Is This For Real?
Black ex-journalism from a place calling itself Edmonton. We take a local focus to societal issues like media bias, corruption, racism, class inequality, government failure, and police brutality.
- Update frequency
- every 37 days
- Average duration
- 51 minutes
- Episodes
- 23
- Years Active
- 2020 - 2023
Very Significant Investments
We ended up taking a bit of an unexpected pause due to the dynamics around police criticism given the officer deaths in March. In this episode we discuss how the officer deaths were politicized to fu…
01:17:12 |
Sat 06 May 2023
March On, Sheriffs
We’re unraveling the current situation with policing downtown, where the province has deployed 12 sheriffs to the already heavily policed Chinatown area and self-identifying “liberal” politicians are…
01:11:06 |
Thu 23 Feb 2023
Can’t Sit With Us
We’re diving into some ways that our system of governance tries to control or eliminate threats to their power. From a deliberately inaccessible public civic engagement process amid budget deliberati…
01:17:19 |
Wed 16 Nov 2022
Decorum + Discrimination
We’re diving into the fourth police budget increase of the year so far, the police DNA phenotyping scandal, Alberta's new premier, and the announcement that the provincial province will be providing …
01:33:49 |
Mon 31 Oct 2022
Interview with the Councillor
Edmonton’s city council recently committed to funding the Chinatown Healthy Streets Operation Centre, a $15M hub meant to deploy additional officers into Chinatown. We interviewed councillor Michael …
01:11:35 |
Wed 28 Sep 2022
Inflated Importance
We're turning our focus to the devastation inflation that has been hitting low-income households especially hard while companies like Loblaws are making record profits. We also have some on the groun…
01:08:09 |
Sun 31 Jul 2022
Working Progress
We interviewed Ashlynn Chand about some great reporting she did on Amazon’s union-busting at the Nisku warehouse. We discuss our government’s alignment with corporate interests at the expense of work…
01:34:12 |
Fri 17 Jun 2022
Rotten Foundations
Oumar and Nicholas discuss the recent school shooting in Texas and its relevance to Edmonton’s school resource officer program. We also discuss the violence and challenges in Chinatown, as well as th…
00:56:28 |
Mon 30 May 2022
Language of the Status Quo
Canadian media is terrible when it comes to holding powerful institutions accountable and challenging the status quo. In this episode we’re talking about the media’s failure of students criminalized …
00:48:23 |
Fri 08 Apr 2022
RIP BHM
Black History Month has always been more or less a joke, but it was especially terrible this year. We’re looking back on this especially unfortunate February, from revelations that the Edmonton Polic…
00:44:41 |
Mon 07 Mar 2022
Police Funding Industrial Complex
The Edmonton Police Service budget continues to be increased, for the second time in a row since the killing of George Floyd and supposed calls for police accountability. We break down the recent his…
00:55:38 |
Wed 26 Jan 2022
Empty Elections
With the recent federal election in Canada and local election in Edmonton, we continue the thriving era of neoliberal politics that leaves harmful institutions unchecked, despite everything that has …
00:47:10 |
Fri 10 Dec 2021
Lip Service
Oumar talks to Community Safety and Well-Being Task Force member Irfan Chaudhry about the recent release of the task force’s recommendations, the nature of committees in creating change or exposing h…
00:42:54 |
Sun 16 May 2021
The Crumbs
Oumar talks to Celina Caesar-Chavannes, former Liberal Member of Parliament about her experience being tokenized, excluded, and eventually left to burn by her own party while they continued to create…
00:30:39 |
Wed 10 Mar 2021
Oversight
Oumar talks to Harsha Walia (BC Civil Liberties Association) about algorithmic policing, WIST, and the insidious nature of technological surveillance. Harsha also shares her thoughts on the hopelessn…
00:25:58 |
Sat 30 Jan 2021
Making Demands
Oumar talks to Batul Gulamhusein about the complicity of our municipal politicians in police violence and how we should approach next year’s election and the future beyond that. How can we elect lead…
00:16:08 |
Sat 19 Dec 2020
Close Encounters
Hannan and Oumar talk to Shima Robinson, an organizer at the recently-closed Pekiwewin camp, about police targeting of homeless populations, the importance of de-escalation training, and the need for…
00:44:09 |
Sun 22 Nov 2020
Are You Really Neutral?
Oumar and Hannan look into Canadian media’s friendly relationship with police forces, the sinister ways in which Canadian media organizations actively silence BIPOC journalists, and how this method o…
00:52:22 |
Wed 30 Sep 2020
A Learning Moment
As a podcast that strives to properly communicate the experiences of Black Edmontonians, it’s been difficult to produce content with only one voice. Today we’re introducing a co-host, Hannan, who wil…
00:21:07 |
Thu 10 Sep 2020
Protect Our Children
After a failed school board motion to suspend Edmonton’s school resource officer (SRO) program, police will remain in schools this September.
Bashir talks about his obstacles in uncovering informat…
00:44:16 |
Fri 28 Aug 2020
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