fear during the last three weeks of protests. Organizers of the movement itself have been linked to white nationalist and Islamophobic views by anti-hate experts, though some participants have tried to distance themselves from those views.

Hoang, Cheng, and Cayabo have been working on this file for much longer than the convoys have been going on. It was the Atlanta spa shootings, where six Asian women were killed, that prompted them to get together last March and talk about how they could join forces to fight racism.

"We were just so horrified and all of the pandemic anti-Asian sentiment had been building up. We ... really felt like we should do something," Hoang said.

"What we kept hearing was that people were generally unable to communicate why something was racist. The idea for this tool was ... to simplify the education a little bit (and) to help give you the words ... to speak out against racism."

City council will consider approving its own anti-racism strategy next week, in an effort to support local initiatives and combat systemic racism within the city and municipal government.

The initiative originated from a motion by Mayor Amarjeet Sohi. It includes recommendations to create an independent anti-racism body and a high-level anti-racism organization within city administration, as well as to provide funding for grassroots, BIPOC-led organizations.

Hoang said she was glad to see the city take a "positive first step" towards official anti-racism work.

"Racism is so ingrained in things like work culture and in schools and all of that stuff. The route that the anti-racism strategy took to try and target systemic racism is what we need to target if we actually ever want racism to end," she explained.

• Eight citizens spoke to the Edmonton Police Commission on Thursday to criticize how police have handled the trucker convoy and related noise over the past three weekends. Supt. Dean Hilton said police are expecting another demonstration on Saturday and are reviewing their strategies for traffic management and ticketing. "We will do what we can to hold people accountable for their behaviours and I appreciate all the comments that I've heard from the public on this," he said.
• The "confidential" plane owned by the Edmonton Police Service was never meant to be a secret, Deputy Chief Kevin Brezinski said on Thursday. "With this procurement, we went through the right process," he said. "We went through our police commission...we did go to city council and we did discuss this in-camera." Former city councillor Allan Bolstad, who was on council when the plane was purchased in 1993, told CBC News the plane was news to him. "I never heard anything about a plane," he said. "I'm sure it would have been a high-profile issue if it had been made public at that time." EPS is in the process of replacing the plane with a new one at a cost of $4.3 million.
• Coun. Michael Janz says that Michael Elliott, president of the Edmonton Police Association, has presented the LRT as more dangerous than it really is. Elliott began tweeting regularly about drug use and violence on the LRT in the wake of council's decision to redirect $10.9 million of the proposed increase in the police budget to social services. "He is going out of his way to make it look unsafe. They want their $11 million added back to the budget," Janz said. EPS spokesperson Cheryl Voordenhout dismissed the controversy as "baseless."
• Coun. Tim Cartmell has called on the Alberta government to support Edmonton's bid to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup as Vancouver renews its bid. "We've done our homework here. We have a thousand-page business plan that we've worked on for over three years. We've done all the leg work. We've done all the preparatory work that, frankly, British Columbia and Vancouver are hoping to leverage to their benefit," Cartmell said.
• The Cave Beastro and Cafe Bicyclette are among the Edmonton businesses that have decided to continue to require proof of vaccination. "I don't feel that squeezing all kinds of people into a place and getting more people sick is what we need to do right now," Cave Beastro owner Dave Kantor told CBC, noting that he has been slammed by some opponents of the mandate.
• Construction has started on the $153-million Coronation Park Sports and Recreation Centre which features a velodrome that will be able to host major cycling events and an enclosed bridge to the nearby Peter Hemingway Fitness and Leisure Centre. "That's to allow for triathlons to occur year-round," said Michael Rivest, the project architect.
• The Kingsway branch of Edmonton's Royal Canadian Legion is at risk of closing due to mounting bills and the need for a roof repair. "That could be as soon as three months depending on what other bills we have coming in, so is it critical? Absolutely," past president and financial chairman Ron Wills told Global News.
• The University of Alberta and its academic staff are entering formal mediation as negotiations have stalled and the possibility of a staff association strike looms. Should the mediation efforts fail, the association can apply to the Alberta Labour Relations Board for a supervised strike vote.
• A four-bedroom, five-bathroom mansion at 5122 Woolsey Li NW just hit Edmonton's real estate market for $3.5 million.
• Alberta doctors are being asked to push back not-urgent blood tests as the province is seeing a shortage of vials. "We are prioritizing our limited supplies for tests required for urgent and acute care purposes," Alberta Health Services said.

The Family Day long weekend offers a delicious and delightful fundraiser, an opening at the AGA, the Fringe on film, Hollywood music, speed-skating, and science!

• Feb. 18: Bread and Circus: The Calzone Edition, a virtual cooking class and performance fundraiser from Firefly Theatre & Circus and Get Cooking
• Feb. 18: Opening for Maud Lewis and Byron Samson (Mistikonapew): Place of Honour! at the Art Gallery of Alberta
• Feb. 18 and 19: Fringe at 40: The Story So Far, a live documentary screening at the ATB Financial Arts Barns
• Feb. 18 and 19: That's Entertainment! Celebrating the Hollywood Film Musical with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra
• Feb. 20: Tony Lambert One Hour Challenge hosted by Marathon Skating International and the Silver Skate Festival
• Until Feb. 21: Family Week at the Telus World of Science

A scene from the 2021 edition of Bread and Circus (Firefly Theatre and Circus)