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Euan Thomson

@drugdatadecoded.ca
6.7K followers 2.3K following 4.3K posts

Investigations on the Alberta-led drug war revival: www.drugdatadecoded.ca ✍️ APTN, Alberta Views, The Breach, The Tyee PhD Microbiology Banner: Access to information in Alberta Icon: Headshot of me in blue t-shirt

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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 14/09/2026
Important Day 12 update on parasitic brain-controlling fungus absorbing life juices of an unfortunate fly:
Side view of a white blob enveloping a fly that is barely visible on the surface of a leaf. The blob has five lobes encircling different sections of the fiy from head to abdomen. The three orange abdominal wraps that were visible after the initial burst of fungal growth are now huge white blob lobes. Top view of a white blob enveloping a fly that is barely visible on the surface of a leaf. The blob has five lobes encircling different sections of the fiy from head to abdomen. The three orange abdominal wraps that were visible after the initial burst of fungal growth are now huge white blob lobes.
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 03/09/2026
Update
Sideview of a fungus-infected fly attached to a leaf, where you can see an orange solid substance growing out of the seams between the fly’s exoskeleton. There are also white fruiting bodies visible on the fly’s back. The fly appears partially-decomposed, like it’s been exposed for weeks. Top view of the same fly, where the orange rings between the exoskeleton seams and the fruiting bodies are even more visible.
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 02/09/2026
Can anyone tell me what is happening here. The fly’s legs are pointed in every direction as if it crash-landed on my pitcher plant. It has what appears to be mold growing from its abdomen, maybe sticking it to the lead. Is this cordyceps?
A colourful fly appears to be attached to a green, healthy-looking leaf by some white threads of what looks like mold growing from the fly’s abdomen.
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 28/08/2026
Yes?
Woman facing the camera, holding a soccer ball on her shoulder with left arm while pointing with her right hand at the camera. The words “You in?” are printed above her head in action font. Her expression is serious and she is wearing a light teal soccer jersey with “Tides” stiched on it. The Halifax Tides women’s soccer team logo is present at the bottom-left of the photo.
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 23/08/2026
Also - Mark Oppenheimer, “Free Speech Union of South Africa”?? Here a taste of what they do if it’s not obvious:
The assassination of Charlie Kirk is a tragedy. He devoted his life to arguing for what he believed in as eloquently as he could, always engaging with his political opponents in good faith and modelling the value of open and honest debate. Free speech cannot be allowed to die with Charlie. Now more than ever we need to stand up for the free exchange of ideas.
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 23/08/2026
Now run this list through an Epstein scanner. I spy Pinker and Krauss already!
Famous photograph of Jeffrey Epstein with two of his powerful academic network, Lawrence Krauss and Steven Pinker. They all look real happy to be there.
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 10/08/2026
www.cbc.ca/radio/thecur...
Canada's Most Listened-to Radio Program

The Current is a meeting place of perspectives, ideas and voices. We take a fresh look at issues affecting Canadians by poking and prodding them from new angles.

If major news breaks, we're on it, both on air and online. We shed new light on the stories we cover. We hold the powerful to account and take delight in the surprising twists and turns in our stories. We want to make you late for work by producing "must listen" radio.

Nothing is off limits. We are out on the edge of change — looking for change as it's happening, and giving it context. The Current makes you think, and makes you think differently.
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 31/07/2026
Any ideas on why the moderators of r/UCalgary would remove this story from the feed by two different posters two days running? breachmedia.ca/canadian-uni...
Story titled “Canadian universities set up a secret network to crackdown on student Palestine demonstrators - the breach” removed by moderators of Ucalgary subreddit
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 31/07/2026
Below is the list of academic institutions in order of onboarding to U of Toronto's Canadian Post-Secondary Emergency Managers Network while anti-genocide protests were beginning on campuses. Additional interested included UMontreal, Thompson Rivers, UWinnipeg. 1/ breachmedia.ca/canadian-uni...
U Toronto, Cambrian, U Ottawa, Humber, Waterloo, Laurier, Sheridan, Guelph, Georgian, Centennial, George Brown, York, St Lawrence, Brock, Niagara, Confederation, TMU, UVic, UNB, UBC, UCalgary, Memorial, U Sask, Conestoga, McGill, U Alberta, Dalhousie, Laval, SFU, Mt Allison
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 23/07/2026
Media is treating Palestine-related news like people don’t care anymore. This is incorrect: people are more educated than ever about how pro-genocidal domestic repression shows up in policing and prosecution. It just needs a correct framing. When this happened in 2023 here’s what it looked like:
Four stories from CBC and the Globe about charges being dropped against Wesam Cooley
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 17/07/2026
A … baby Blue Jay 🥹🥹🥹
Side profile of the most adorable little baby bird seen through a chain-link fence, with muted blue and grey colours of a blue Jay and the beginnings of its adult crest on its head, and a white belly. It’s sitting in grass and looking inquisitive.Same bird, a little baby blue Jay, but it is now turned facing the camera, still sitting in grass. Its little baby bird face makes your heart swell because it is oddly wide and disproportioned with a slightly oversized beak.
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 15/07/2026
AND new announcement! @fiverfines.bsky.social is giving space for a reading from these very stories at their album release / tour launch show tomorrow at Sanctuary. Join us, and don’t mess around as this may sell out: www.tickettailor.com/events/nowad...
Album launch concert poster with blue twine strung around photos of musicians on a clean white background. Fiver and the Fiver Trois with special guests Koromanti and the North Star, Friday July 17 at Sanctuary Arts Centre, 100 Ochterloney St Dartmouth. Presented by Nowadays Festival.
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 13/07/2026
After the racist Canada First rally last September, I requested from HRP the video they recorded, along with use of force instructions, debrief records, and online surveillance records. They said no way and sent me forty black pages.
Completely blackened out piece of paper with the numbers 475(1)(a) and 475(1)(c) at the top-left corner, indicating sections of the municipal freedom of information act concerning "harm to law enforcement" and "harm to investigative techniques used in law enforcement."
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 10/07/2026
McConnell is fucking dead. Odds of surviving CPR are 1 in 5 *in a hospital* and drop precipitously over age 70. He’s dead. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
Results
During the study period 827 patients underwent CPR, 385 patients initially survived, 162 (20%) survived to discharge, of whom 5 were in a vegetative state. Of the 51 patients who died after discharge, 29 died in the first 6 months (Figure 1). Of 5 patients who were in a vegetative state at discharge, 4 died within 3 months. Ten patients were lost to follow-up. Death after discharge was significantly associated with age 70 years or older (P =.05) and dependency in daily life before CPR (P =.05).
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 03/07/2026
The wildfire near Fort Simpson (townsite is on the island in the river, northeast quadrant):
Map showing a portion of Northwest territories, around Fort Simpson, which is shown in the top right of the map near a river. The wildfire covers about 2/3 of the image and is shown with a red line that sweeps across from the top left to the bottom right of the map.
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 25/06/2026
AHS was ordered nine days ago to hand over UCP procurement documents to police. So naturally, Alberta has spent the last five days debating “fun police.” This — this is why “fun police”:
Alberta health services ordered to hand over documents to authorities, senior executive confirms. June 16, 2026. Podcasters harassed former AHS CEO to dissuade her from suing Smith government, Judge rules. May 29, 2026. Judge rules search of devices belonging to podcasts involved in AHS controversy was justified. May 22, 2026.
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 22/06/2026
Bye, Starmer. www.972mag.com/palestine-ac...
Architecture of repression
In proscribing Palestine Action, Keir Starmer’s Labour government has brought out of the shadows a legal architecture of repression — mostly squirreled away in recent amendments to counter-terrorism laws — that seems to have been prepared for just such a moment as this. The police and courts appear only too willing to conspire in vaguely worded legal formulations, creating a dragnet in which the government can ensnare as a terrorist anyone who challenges the legitimacy or legality of its foreign policy.

That has been most obvious in the now routine sight of police officers hauling away thousands of British citizens — many of them retired lawyers, doctors, vicars, and army veterans — for the crime of holding up a placard that reads: “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.” Under Britain’s draconian Terrorism Act, anyone expressing an opinion, even inadvertently, that might “encourage support” for a proscribed organization can be arrested and potentially faces a jail term of up to 14 years.
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 13/06/2026
The fact that you’re fixated on that instead of the thousands of children known to have died in forced labour camps should elicit silent self-reflection. That said, no they haven’t unearthed the 215 children, for good reasons. Same newspaper, actual news: www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...
Facing relentless requests from international media and growing skepticism around their claims, the community initiated an informal media blackout, leaving the narrative around the site to conjecture. But behind the wall of silence, they were following federal guidance, conducting new searches and laying out a detailed plan to dig the site by 2027 – all on their own terms and timeline.

And regardless of what they find, the fact remains that more than 3,500 children are named on the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation‘s registry of students who died as a result of the residential school system, which operated in Canada for more than 160 years.
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 10/06/2026
Alberta's Ministry of Health has a 466-page Integrated Health System Plan. I assumed it was bad so I FOIP'd for it. The government gave me one page of email and withheld all 466 pages of Plan. But now you know it's out there and people at Recovery Alberta have seen it – do with that what you will.
Dear Euan Thomson:
Re: Access to Information Request: MHA_2026-G-0048
On April 27, 2026, Mental Health and Addiction received your request under the Access
to Information Act (the Act) for the following:
1. The latest draft of Alberta's Integrated Health System Plan held by Elizabeth
Wilcox or the Minister's office, whichever is most recent.
2. Table created by the Ministry with feedback on the Integrated Health Services
Plan and referenced in a January 29, 2025 email from Elizabeth Wilcox to Sara
Tomlinson and Wendy Birch, subject line "Integrated Health System Plan - for
Recovery Alberta Input.
Eliminate: "dup-recs", "drafts", "dup-emails"
Date Range: January 1, 2025 to April 27, 2026
Mental Health and Addiction has decided to provide partial access to the records you
requested. The records contain some information that has been withheld from disclosure
in accordance with the following section of the Act:
• 29(1)(Advice from officials)
You may ask for a review under Part 3 of the Act by the Office of the Information and
Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) of the decision. To request a review, you must submit a
completed Request for Review form within 60 business days from the date of this letter
to the OIPC at Suite 410, 9925 – 109 Street, Edmonton, Alberta, T5K 2J8. The form is
available under ‘Resources’ on the OIPC’s website, www.oipc.ab.ca, or you can call 1-
888-878-4044 to request a copy.
Under section 59(1) you must also notify the director of the Mental Health and Addiction
Access to Information Office at PPHS.ATIOffice@gov.ab.ca if you wish to request a
review.The one released page of the 467-page record, an Email on January 29, 2025 from Ministry of Mental Health and Addiction to Recovery Alberta asking for a review of the Alberta Ministry of Health's Integrated Health System Plan. 467 pages of records, all withheld under Section 29 (advice from officials) of the Access to Information Act, except for one page (shown previous).
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 03/06/2026
At 9:30 MST, the Law Enforcement Review Board will hear the 1st challenge of the Calgary police chief’s dismissal of police violence complaints at the 2024 UofC protest. Annette Lengyel was in her 60s. BWC shows her head being struck with a police baton + other assaults. Mtg link 📧 lerb@gov.ab.ca
Law Enforcement Review Board – June 2026 hearing
May 22, 2026
The Law Enforcement Review Board will hear final arguments on
the following appeal:
The appeal hearing will be conducted online, using Microsoft
Teams. To observe a hearing, contact the board office for further
information.
Calgary appeal:
June 3, 2026 (9:30 a.m.)
• Annette Lengyel is appealing the decision of Chief Katie
McLellan to dismiss her complaint against an officer for his
conduct during a protest at the University of Calgary.
The Law Enforcement Review Board, an independent body
established under the Police Act in 1973, reviews public
complaints about police officer conduct and appeals from police
officers on disciplinary action.
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 02/06/2026
This is what happens when I use voice-to-text on dog walks. As good a time as any to announce a big story coming — my first entirely in Nova Scotia, but recognizably Albertan. Subscribe and don’t miss it: drugdatadecoded.ca (Also note “Wiggles” is just a nickname of Iggy Pup. Embarrassing.)
Text Message: Having trouble finding when the shelters were set up in the first place, can you point me to a new source or any documentation just showing like when the contract was issued to OTC by the government. I’m trying to link it to the August 2021 encampment violence.

Next message: As… Leave it wiggles leave it good dog good dog good boy yeah that’s a good boy. That’s a good boy. Yeah, in, the government was…”
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 31/05/2026
I loved this rundown of Alberta’s war on harm reduction by a Calgary-based Instagram news compiler doing great work on many AB topics: www.instagram.com/reel/DY3LmH0...
A brown-skinned man with a great mane of black hair and a beard gives, wearing a blue collared shirt and white pants gives air quotes around “The Recovery Model” while discussing a news article by Cindy Tran titled Two Alberta supervised consumption sites shut down in 2025 with plans to close Calgary’s in the new year.
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 24/05/2026
I.e.:
Passage from the book, Thin Blue Rage: While many other cultural traits might be attached to policing, our contention is that policing studies have articulated six basic attributes that we assert are fundamental elements of the police movement: mission orientation and the “police calling”; police truths and a monopoly over crime knowledge; isolation/solidarity; hegemonic subjectivities and systemic oppression; police fragility and the impacts of policing collective victimization complex; and the dominant conservatism within policing.
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 24/05/2026
Highly recommended, out from Fernwood this month. Launch party on June 12 in Halifax too! Main thesis is that policing culture is a social movement and we need to start dealing with it as such.
The front cover of A book called Thin Blue Rage: The Police Countermovement by Andrew Crosby and Jeffrey Monaghan. It’s an evil-looking impressionistic illustration of angry, almost zombie-like police officers in a line facing the viewer
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 18/05/2026
The officers’ names are reported by CP24 despite Toronto Police *outrageously* refusing to release them, citing “ongoing investigations.” I’ve been told one of them made $165k working for TPS last year (unverified but easily checked).
Toronto police said they are not identifying the officers as Spanish court proceedings are ongoing.

However, sources confirmed to CTV News and CP24 that the officers involved are Constables Evan Glennie, Rich Rand and Caglar Yigit.
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 12/05/2026
Thanks to all these folks who have donated to the legal fund - can’t tell you how appreciated it is. @michaellitwak.bsky.social @tomgoldsmith.bsky.social & the many anonymous donors. 🙏 ➡️ chuffed.org/project/1808...
List of donors giving amounts ranging from $25 yo $200List of donors giving amounts ranging from $25 yo $200
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 12/05/2026
I went on X for a sec just to… uh… see, and boy am I glad I did that.
Someone named Donald saying only the word “Deport” while posting the Calgary Sun article titled “Activists sue U of C, Calgary police and city…” with a photo of several people including someone in a keffiyeh facing a row of riot police
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 07/05/2026
Same story, three provinces, same cause: Each one signed on to the Alberta Recovery Model in 2024. Why do we accept eugenic public policy in 2026?
Four headlines that show overdoses spiking in Saskatoon, Red Deer, Hamilton and Toronto after the closure of supervised consumption sites.
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 06/05/2026
I have to credit Jason Kenney for not being a “won’t someone think of the cops” guy wrt the elections data breach. Instead, he listed all the groups he spent 3.5 years undermining and attacking while in office: victims of domestic violence, journalists, activists, and public servants. Incredible.
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 02/05/2026
Watch for it. It started with the privacy commissioner’s press release and politicians keep amplifying it.
Privacy commissioner of alberta: “What happened here is very serious,” added McLeod. “More than 2.9 million Albertans have had their personal information breached. For some of these individuals there is likely a real risk of significant harm given that their home address and phone numbers have been made public. This could be especially harmful for certain individuals. Some examples might be those who work for law enforcement, who are public officials, who are fleeing intimate partner violence and other vulnerable individuals. This incident demonstrates that it is high time for political parties to be made subject to PIPA.”
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 28/04/2026
Announcement - Lethbridge! I'm joining Mark Brave Rock and SAGE Clan Patrol on May 12 at the Galt Museum for an event hosted by UofL. I'll give a talk titled "Supervised Consumption Site Closures: Creating Chaos to Justify Coercion." Please register here: uleth.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
Poster that says "Supervised Consumption Site Closures: Creating Chaos to Justify Coercion." with Mark Brave Rock and Euan Thomson, May 12, 2026, Galt Museum and Archives, 501 1 St S, Lethbridge, AB. Doors open at 5:30PM, opening prayer at 6PM. Everyone welcome. Please contact Miranda Leibel for additional information: miranda.leibel@uleth.ca
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 25/04/2026
3. MLA Stephan is loudly opposed to any harm-reduction services. His constituency association president’s spouse told Turning Point’s board chair that its defunding was because it was operating a “de facto injection site,” which was never demonstrated.
Text message: I know exactly who told me. What I was told was that turning point had broken terms of the grant application in acting/allowing/ operating(?) as a "deafacto injection site". That was the basis for the decision to withdraw funding
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 25/04/2026
2. That drop-in has operated in the city since 1989. Its leadership believes a local MLA, Jason Stephan, triggered the surveillance of their agency through a provincial snitch line, Alberta Health Services inspections and fire code inspections.
Nothing was found by the SCAN operation, except for "activities... occurring on or near [Turning Point's] property." In her September 25 letter notifying Turning Point it was being defunded, Minister of Primary and Preventative Health Services Adriana LaGrange conspicuously omitted the organization's alleged misdeeds and instead pointed to a need for "broader health system refocusing."
Two surprise site inspections were also conducted by Alberta Health Services or the Ministry of Health, along with a fire code inspection, each of which failed to uncover operational wrongdoing by Turning Point. According to Corrigal, none of the agencies responsible for these investigations produced reports for Turning Point. "I don't understand how processes like this would occur without reporting and documentation," she says.
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 20/04/2026
“Cultural genocide” is genocide.
Between the late 19th century and the 1990s, more than 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend Christian residential schools that sought to “eliminate” First Nations people as a distinct group.
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 17/04/2026
This social disorder series is excruciating, even for CBC Calgary.
Liane Medwick grew up in Meadowlark Park and moved back to the neighbourhood in 2003. She says it’s important to have a presence in the community.

“Because the one thing that the criminals do not want is for us to have eyes on them and call the police. The more that we call the police, the more police presence we get in the community.”

Calgary Police Supt. Scott Boyd says more calls from a particular area does have an influence on where policing happens.
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 09/04/2026
Around this same time, Neufeld was conducting what amounts to an election campaign for the UCP that aligned with his anti-drug decrim stance: drugdatadecoded.ca/alberta-poli... A protoplasmic version of his “perceptions of safety” message from April 2023:
“Even as we’re working to address these issues, more and more things are happening,” said Neufeld. “And I get that it really seems like a lot. At times like this, it’s understandable that people begin to feel unsafe and anxious and ask questions about what in the world is going on.”
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 09/04/2026
While I’m at it, here are the five most recent stories written by Alberta at Noon host Judy Aldous (who I have previously criticized for pro-government coverage of drug policy). Aldous has been at CBC Calgary since 2002 and by accounts I’ve heard has a ton of power there.
Five stories in a row that appear to create alarm about the influx of immigrants, in one case the headline describing immigration as “out of control” and in another framing immigration as “competition.”
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 09/04/2026
Three of the same journalist’s four most recent pieces:
Three stories, all about social disorder, including one that is a survey asking for people’s experiences
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 09/04/2026
Here’s how it was defined in a recent story by the same author. “Unwanted guest,” “suspicious person” and “suspicious vehicle” make up 3/4 of social disorder calls. “Disturbance” and “mental health concern” make up the rest.
5 most common types of disorder

The disorder index includes calls to Calgary police regarding incidents that can have negative impacts on people, particularly in public places, but don't tend to be represented well in traditional crime statistics.

A bar chart show that unwanted guest is the most common category of social disturbance.
Unwanted guest

132,496
Suspicious person

96,350
Disturbance

74,533
Suspicious vehicle

39,876
Mental health concern

28,357
Source: Calgary Police Service (CBC)
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 09/04/2026
This man is not threatening or harming anybody. It says so. Perception of safety has taken over as safety itself in Calgary. But it’s unaccompanied by education of how people end up unhoused. CBC is inverting who is unsafe in this scenario. An editor asked for this story, then gave it a headline.
'A bit disturbing': Here’s what social disorder in downtown Calgary looks like today

A walk through downtown shows open drug use, tent encampments, litter and unpredictable people are rampant


Elizabeth Withey · CBC News · Posted: Apr 09, 2026 8:00 AM ADT | Last Updated: 30 minutes ago
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 09/04/2026
How copaganda shows up in Calgary media as the provincial government and police lobby the public for acceptance of their drug jails. CBC Calgary showing its stripes today:
Out one door and in another

This is what social disorder in Calgary often looks like. This man isn’t causing any trouble right now, Thorpe said, but his behaviour is unusual and unpredictable — loitering in an alley, pacing around, talking to himself. And he’s not dressed for the weather, so someone is bound to call police, either because they’re worried about his welfare, worried for their own safety, or both.
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 07/04/2026
I don’t know how this happened but… last night, Iggy came in from the yard wearing a wreath.
Black dog with brown eyes looking up from a backyard deck. The dog is wearing a holiday wreath that has turned brown. The dog looks slightly alert but you can see his tail is wagging.
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 06/04/2026
Perfect example of Alberta NDP screwing up messaging to align instead with the UCP. Health care workers say overcrowding and weapons in ERs are the key source of danger, yet the solution is more cops (more weapons), not reducing crowds? ABNDP: not ready for an election. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
Nurses have told leadership that the volume of people in waiting rooms have made them feel increasingly unsafe, the staffer said, adding that health professionals can’t remove potentially dangerous patients due to their duty of care.
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 06/04/2026
O’Leary’s data centre: 2 million lawnmowers that steal people’s work and turn it into mulch for the tar sands. Only in Alberta.
Kevin O'Leary, Danielle Smith and Jordan Peterson pose for a photo at Mar-a-Lago in January 2025
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 31/03/2026
Here’s the most recent example I could find, CBC’s defence reporter filling a long article with celebratory messaging about meeting the 2% NATO target and explainers of where all the money went without saying where it all came from. Closest it came: www.cbc.ca/news/politic...
The benchmark was partly achieved by an internal reorganization of the federal government, which has seen some agencies, such as the Canadian Coast Guard, moved under the auspices of the Defence Department and therefore counted toward the NATO target. It was also achieved through a substantial pay raise for members of the military and by pouring money into base infrastructure and overhaul.
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 26/03/2026
I just updated my spreadsheet I've diligently kept since September 2021, tracking the initial vs updated fatality statistics each month. The government is still making updates back to November 2023 - two and a half years ago. Do. Not. Trust. The. Initial. Reports. 3/
Table showing updates to deaths that generally run from 20 to 30% above the initial reports by the government. These are total drug toxicity deaths in Alberta.
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 26/03/2026
The government just released its latest fatality data, which once again updated the total deaths for May 2024, this time to 100. That means the deaths were 37% higher than the government initially celebrated. This trick has worked again. And again. And again. Each time, media have bitten. 2/
Year-over-year opioid overdose deaths in Alberta drop by 55%, latest numbers show
Province to launch mental health and addiction services agency in September
Omar Sherif · CBC News · Posted: Aug 31, 2024 8:00 AM ADT | Last Updated: August 31, 2024
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 21/03/2026
For comparison, here is the study’s declaration of interests. It’s fraud, and it’s changing the course of history with the help of uncritical media.
DECLARATION OF INTERESTS
Several co-authors are affiliated with the Canadian Centre of Recovery Excellence (CoRE), which receives public funding from the Government of Alberta. The Government of Alberta did not have any role
in the study design, data analysis, interpretation of results, manuscript
preparation or the decision to submit this work for publication. The
funder did not exercise editorial oversight, did not review manuscript
drafts for approval and did not have any right of refusal regarding
publication. All analyses, interpretations and conclusions are those of
the authors alone
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 21/03/2026
Main issue with that RD News Now story and most other reporting on this study is they ignore the conflicts of interest. Yesterday's CBC piece mentioned them but didn't explain. Why focus narrowly on methodology when it's clear the authors had no business publishing on this? Media need to step up.
While the study reported last year's closure of Red Deer's only overdose prevention site didn't lead to more overdose deaths, emergency department visits or ambulance calls among former site users, it's been criticized for its scope and for potential conflicts of interest.

Elaine Hyshka, an associate professor at the University of Alberta’s School of Public Health, said the six-month period the study used to analyze data related to the Red Deer site wasn’t long enough to definitively back up a policy decision to close the site.
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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · 20/03/2026
Also “RCMP visit” CBC seriously?? Which editor is writing these headlines. The globe went with this and they broke the story!
Police search offices of Sam Mraiche-owned firm as part of Alberta procurement probe
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