Reg Rygus

I try to keep up with what's happening in Edmonton's arts community but do miss things as I did with September's opening of ArtsHub Ortona. ArtsHub Ortona is located in a building that was originally built by the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1914 for use as a warehouse and stable. The building has had many tenants since its opening 100+ years ago and after extensive renovations is now an arts hub with space for studios, offices, the performing arts, screen industries, visual arts, and music.

ArtsHub Ortona is located in the heart of the city at 10131– 97 Street.

Looks like plans for the on again/off again Camrose Casino regenerating into Edmonton are on again. AGLC (Alberta Gaming, Liquor & Cannabis) disapproved the initial 2022 application. Camrose Resort and Casino revised their plans for a larger casino and AGLC approved their second application 2024. In late October Mayfield Investments Ltd., which owns the Camrose Resort and Casino, was ordered into receivership but in spite of that Mayfield president, Howard Pechet said he believes the relocation to Edmonton will still happen.

Edmonton charities are upset with AGLC's decision to approve the Camrose casino's move into Edmonton saying it will cut into the take local charities receive and have come to rely on.

The recent snowfall and drop in temperature are sure signs that winter has arrived. Coinciding with winter's arrival, the city is activating its winter safety response plan for the homeless population that looking for more places to shelter from the cold.  This year there are enough safe shelter spaces for vulnerable Edmontonians and a free shuttle bus will take people needing a ride to the homeless shelters.

The city will activate its extreme weather response policy that opens access to city spaces, additional shelter spaces, supports to connect to services and expanded shelter shuttle bus service when temperatures dip below – 20 C for three consecutive days.

Although Edmonton's next municipal election is almost a year away (10/20/25) news about it has already begun. Below are links to 3 different stories, each presenting a different perspective of what lies ahead.

Of the three levels of government (local, provincial and federal) I believe local is the most important because its closest to home and there should be no layers of bureaucracy between us and the candidates who live amongst.

Beyond all the local political news that will inevitably come I have an underlying question that merits consideration.....When did public servants become professional politicians?

Being a father of 4 and grandfather of 9 parental rights is a topic near and dear to me and which is why some of my posts, such as the one below *** are from Alberta Parents Union.

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Including parents in their children’s education is not only the right thing to do, it’s also common sense.

And, it is popular!

So popular, in fact, that quite a few school board candidates in quite a few school districts beat incumbents at the last school board elections by promising to include parents more.

Parental involvement is also now being debated provincially, with Bill 27 proposing to require schools to disclose to parents if their children are using a name or pronouns different from those supplied by the parents.

Now, you probably wouldn’t know it from the media attention this issue has received, but this policy is actually the status quo at many school divisions across Alberta.

Many of those school trustees who got elected on involving parents more in their children’s education followed through on that promise and implemented similar these policies at the school board level.

And, contrary to the gloom and doom predictions of the opposition to Bill 27, there has been no crisis of hostility between parents and their children or parents and schools in the school divisions where this has been adopted.

Quite the opposite, in fact, as research and common sense show that parents trust schools more when schools give parents more information.

Unfortunately, Bill 27 is still necessary, because the majority of school divisions, including the largest ones with the most students, have not yet adopted common sense disclosure policies.

All four school divisions in the big cities, and some others that foolishly follow their lead, prohibit disclosure of names or pronouns to parents and remove any discretion from teachers and principals to do so.

Worse, they do this through broad policies that prohibit the disclosure of any information that could be related to a child’s gender identity.

That’s an incredibly broad definition and, combined with a lack of discretion being allowed, has led to some truly absurd policy results that (almost) no one must have intended.

For example, in one case, a 14-year-old boy was taken off school premises in a private vehicle to the home of an adult “facilitator” who was not a staff member of the school and did not have children attending the school.

In another, a 13-year-old girl was taken from a rural school to a Calgary hotel for a conference on “diversity, equality, and human rights”, where she was taught how to perform sex acts.

Again, all without their parents knowing anything about any of this.

At a similar conference, a 13-year-old boy was given 153 condoms, a giant spaceship in the shape of a male body part that encouraged him to “explore”, and a 50-page flip book that depicted sexual relations, and was told his mother would never know he missed most of his classes to attend.

He was not told anything about sexually transmitted infections - rather, his mother had to deliver that information, when she first learned of the excursion, by finding the illicit materials in his room.

How is this possible?

Well, one reason is that parents - and grandparents, educators, and taxpayers who support the parents’ role - do not pay enough attention to school board elections.

These are policies adopted by school boards who have been captured by an ideology, despite the ideology being widely believed to be nonsense by the electorate.

Today's snow brings the first real taste of winter, and today's Lindork's Lists brings us the first taste of winter happenings.

It is costly to live alone anywhere and Edmonton is no exception.  Numbeo is a website that compares the cost of living in cities around the world and it lists the average monthly cost for a single person living in Edmonton as $1,462.60… and that’s before rent. The breakdown of monthly costs on the Numbeo website is quite thorough and accurate and brings a sense of reality regarding of how much it costs to live alone.

There are some who think that any publicity is good, but its doubtful that Edmonton Centre MP Randy Boissonnault would agree with them. Boissonnault's name has been in the news for over a year because of his past association with medical supply company Global Health Imports that he co-founded and most recently for conflicting claims about his family’s Indigenous heritage. Although Boissonnault denies his detractors allegations and insinuations of wrong doings and no charges have been laid against him calls mount for Liberal cabinet minister to resign.

for various reasons and although no charges have been laid calls mount for the Liberal cabinet minister to resign. Many of the probels

On Tuesday the Edmonton Elks announced that Ed Hervey will become the new Vice President of Football Operations and General Manager of the Edmonton Elks. Hervey and Elks President and CEO Chris Morris will address the media Wednesday morning at Commonwealth Stadium. Hervey played the entirety of his eight-year CFL career (1999-2006) and was on the team with Elks President and CEO Chris Morris when Edmonton won two Grey Cups (2003 and 2005). Hervey built an Edmonton team that went 14-4 in 2015 and captured the Grey Cup with a 26-20 win over the Ottawa Redblacks.

Hervey will now begin the process of hiring a head coach and assembling his football operations staff in preparation for the 2025 season, the team said.

Edmonton Police Service data shows that from January to the end of August this year more than 5,600 Edmontonians reported being scammed for a total of $37 million. Julie Matthews, a fraud prevention educator says new scams are coming out regularly and scammers are getting more clever all the time especially in using technology.

The two red panda cubs named Fred and George that were introduced to Edmonton on Friday were actually born about four months. Laura Castor, an animal care supervisor with the zoo, said Fred & George are adventurous and mischievous, like the red-headed Weasley twins in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. Red pandas are an endangered species, with fewer than 2,500 remaining in the wild, including near the foothills of the Himalaya mountain range.

Edmonton's Sikh community makes an annual donation to Edmonton’s Food Bank, but because of the struggles the Food Bank is experiencing this year the Sikh community added an extra donation of both food and funds. The Sikh community just opened Gurdwara Dukh Nivaran Sahib the Sikh temple or community centre in south Edmonton. Sikh community leader Gursharan Buttar said Sikhism's fundamental teachings are working hard and sharing with the needy, and people are feeling that it’s time to share with the most vulnerable in our community.