Investigations on Alberta’s drug war revival: www.drugdatadecoded.ca
✍️ APTN, Alberta Views, The Breach, The Tyee
PhD Microbiology
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Euan Thomson
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So far, this series has connected the efforts inside government (part 1) and police (part 2) to criminalize harm reduction activities of a grassroots nonprofit.
It has unearthed a playbook of surveillance, coordinated internal briefings, and media leaks. 1/
drugdatadecoded.ca/out-in-the-c...
So far, this series has connected the efforts inside government (part 1) and police (part 2) to criminalize harm reduction activities of a grassroots nonprofit.
It has unearthed a playbook of surveillance, coordinated internal briefings, and media leaks. 1/
drugdatadecoded.ca/out-in-the-c...
This is the correct framing. It sounds hyperbolic at first, but when we break the spell, it will seem like the most obvious point you could make.
“as an agency of experts, we were not really prepared to contend with people who so ready to forsake science and sometimes even logic. And you know, we were not prepared to defend, or to explain Ebola to somebody who believed that it was a scam.”
Swap Ebola for harm reduction and you’ve got Alberta.
ICYMI
We’re uncovering signs that the Alberta model of police-aligned crony capitalism in drug policy has already infected Nova Scotia.
See the latest on how Halifax police helped dismantle a grassroots harm-reduction org running low-barrier shelters:
drugdatadecoded.ca/out-in-the-c...
It has shown the ways police created suspicion around the organization’s activities using unchecked powers, then fed that back into government to set in motion a chain of events leading to the defunding and destruction of the organization. 2/
drugdatadecoded.ca/out-in-the-c...
But there needed to be someone in place to catch the contract.
Best practice suggests it would be an experienced organization with similar operating principles to minimize harm to clients.
This was not the case — to come in Part 3. 3/
This is such an important series and each piece of it is very informative.
"The purpose of a system is what it does." Stafford Beers
The policing costs should've long been public.
"The most recent cost projection for hosting part of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Vancouver includes $242 million for safety and security—but it is not clear how much of that money was allocated to policing." www.cp24.com/news/canada/...
“A team of about fifteen police officers from Station 39 in the borough of Montreal-North has been dismantled because of allegations of racist acts such as the making of trophies with the hair of people arrested.” (Translated)
Can’t be reformed.
www.tvanouvelles.ca/2026/06/12/s...
Part 1 of an 11-month investigation: The dismantling of Halifax-based Out of the Cold Community Association followed the Nova Scotia government's coordinated criminalization of the organization and it...
drugdatadecoded.ca
Part 1 of an 11-month investigation: The dismantling of Halifax-based Out of the Cold Community Association followed the Nova Scotia government's coordinated criminalization of the organization and it...
Out of the Cold staff were criminalized while running low-barrier shelters in Halifax, until they were terminated. This hit a crescendo as Halifax police were 'alerted' to union organizing – by the ag...
The first World Cup game in Vancouver brought large crowds, but police say only two arrests were associated with the much-anticipated kickoff match, which saw 1,200 officers deployed across the city.
