If the deputy premier wants free speech for Ukraine so badly, why is he attacking it in Alberta?

Last weekend, Alberta Deputy Premier Thomas Lukaszuk was in Edmonton's Churchill Square enthusiastically demanding free speech and recognition of other fundamental rights for citizens of Ukraine.

Premier Alison Redford's second in command told his listeners he recalled being in Kiev in 2004, observing the Orange Revolution: "Never again should there be a time in Ukraine that protests would have to be sparked in favour of democracy, but unfortunately that wasn't so."

Presumably his speechifying was well received.

Has Alberta pioneered an unlegislated ban on collective bargaining?

As is well known, Advanced Education Minister Thomas Lukaszuk has sent a letter to the boards of all of Alberta post-secondary institutions instructing them on what their bargaining position and final wage offer must be in negotiations with their faculty associations and staff unions.

The position can be summed up in the phrase, now frequently heard on college and university campuses throughout the province, "Zero, zero, zero."

Oh, wait -- and I mean that literally -- after three years of nothing you can ask nicely for a 2-per-cent raise. If you're lucky, and unlike Athabasca University your institution's administration hasn't spent its reserves into oblivion, you might get something.