Alberta’s amended book ban was announced on Wednesday, and lo, it is now being confined to graphic novels that depict supposed sexually explicit images, and wouldn’t you just know it, we’re back to the original four books that triggered this whole thing, three of those four titles being queer or trans-related. And nobody will actually say that out loud—not the premier, not the education minister, and wouldn’t you know it, not legacy media either.
To be clear, this move brings us back to the very pointed targeting of LGBTQ2S+ graphic novels that got us here in the first place.Books that were on the government's radar thanks to far-right advocacy groups like Action4Canada.
The Canadian Press didn’t mention anything about queer or trans materials, and they got quotes from Action4Canada, calling them a “parents advocacy group” instead of a far-right Christian nationalist organization, which they absolutely are. CBC’s reporting kept focusing on “explicit images of sexual acts,” and their televised coverage made zero mention of queer or trans materials, though the print story at least did quote the Fyrefly Institute for Gender and Sexual Diversity, who expressed concern that this could “disproportionately affect 2SLGBTQ+ representation,” but didn’t specify that three of the four main targeted books were queer or trans, which again, is important context to have. Neither of their coverage actually mentioned that if you look at the images that the government sent to the media about the offending images (which the government did actually provide), pretty much none of them were “explicit images of sexual acts” either, even if there was some nudity or allusions to sexual acts that were not graphic or explicit. I also have to wonder why neither the Alberta NDP (and Naheed Nenshi especially), or the Alberta Teachers’ Association could call this out for what it is.
There is a large portion of people who only really started to care about the Alberta book ban stuff when it was Margaret Atwood being pulled from shelves.I hope those same people are willing to stand up and defend queer and trans comics artists too, and call this what it is
Meanwhile, Maclean’s published a profile of six Alberta separatism supporters in an attempt to humanize them and show how they’re just ordinary people with real concerns. Those concerns? Vaccines, believing climate change is a scam designed to punish Alberta, immigration, and the general grievance addiction that social media addicts on the right have become dependent upon. They couldn’t even be bothered to correct the one gullible woman who believes that the National Energy Program is still running and siphoning the province’s wealth. No discussion about the fact that Alberta separatism is fuelled largely by Christian nationalism and white supremacy, which is really important context to have when you’re trying to humanize these people. It’s astonishingly bad journalism, but, well, that’s Maclean’s these days (just inhabiting the corpse of a once-great magazine).
https://bsky.app/profile/daveberta.bsky.social/post/3lygl7xvz7s22
In fact the #Alberta economy was impacted more because the world oil price dropped while the NEP was in place and actually continued to drop after the NEP was cancelled.#ABpoli
Ukraine Dispatch
Things have been escalating, as last night, a number of Russian drones entered Polish airspace and were downed by NATO air defences (Thread here). And the day before that, glide bombs struck in Yarova, where elderly villages were lining up for their pension cheques. And the day before that was the largest barrage of the war to date, with 805 drones and 13 missiles, and government buildings in Kyiv were hit for the first time. And Trump still isn’t doing anything while Putin mocks him.
Since January 20, Russian air raids in Ukraine have intensified dramatically
— Anne Applebaum (@anneapplebaum.bsky.social) 2025-09-09T20:08:04.868Z
https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1965345997044744662
Good reads:
- Mark Carney is in Edmonton for the Liberals’ caucus retreat, where they are setting up their fall programme. Danielle Smith is expected to meet with him today.
- Carney condemned Israel’s strike on Qatar as “intolerable.”
- Agriculture minister Heath MacDonald says that any decision to lift tariffs on Chinese EVs for canola has to take other sectors into account as well.
- Th federal government is planning to launch a public registry of digital asbestos tools that government departments are using (because they’re moving ahead).
- The federal government will provide $2.6 million in humanitarian assistance for those affected by the flooding in Pakistan.
- It looks like email addresses and phone numbers were compromised in a cyberattack that hit CRA, CBSA and Employment and Social Development Canada.
- It turns out that the new asylum system software the government shelved had been ignoring its privacy obligations all the way through its development.
- The version of the F-35s that Canada is supposed to be buying are overbudget and behind schedule, and won’t be available until at least 2031.
- Banks, telecom and Google are joining forces in order to tackle scams.
- Poilievre wants the government to enact his housing plans, no matter how nonsensical most of them are. (I’m sure they’ll jump right on that).
- Doug Ford says that unemployed young people just need to “look harder.” No, seriously. (Just zero conception that nobody is hiring entry-level positions).
- Ford also wants municipalities to get rid of speed cameras, because apparently criminal mischief gets results with his government. (Honest to Zeus, you guys).
- Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation chief Sheldon Sunshine walks through how Alberta’s separatist talk is a violation of the treaties that define the land Alberta rests on.
- Kevin Carmichael parses Carney’s speech on Friday about the return of economic nationalism as the era of global free trade draws to a close.
- Jennifer Robson has concerns about the implementation of the government’s new “Buy Canadian” policy.
- Michael Spratt delves into the right of self-defence at home, and Poilievre railing against the very legislation he supported under Stephen Harper.
- Colin Horgan points out the weirdly hallucinogenic fables that Poilievre loves to spin, and how Carney has yet to find a way to counter that rhetoric.
- Paul Wells remembers Ken Dryden the politician, and not just the goalie, while Susan Delacourt recalls the way that Dryden took notes about everything.
- Wells also considers the paucity of Carney’s communications strategy in the face of the enormous challenges we now face as a country.
- My weekend column points out Poilievre’s hypocrisy around the Temporary Foreign Workers programme, and why it’s just his latest scapegoat.
- My column points out that even though Carney says big things like that the era of global free trade is ending, he doesn’t actually punctuate it so it sinks in.
Odds and ends:
New episodes released early for C$7+ subscribers. This week I'm talking to Paul Wells about the return of Parliament and the moment we're in. #cdnpoli
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-09-09T00:55:35.122Z
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