Alberta justice minister calls for RCMP commissioner to be removed

Alberta’s justice minister is calling for RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki to be removed because she believes she has failed to take accountability in recent police cases.

“It’s been about a year of concern that we’ve had,” Tyler Shandro said Wednesday.

Shandro said Lucki is risking the integrity of the investigation into the April 2020 mass shooting in Nova Scotia that killed 22 people.

“It starts with the testimony that came out of the mass casualty commission, which revealed that Commissioner Lucki was probably pressured by (then-public safety minister Bill) Blair to share details of the mass shooting investigation with the aim to strengthen liberal legislation.” said Shandro.

The federal Conservative party called on Lucki to resign last month after audio was released of a conference call between Lucki and senior staff in Nova Scotia. In the call, she said she felt frustrated when she learned that the talking notes used for an RCMP news conference earlier that day did not include basic information about the killer’s weapons spree.

She can be heard saying her desire to share these basic facts publicly was in response to a request she received from a minister’s office, although she did not specify which minister or the exact nature of the request .

The Conservatives seized on those comments and suggested the Liberal government was interfering with the police investigation to advance its pending gun control legislation.

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Shandro also took issue with Lucki’s actions which led to the federal government calling in emergency forces during the Freedom Convoy protests and blockades in early 2022.

“As revealed last week, she failed to inform the federal cabinet of all law enforcement options available before the decision to invoke the Emergency Act,” Shandro said.

On Feb. 14, the day Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called in the never-before-used emergency powers, Lucki did brief Mendicino on law enforcement options.

Lucki emailed Mendicino’s chief of staff a few hours before the Emergency Act was invoked, saying she didn’t think police had exhausted “all available tools” in responding to the protest.

She added the Criminal Code and the then-recently announced provincial state of emergency in Ontario provided enough measures for police, including laying criminal charges and other deterrent measures.

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The minister said Lucki also failed to deal with the RCMP’s history of systemic racism in a “frank and public manner.”

In June 2020, after Athabasca Chipewyan Chief Allan Adam was allegedly beaten by RCMP in Fort McMurray and amid global protests following the death of George Floyd, Lucki said systemic racism definitely does not exist in the RCMP. She then walked back a few days later and said it did.

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Later that year, she released a plan to address systemic racism in the RCMP.

“Even after this in Alberta we saw the dashcam footage of the arrest of Chief Allan Adam. (There was) the excessive use of violence against the chief and the, in her own words, systemic racism. There have been no changes and no leadership from Commissioner Lucki to turn the RCMP into reform-focused on that issue,” Shandro said.

“I call on (Minister of Public Safety Marco) Mendicino to immediately revoke Commissioner Lucki’s appointment,” Shandro said. “The commissioner of the RCMP must be held to the highest standards. So far, Minister Mendicino has stood still while Commissioner Lucki has not met even the slightest standards for the past two years,” he said.

“This is an abrogation of the minister’s core responsibility to Canadians and must be corrected before the RCMP’s reputation as Canada’s federal police service is further damaged,” Shandro said.

Mendicino said the government had confidence in Lucki, but did not say for sure if she would be reappointed.

“There is a process around the appointment of the commissioner. That process has integrity,” Mendicino said.

“Obviously there will be a discussion with the commissioner as her current defined term comes to its natural conclusion. And we’ll see where it takes us.”

Alberta Provincial Police Force

Shandro’s motive may have been to promote a provincial police force in Alberta, according to Mount Royal University political science professor Keith Brownsey.

In August, Shandro released a plan for a provincial police force that would ensure the federal RCMP continues to operate, focusing on federal policing in areas such as cyberterrorism, human trafficking and organized crime. The “Alberta Police Service” will add hundreds of frontline officers to small divisions that will focus on speeding tickets and other less serious crimes.

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Brownsey said it was very unusual to see Shandro exceed his authority as a provincial minister and interfere with federal jurisdiction.

“They may actually be using it to push the federal government to get rid of Brenda Lucki, (but) I think it’s really about the provincial audience here,” he said.

Brownsey said this was an attempt by Shandro to publicly state that he had lost confidence in the RCMP and specifically the commissioner.

“If the RCMP is discredited and the commissioner has made a number of mistakes, then that lends legitimacy to the UCP argument that we need our own provincial police force,” Brownsey said.

“’See, the RCMP is not doing its job. They are doing something terribly wrong and that is why we need a provincial police force.’

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In a letter sent to the premier in late June, more than 70 rural Alberta municipalities asked the PCP to halt plans to create a provincial police force.

The group – made up of crime and police agencies, union, victim services, dozens of towns, cities and municipalities – says “Albertans have said loud and clear that they don’t want an expensive new police service, with an overwhelming 84 per cent of Albertans want to keep and improve the Alberta RCMP.”

“The next steps follow my commitment that I have made with municipalities over the past six months to hear their concerns and work with them. I suppose sooner or later it will have to be a decision before the cabinet whether to proceed or not,” he said.

Shandro said that if the provincial police force does not proceed at this stage, it may do so in the future.

“I think it’s really important for us to remember that this is a national conversation and it’s a conversation that’s been happening in Alberta since I was in high school. I’m in my mid-40s now, so it’s not a new conversation, Alberta.”