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Alberta

“We can no longer watch our city decay” EPS Chief Dale McFee on province’s “zero tolerance for crime” initiative

Published

11 months ago

6 minute read

Zero tolerance for crime

New targeted prosecution units and stricter bail protocol will make offenders accountable for their actions and better protect Albertans from violent criminal activity.

Albertans deserve to feel safe and protected from repeat violent offenders, which is why the province is introducing new measures to make sure Albertans feel secure and protected in their communities.

Targeted prosecution units in Alberta’s major urban centres will help address deteriorating safety and keep Albertans safe from those who commit violent crimes. The Alberta Crown Prosecution Service (ACPS) will create teams with expertise to focus on the increased level of crime and the prosecution of violent criminals in Edmonton and Calgary. Prosecutors on these teams will work with law enforcement to focus on specific issues affecting these communities, including drug houses and available social supports, and how these factors affect the amount and type of crime occurring.

“The position of the Alberta government is absolutely clear: there is no safe haven in Alberta for criminals. These changes add to our existing efforts to make sure all criminals, especially repeat violent offenders, are held accountable for their actions.”

Mickey Amery, Minister of Justice and Attorney General 

Changes to the bail practice protocol for Crown prosecutors will prioritize public safety and take a tough approach on crime caused by repeat violent offenders and gang activity. The protocol provides guidance to prosecutors to seek to detain any accused who is a threat to public safety, especially repeat violent offenders, unless the risk to public safety can be addressed by bail conditions. Prosecutors must evaluate the risk that the accused will commit another offence if released.

In addition, the attorney general is terminating the triage practice protocol, which has been met with public concern since it came into effect in 2017. Eliminating this protocol will better address violent crimes in the community and ensure all viable charges are prosecuted. This change is possible through government investments in the ACPS, which give the prosecutors resources to fully prosecute all matters involving violence.

“In the absence of needed bail reform from the federal government, Alberta is taking a zero-tolerance approach to ensure citizens are safe and secure in their communities. Violence, social disorder and open-air drug use is unacceptable, and we will do everything in our power to take back our streets and ensure they’re safe for Albertans.”

Mike Ellis, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Services

These measures build on several actions Alberta’s government is taking to improve public safety, including increased investments in the Alberta Sheriffs, additional funding to hire 100 more street-level police officers in Edmonton and Calgary, and a $5-million grant to each city to improve public safety on their transit networks.

“The criminal activity and disorder that is happening on our city streets is truly devastating. I am pleased by the changes being proposed by the minister of justice and the new approach of Edmonton Police Service to keep public spaces safe. These interventions are important to stabilize the situation while we continue to work together on long-term solutions.”

Amarjeet Sohi, mayor, City of Edmonton

“There is no question that Edmontonians are concerned about the condition of their city’s public spaces, with open-air drug use and associated crime and violence a top issue. We have many government and community partners we lean on to support those impacted by mental health, addiction and victimization, and will continue to do so, but the EPS is taking a clear stance on the criminality and disorder being directly fed by the drug trade.”

Dale McFee, chief, Edmonton Police Service

Together, these initiatives will help strengthen the Alberta justice system and the ability to prosecute crimes and keep repeat violent offenders off the street.

Quick facts

  • Investments in the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service include the addition of 50 new trial prosecutor positions since 2017.
  • Public concern about the triage practice protocol introduced in 2017 resulted in some prosecutions not proceeding even if they were in the public interest and had a reasonable likelihood of conviction.
  • Alberta is providing funding for 100 new front-line police officers in Calgary and Edmonton – 50 in each city.
  • The Alberta Transit Cleanup Grant is providing Edmonton and Calgary with $5 million each for initiatives that create a safer, more welcoming environment for transit riders.
  • In February 2023, the Alberta Sheriffs entered into an agreement with the Edmonton Police Service (EPS) to deploy 12 sheriffs for a 15-week pilot project to address public safety and social disorder in the downtown core. In response to a request from EPS, 10 sheriffs remain deployed with EPS until the end of the year.
Related Topics:

This is a news release from the Government of Alberta.

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Alberta

Alberta awash in corporate welfare

Published on July 26, 2024

By

From the Fraser Institute

By Matthew Lau

To understand Ottawa’s negative impact on Alberta’s economy and living standards, juxtapose two recent pieces of data.

First, in July the Trudeau government made three separate “economic development” spending announcements in  Alberta, totalling more than $80 million and affecting 37 different projects related to the “green economy,” clean technology and agriculture. And second, as noted in a new essay by Fraser Institute senior fellow Kenneth Green, inflation-adjusted business investment (excluding residential structures) in Canada’s extraction sector (mining, quarrying, oil and gas) fell 51.2 per cent from 2014 to 2022.

The productivity gains that raise living standards and improve economic conditions rely on business investment. But business investment in Canada has declined over the past decade and total economic growth per person (inflation-adjusted) from Q3-2015 through to Q1-2024 has been less than 1 per cent versus robust growth of nearly 16 per cent in the United States over the same period.

For Canada’s extraction sector, as Green documents, federal policies—new fuel regulations, extended review processes on major infrastructure projects, an effective ban on oil shipments on British Columbia’s northern coast, a hard greenhouse gas emissions cap targeting oil and gas, and other regulatory initiatives—are largely to blame for the massive decline in investment.

Meanwhile, as Ottawa impedes private investment, its latest bundle of economic development announcements underscores its strategy to have government take the lead in allocating economic resources, whether for infrastructure and public institutions or for corporate welfare to private companies.

Consider these federally-subsidized projects.

A gas cloud imaging company received $4.1 million from taxpayers to expand marketing, operations and product development. The Battery Metals Association of Canada received $850,000 to “support growth of the battery metals sector in Western Canada by enhancing collaboration and education stakeholders.” A food manufacturer in Lethbridge received $5.2 million to increase production of plant-based protein products. Ermineskin Cree Nation received nearly $400,000 for a feasibility study for a new solar farm. The Town of Coronation received almost $900,000 to renovate and retrofit two buildings into a business incubator. The Petroleum Technology Alliance Canada received $400,000 for marketing and other support to help boost clean technology product exports. And so on.

When the Trudeau government announced all this corporate welfare and spending, it naturally claimed it create economic growth and good jobs. But corporate welfare doesn’t create growth and good jobs, it only directs resources (including labour) to subsidized sectors and businesses and away from sectors and businesses that must be more heavily taxed to support the subsidies. The effect of government initiatives that reduce private investment and replace it with government spending is a net economic loss.

As 20th-century business and economics journalist Henry Hazlitt put it, the case for government directing investment (instead of the private sector) relies on politicians and bureaucrats—who did not earn the money and to whom the money does not belong—investing that money wisely and with almost perfect foresight. Of course, that’s preposterous.

Alas, this replacement of private-sector investment with public spending is happening not only in Alberta but across Canada today due to the Trudeau government’s fiscal policies. Lower productivity and lower living standards, the data show, are the unhappy results.

Author:

Matthew Lau
Adjunct Scholar, Fraser Institute
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Alberta

‘Fireworks’ As Defence Opens Case In Coutts Two Trial

Published on July 25, 2024

By

From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy 

By Ray McGinnis

Anthony Olienick and Chris Carbert are on trial for conspiracy to commit murder and firearms charges in relation to the Coutts Blockade into mid-February 2022. In opening her case before a Lethbridge, AB, jury on July 11, Olienick’s lawyer, Marilyn Burns stated “This is a political, criminal trial that is un Canadian.” She told the jury, “You will be shocked, and at the very least, disappointed with how Canada’s own RCMP conducted themselves during and after the Coutts protest,” as she summarized officers’ testimony during presentation of the Crown’s case. Burns also contended that “the conduct of Alberta’s provincial government and Canada’s federal government are entwined with the RCMP.” The arrests of the Coutts Four on the night of February 13 and noon hour of February 14, were key events in a decision by the Clerk of the Privy Council, Janice Charette, and the National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister, Jody Thomas, to advise Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to invoke the Emergencies Act. Chief Justice Paul Rouleau, in submitting his Public Order Emergency Commission Report to Parliament on February 17, 2023, also cited events at the Coutts Blockade as key to his conclusion that the government was justified in invoking the Emergencies Act.

Justice David Labrenz cautioned attorney Burns regarding her language, after Crown prosecutor Stephen Johnson objected to some of the language in the opening statement of Olienick’s counsel. Futher discussion about the appropriateness of attorney Burns’ statement to the jury is behind a publication ban, as discussions occurred without the jury present.

Justice Labrenz told the jury on July 12, “I would remind you that the presumption of innocence means that both the accused are cloaked with that presumption, unless the Crown proves beyond a reasonable doubt the essential elements of the charge(s).” He further clarified what should result if the jurors were uncertain about which narrative to believe: the account by the Crown, or the account from the accused lawyers. Labrenz stated that such ambivalence must lead to an acquittal; As such a degree of uncertainty regarding which case to trust in does not meet the “beyond a reasonable doubt” threshold for a conviction.”

On July 15, 2024, a Lethbridge jury heard evidence from a former employer of Olienicks’ named Brian Lambert. He stated that he had tasked Olienick run his sandstone quarry and mining business. He was a business partner with Olienick. In that capacity, Olienick made use of what Lambert referred to as “little firecrackers,” to quarry the sandstone and reduce it in size. Reducing the size of the stone renders it manageable to get refined and repurposed so it could be sold to buyers of stone for other uses (building construction, patio stones, etc.) Lambert explained that the “firecrackers” were “explosive devices” packaged within tubing and pipes that could also be used for plumbing. He detailed how “You make them out of ordinary plumbing pipe and use some kind of propellant like shotgun powder…” Lambert explained that the length of the pipe “…depended on how big a hole or how large a piece of stone you were going to crack. The one I saw was about six inches long … maybe an inch in diameter.”

One of Olienick’s charges is “unlawful possession of an explosive device for a dangerous purpose.” The principal evidence offered up by RCMP to the Crown is what the officers depicted as “pipe bombs” which they obtained at the residence of Anthony Olienick in Claresholm, Alberta, about a two-hour drive from Coutts. Officers entered his home after he was arrested the night of February 13, 2022. Lambert’s testimony offers a plausible common use for the “firecrackers” the RCMP referred to as “pipe bombs.” Lambert added, these “firecrackers” have a firecracker fuse, and in the world of “explosive” they are “no big deal.”

Fellow accused, Chris Carbert, is does not face the additional charge of unlawful possession of explosives for a dangerous purpose. This is the first full week of the case for the defence. The trial began on June 6 when the Crown began presenting its case.

Ray McGinnis is a Senior Fellow with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy who recently attended several days of testimony at the Coutts Two trial.

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