Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Matthew Black

Jonny Wakefield @jonnywakefield.bsky.social · 4h

Alberta separatist lawyer reprimanded for second time in four months @matthewblack.ca edmontonjournal.com/news/politic...

Alberta separatist lawyer reprimanded for second time in four months

Jeffrey Rath represents the Alberta Prosperity Project and was reprimanded on Friday for his role in a near-decade old legal case.

edmontonjournal.com

2 13 11

Reposted by Matthew Black

Edmonton Journal @edmontonjournal.com · 3h

Alberta must make upgrades to its restaurant inspection system to improve transparency for diners and impose stricter enforcement on bad eateries

Keith Gerein: Alberta's malnourished restaurant inspection system has become indigestible

Alberta must make upgrades to its restaurant inspection system to improve transparency for diners and impose stricter enforcement on bad eateries

bit.ly

1 2 1

Matthew Black @matthewblack.ca · 10h

And here's @keithgerein.bsky.social with his take on what we've learned from the three-part series

"An archaic consumer protection system built more for the protection of businesses and the convenience of the system itself, rather than the needs of the public"

#yeg

Keith Gerein: Alberta's malnourished restaurant inspection system has become indigestible

Alberta must make upgrades to its restaurant inspection system to improve transparency for diners and impose stricter enforcement on bad eateries

edmontonjournal.com

3 5

Matthew Black @matthewblack.ca · 10h

3rd and final part of the Journal & MacEwan U's food venue inspection series is out this morning.

Top Edmonton chefs back calls to reform Alberta's food inspection system

“It’s not about shutting down businesses. It’s about bringing everyone up to one level and one standard"

#yeg

Top Edmonton chefs back calls to reform Alberta's food inspection system

Chefs from Brave, Dolly, Fox and more explain how they keep their restaurants safe, and call for changes to Alberta inspection process

edmontonjournal.com

1 2 3

Matthew Black @matthewblack.ca · 1d

And here's a sidebar by a pair of excellent @macewanu.bsky.social students about how an Alberta Avenue eatery revived what had been a notoriously unclean and infested location

#yeg

North Edmonton eatery shows how restoring a ruined restaurant is possible

A Mexican restaurant on Edmonton's north side is attempting to overcome the bad reputation of a former establishment that occupied the space

edmontonjournal.com

1 2

Matthew Black @matthewblack.ca · 1d

We reviewed 53K inspections reports from a 38-month period:
-Fewer than 1 in 4 inspections found no food safety violations
-Nearly 40% of inspections found a recurrent violations that had been identified in a prior visit.
-In 2024, over 2K venues had at least one critical violation
#yeg

1 1 2

Matthew Black @matthewblack.ca · 1d

Part 2 of the @edmontonjournal.com collaboration with MacEwan U re: food safety inspections is up!

Our team talked with dozens of restaurant workers who painted an ugly picture of kitchen standards with one saying, "We’re told it’s a financial issue to improve health and safety"

#yeg

'We can certainly make people sick': Edmonton restaurant workers sound alarm on food safety risks

Edmonton restaurant workers sound the alarm on unsafe food handling practices, insufficient training and how the system is failing diners

edmontonjournal.com

1 3 4

Reposted by Matthew Black

Jack Farrell @jack-farrell.bsky.social · 2d

Alberta education minister concerned about private school funding petition

From me today:
www.thecanadianpressnews.ca/prairies_bc/...

Alberta education minister concerned about private school funding petition

EDMONTON - Alberta's education minister says cutting government funding to private schools — a move one Calgary teacher is hoping to put to a vote — would only escalate the

www.thecanadianpressnews.ca

6 11

Reposted by Matthew Black

Charles Rusnell @charlesrusnell.bsky.social · 2d

Thanks @matthewblack.ca but the investigation was the idea of, and was led by, Karen Kleiss. It was Karen's idea to create a searchable public database, which resulted in the auditor general telling the province they should to. Karen Unland edited the project.

Matthew Black @matthewblack.ca · 2d

And these are all built on an investigation led by @charlesrusnell.bsky.social nearly two decades ago which prompted the results of food service venue inspections to be made public
www.pressreader.com/canada/edmon...
#yeg

1 5 12

Reposted by Matthew Black

Dave Breakenridge @davebreakenridge.bsky.social · 2d

This work was done through @lillebuen.bsky.social's investigative journalism class, with key contributions from the Journal's @keithgerein.bsky.social and @matthewblack.ca. Big thanks to @njgriffiths.bsky.social for his help with the data journalism side of things.

1 3

Matthew Black @matthewblack.ca · 2d

And these are all built on an investigation led by @charlesrusnell.bsky.social nearly two decades ago which prompted the results of food service venue inspections to be made public
www.pressreader.com/canada/edmon...
#yeg

3 4

Matthew Black @matthewblack.ca · 2d

And, here's a second sidebar about the hopelessly outdated AHS food service venue inspection website/database which was built before the iPhone and Instagram existed, at a time when Connor McDavid was still in elementary school
#yeg

'Glorified spreadsheet': Alberta's restaurant inspection website needs major overhaul, expert says

The website that publishes Alberta’s food safety inspections is 20 years obsolete, an expert says

edmontonjournal.com

1 3 3

Matthew Black @matthewblack.ca · 2d

Two of the excellent @macewanu.bsky.social j-students pulled together this sidebar on how restaurants can be a "perfect" breeding ground for cockroaches.
Inspection data showed more than 180 Edmonton food establishments had signs of a cockroach infestation over a 38-month period

#yeg

Creeping Into the Kitchen: Restaurants a ‘perfect’ breeding ground for roaches

More than 180 food establishments in Edmonton over a 38-month period had signs of a cockroach infestation, health inspection data shows.

edmontonjournal.com

1 1 3

Matthew Black @matthewblack.ca · 2d

Since Jan, I've been part of a team inc EJ colleagues, @lillebuen.bsky.social & his MacEwan U j-students working on a series re: how food service venues are inspected in AB
We uncovered shocking findings re: the state of the system, inspection frequency, & recurring violations.
Part 1 out today
#yeg

Crawling bugs and half-baked enforcement: Alberta’s restaurant inspections a recipe for foodborne illness — Investigation

Lax inspections, excessive violations and poor transparency in Alberta's restaurant inspection system is a recipe for foodborne Illness

edmontonjournal.com

1 17 18

Reposted by Matthew Black

trevorrobb.bsky.social @trevorrobb.bsky.social · 2d

According to the data obtained and analyzed during this @edmontonjournal.com / @macewanu.bsky.social investigation, more than 250 food establishments across Edmonton went at least two years without seeing an inspector. #yeg

edmontonjournal.com/news/local-n...

Crawling bugs and half-baked enforcement: Alberta’s restaurant inspections a recipe for foodborne illness — Investigation

Lax inspections, excessive violations and poor transparency in Alberta's restaurant inspection system is a recipe for foodborne Illness

edmontonjournal.com

1 3 2

Matthew Black @matthewblack.ca · Sep 6

The info and privacy commish has opened 3 reviews into if the province followed ATI rules in withholding from me the early results of Alberta Next surveys

OIPC involvement led GOA to release pension survey data to me, 21 months after I first asked
edmontonjournal.com/news/politic...
#ableg #abpoli

Three reviews underway after province refuses to release early Alberta Next survey results

The provincial government refused Postmedia access to hundreds of pages of records containing early results to Alberta Next survey questions

edmontonjournal.com

3 28 48

Matthew Black @matthewblack.ca · Aug 20

Athana Mentzelopoulos lawsuit update
GOA:
*Claims her recording of AHS board members & LaGrange was illegal & she has 200K pages of records she shouldn't
Athana:
*Recording was to protect AHS, its whistleblowers, the AHS Board & various politicians
edmontonjournal.com/news/politic...
#ableg #abpoli

Alberta lawyers claim Mentzelopoulos may have illegally recorded meetings

Government lawyers say the former AHS CEO recorded meetings with ministers and the AHS board but her lawyers dispute doing so was illegal.

edmontonjournal.com

1 10 10

Reposted by Matthew Black

Edmonton Journal @edmontonjournal.com · Aug 20

Opinion: Will the availability of COVID-19 vaccines be more than an exercise in luck for those who can and cannot pay? Why are physicians not allowed discretion when it comes to immunizations? Where have all the COVID-19 vaccines gone?

edmontonjournal.com/opinion/colu...

Opinion: Where have all Alberta's COVID vaccines gone?

I have discovered that for now, even when you can pay, you are out of luck.

edmontonjournal.com

3

Reposted by Matthew Black

trevorrobb.bsky.social @trevorrobb.bsky.social · Aug 16

"Those two recommendations centre around the province’s practice of limiting the number of topics in an access to information request, and splitting requests with multiple topics into several new requests at the cost of more fees." #abpoli #ableg

edmontonjournal.com/news/politic...

Information and privacy commissioner says Alberta rejected two of her recommendations

Diane McLeod says she could investigate if the province continues to ignore two recommendations regarding access to information requests

edmontonjournal.com

1 5 5

Matthew Black @matthewblack.ca · Aug 15

"The other excuse Alberta Finance gave was that the new rules would 'bring Alberta’s policies into alignment with other provinces.’ It’s the equivalent of 'But, mom, everybody else is doing it'"

Gunter: UCP receipt policy a blow to government transparency
edmontonjournal.com/opinion/colu...
#ableg

Lorne Gunter: UCP receipt policy a blow to government transparency

Earlier this month, the province removed the requirement that receipts be posted for expenses, even the big ones.

edmontonjournal.com

5 8

Reposted by Matthew Black

Charles Rusnell @charlesrusnell.bsky.social · Aug 11

My latest for @thetyee. Former police commission chair enaged in online bullying, harassment campaign against city councillors.

'Unleashing': Politicians Say Ex-Police Watchdog's Insults Go Too Far via @thetyee.ca thetyee.ca/News/2025/08...

‘Unleashing’: Politicians Say Ex-Police Watchdog’s Insults Go Too Far | The Tyee

‘I was getting scared,’ says one Edmonton councillor assailed online by John McDougall.

thetyee.ca

1 40 53

Matthew Black @matthewblack.ca · Aug 8

From @keithgerein.bsky.social :
With 75 days to go (now 74), Edmonton mayoral race missing a front-runner
Jaffer? Cartmell? Knack? Walters? Someone else? The mayor's race is still wide open
edmontonjournal.com/opinion/colu...
#yeg

Keith Gerein: With 75 days to go, Edmonton mayoral race missing a front-runner

Jaffer? Cartmell? Knack? Walters? Someone else? The mayor's race in Edmonton has yet to coalesce around a front-runner.

edmontonjournal.com

1

Matthew Black @matthewblack.ca · Aug 7

I was curious about the early results of some of the Alberta Next surveys so I filed a few access to info requests in June, and you're not going to believe this but...

edmontonjournal.com/news/politic...
#ableg #abpoli

Province refuses to release early results of its Alberta Next surveys

Postmedia sought early replies to surveys around an Alberta pension plan and immigration but the province has refused to release the results

edmontonjournal.com

3 15 22

Reposted by Matthew Black

trevorrobb.bsky.social @trevorrobb.bsky.social · Jul 31

Latest from @matthewblack.ca — The Law Society of Alberta has reprimanded one of the leaders of the Albert separatist movement after finding he twice broke professional standards. #ableg #abpoli

edmontonjournal.com/news/politic...

Alberta separatist lawyer reprimanded, ordered to pay $10K in costs

The Alberta Law Society found Jeffrey Rath had twice violated professional standards and ordered him to pay $10,000 in costs.

edmontonjournal.com

1 4 9

Matthew Black @matthewblack.ca · Jul 30

"We need all Albertans to put their pride and love of Canada into writing now and put their signature on a petition," campaign leader Thomas Lukaszuk said after Elections Alberta issued a petition for his "Alberta Forever Canada" initiative
edmontonjournal.com/news/politic...
#ableg #abpoli

Elections Alberta approves petition seeking referendum on Alberta remaining in Canada

The petition begins the 90-day signature collection period which requires 293,976 signatures to be submitted to Elections Alberta by Oct. 28

edmontonjournal.com

7 13