Many people living in rural areas on the Prairies have stories about the times their homes were robbed. Or their barns were broken into. Car windows smashed. Mysterious vehicles or people spotted at strange hours. They were attacked.
They have called for the government to step in or allow them to take matters into their own hands in areas where the police can be slow to respond, if they come at all. And now Alberta’s United Conservative Party government is pledging to act, describing the situation as a crisis and promising a raft of policies designed to curb rural crime and crack down on offenders.
Jessica Nelson spoke to rural property owners about those fears in areas that have crime rates that, in 2017, were 36- to 42-per-cent higher than in urban centres.
One of them was Caroline Parke, who says she and her family feel like targets because they live in an isolated area far from police. She recalls an incident when a neighbour reported someone banging in the door, so her husband went over to check it out. When he was gone, Ms. Parke encountered a woman holding a knife on her porch, who she fought off.
“Criminals know they have ample time to complete their tasks. If they knew they only had a matter of minutes, many events would not unravel as much as they do,” she says.
The Alberta government struck a rural crime task force and has already been making changes designed to confront the problem.
The province has announced plans to hire hundreds of new RCMP officers for rural Alberta (while passing on the costs to local municipalities). The government passed legislation designed to prevent lawsuits against landowners who use force to protect their properties – a law that was in response to a case in Okotoks. Hundreds of sheriffs, wildlife officers and vehicle inspectors will be turned into first responders through what the government has called the its RAPID force (Rural Alberta Provincial Integrated Defence).
And this past week, Justice Minister Doug Schweitzer asked his federal counterpart to amend the Criminal Code to ensure offenders who commit crimes in rural areas are given harsher sentences. He says rural landowners are more vulnerable and that needs to be taken into account.
But experts worry that getting tough on rural crime won’t actually solve the underlying problems, notably mental illness and drug addiction.
There are also racial tensions that underpin the discussion about rural crime that were laid bear after Colten Boushie, a 22-year-old Indigenous man, was shot and killed while trespassing on a farm in rural Saskatchewan.
James Daschuk, a health-studies professor at the University of Regina, pointed to a similar debate in Saskatchewan, which prompted the provincial government to crack down by strengthening no-trespassing laws.
Dr. Daschuk noted that the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations came out against the changes, arguing that barring people from entering or crossing into land and accessing resources violates treaty rights.
“It’s an amping up of tension,” said Dr. Daschu. “It’s a reflection of the tension because, ‘Don’t come on my land. You’re not welcome here.’”
This is the weekly Western Canada newsletter written by B.C. Editor Wendy Cox and Alberta Bureau Chief James Keller. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here. This is a new project and we’ll be experimenting as we go, so let us know what you think.
Around the West:
RIDE-HAILING: Uber and Lyft launched in Vancouver on Friday after they were given approval the day before to operate in the Lower Mainland, ending years of delays for the transportation services.
CORONAVIRUS: As Canadian public health agencies prepare to deal with a new viral illness, a specialized lab in Saskatoon is using its research on different strains of the coronavirus to help develop a vaccine. The University of Saskatchewan’s Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization-International Vaccine Centre, also known as VIDO-InterVac, has received permission from the Public Health Agency of Canada to focus on the threat.
ORPHAN WELLS: Alberta’s auditor-general has launched an investigation into the province’s growing problem of orphan wells as underfunded liabilities in the oil and gas sector climb into the tens of billions of dollars. The investigation comes as frustration mounts about resource companies that have skipped out on their property-tax bills, which has left rural municipalities nearly $200-million short. A group of Alberta landowners is asking farmers and ranchers to fight back by closing valves and cutting power to energy-company sites.
MENG WANZHOU: The first phase of extradition proceedings for Chinese executive Meng Wanzhou wrapped up on Thursday with her lawyer telling a B.C. Supreme Court judge that the U.S. request for her extradition poses a unique test of Canadian values, because it touches on the independence of this country’s foreign policy. In a document filed Thursday with the court, Ms. Meng’s legal team warned that accepting the Canadian government’s case “would send a message to the Canadian public that our government is willing to extradite individuals to face prosecution for offences where such prosecution is antithetical to Canadian values, interests and policy.” The judge has reserved her decision on the defence’s argument that the case should be dismissed because the charges against Ms. Meng are not offences in Canada.
STREET CHECKS: Earlier this week, Vancouver Police outlined new guidelines on when and how its officers would conduct police street checks. The policy directs that the checks cannot be used in an arbitrary or random way and must ensure that the interaction with a person is voluntary. Street checks are controversial because data show that visible minorities are stopped disproportionately. Cities such as Montreal, Halifax and Toronto have discontinued them, but Vancouver’s police chief maintained that the new policy is a “sweet spot” that respects civil and human rights and also allows police to prevent crime.
TEACHERS: B.C. Finance Minister Carole James’s Feb. 18 budget will carry a message for the largest public-sector union that has yet to settle a contract in the current round of negotiations – the BC Teachers’ Federation. The teachers’ union says the only way to reach a settlement requires additional funds from government, but Ms. James is drafting a barely balanced budget that will put no more money on the table, the Finance Minister has confirmed. An internal document shows that the teachers’ union is gearing up for a strike.
DEVELOPMENT LAWSUIT: A judge in Edmonton has granted Alberta and the federal government permission to appeal an order forcing them to pay Beaver Lake Cree Nation hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to cover legal expenses tied to a lawsuit that started more than a decade ago and is still years away from going to trial. Beaver Lake’s lawsuit is significant because, if the small band prevails, governments may have to rewrite the way they evaluate industrial permits for projects such as oil-sands mines. But if Beaver Lake cannot afford to pursue its case, the legal merits of measuring cumulative effects against treaty rights in Alberta will remain untested.
CYBERSECURITY: The federal government has enticed Mastercard Inc. to open a technology research and development centre in Vancouver with $49-million in incentives through its Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF). The centre will create 270 jobs by 2029 and hire 100 students on co-op work terms, Mastercard said. The centre will be located in Vancouver’s Old Exchange Building.
CONFLICT COMMISSIONER: When Ted Hughes was in his 70s, his son says, his family would ask him when he was going to “wind down," putting the brakes on a long record of leading public inquiries that included holding the federal government and RCMP to account over the treatment of protesters at the 1997 APEC summit in Vancouver. But Mr. Hughes had difficulty saying no to requests for his service. Although best known as British Columbia’s first conflict of interest commissioner and the author of a report that led to the 1991 resignation of premier Bill Vander Zalm, Mr. Hughes was also the reliable head of inquiries across several provinces in such issues as child care and the justice system. Mr. Hughes died Jan. 17 at age 92.
FOUR SEASONS: The Four Seasons, the luxury hotel in the heart of downtown Vancouver for 44 years, ceased operations on Monday. The hotel announced in 2018 that it would close in the wake of a lawsuit launched by its landlord, Cadillac Fairview Corp., accusing it of running a “tired, dated” operation that fell below the standards of first-class luxury.
RESERVE VIOLENCE: A Saskatchewan First Nation has declared a state of emergency and is looking for provincial and federal government help to stop drug- and gang-related violence in its community. The chief and council of the Onion Lake Cree said there have been three deaths in the community in the past two months related to drugs and gangs, numerous high-speed chases and violent crimes. On just one day this week, there was another high-speed pursuit, the discovery of a missing man’s body and the crash of a stolen vehicle into the band’s arena.
CONTEMPORARY CALGARY: The building that once housed Calgary’s planetarium has been given new life as a contemporary art gallery, with its first exhibit paying tribute to its cosmic roots. The Centennial Planetarium, a brutalist structure topped by a geodesic dome, reopens this weekend as Contemporary Calgary. Marsha Lederman checked out the Planetary exhibition, which features work from more than 35 local artists, as well as British artist Luke Jerram’s Museum of the Moon, suspended in the former celestial theatre.
Opinion:
Jody Wilson-Raybould on the Coastal GasLink dispute: “Reconciliation requires transitioning from the colonial system of government imposed on First Nations through the Indian Act, to systems of Indigenous governance that are determined by Indigenous peoples and recognized by others. Indigenous peoples must do this work. We have to deconstruct the colonial reality, identify shared priorities and visions, rebuild governance structures and capacity, determine how to move out of the Indian Act and revitalize legal orders. This includes clarifying the role of hereditary chiefs and systems in today’s world. The Crown also has a role to play in this transition. Governments must transform their conduct to support nation and governance building without imposition or interference.”
Kerry Gold on Vancouver’s livability: Vancouver ranked way down the list, at No. 41 out of 100, on the Resonance Consultancy’s annual list of Best Cities, one of the most comprehensive rankings globally because its criteria include not just standard livability statistics, such as crime and education, but also economic indicators. Vancouver gets its middling rank because of its high cost of entry.
Richard Jackson, Maurice Dusseault and Christopher Holly on orphan wells: The problem of orphan wells is ramping up, and provincial remediation programs need additional funding. Carbon-tax receipts might appropriately be used for this purpose. Federal matching funds would help reduce atmospheric emissions and groundwater contamination, sustain a troubled sector of the economy and acknowledge the vast contribution Alberta has made to federal coffers – more than $6,000 per capita annually in recent years.
Gary Mason on Kenney’s education funding changes: "Mr. Kenney intends to bring some long-overdue discipline to the process. In future, funding will be tied to performance measures such as graduate employment rate, graduate skills and competencies, administration expense ratio, enrolment, sponsored research revenue and others. There are undoubtedly some schools already deeply nervous about the ramifications.”