00:00:00.000Hey everyone, welcome back to the Alberta Roundup. I'm your host Rachel Emanuel.
00:00:14.280I hope that you guys are enjoying your Easter weekend so far. Thanks for taking a pause from
00:00:18.540your celebrations to join me today on the Alberta Roundup. Here's what we're going to be looking at
00:00:23.420on today's show. Alberta Premier Daniel Smith has sent a legal notice to CBC News. We're also going
00:00:29.360to be taking a look at the rising criminal activity in both Edmonton and Calgary. And Calgary Mayor Jodi
00:00:35.500Gondek had an uncomfortable moment this week when she walked away from the podium simply because she
00:00:40.660was asked a difficult question. Finally, I have a follow-up for you guys from last week's story on
00:00:45.660election tabulators. All that and more happening now on the Alberta Roundup. Okay guys, our first
00:00:51.480story here. Alberta Premier Daniel Smith's legal team is telling CBC News to retract and apologize
00:00:57.200for a recent story under threat of a defamation suit. We covered this story extensively last week.
00:01:03.160Of course, the story in question refers to contact Alberta Premier Daniel Smith's office has had with
00:01:08.760justice officials regarding charges stemming from the Coutts border blockade. The letter dated Sunday
00:01:13.380gives notice of the Premier's intention to quote, bring an action against the CBC. Last week, we talked
00:01:19.280about a newly released call between Premier Smith and controversial Street Pasker and the former
00:01:24.320leader of the Independence Party, Arthur Pawlowski. On the call, Smith tells Pawlowski she's been in
00:01:29.020weekly contact with justice officials over Pawlowski's charges. CBC's report argues that the call reveals
00:01:35.940that Smith's conversations, quote, with top Alberta justice officials about pandemic-related prosecutions
00:01:42.160were more frequent and specific than she has admitted publicly. The Premier has, of course,
00:01:46.900already responded to the report. She said she's been honest with the public that she's been in contact
00:01:51.400with her justice officials and the justice minister about charges stemming from the Coutts border
00:01:56.080blockade and the COVID-19 pandemic. She's been asking if these charges are still in the public
00:02:01.000interest and if there's a likelihood of conviction. CBC has, of course, released a series of reports
00:02:06.580about these conversations the Premier has had with justice officials. And Smith's lawyer is arguing that
00:02:11.740this latest report from CBC is seeking to, quote, revive a manufactured controversy.
00:02:16.880The letter to CBC says, quote, the CBC now again blatantly ignores the Premier's prior statements
00:02:22.780and recasts the harmful and defamatory narrative of unlawful interference and deceit by the Premier
00:02:28.580and her office. CBC was given until April 28th to comply with the request of the letter which
00:02:34.060demands a retraction of the latest story and an apology under threat of further action under the
00:02:39.060Defamation Act. CBC head of public affairs Chuck Thompson said the CBC stands by its reporting on this
00:02:45.500story. And if necessary, we'll defend it in court. Moving into our next story here, Premier Smith has
00:02:50.360directed officials in Edmonton and Calgary to hire 100 more police officers to be on the streets amid
00:02:55.780rising crime in both Edmonton and Calgary. Between July 2022 and January 2023, Edmonton's LRT and transit
00:03:04.280centers have experienced a 75% increase in criminal activity. The situation is similar in Calgary, where
00:03:11.020criminal activity at LRT stations increased by 46% between 2021 and 2022. Premier Smith said the
00:03:18.180province is working on addressing addictions and homelessness, the root causes of this criminal
00:03:23.040activity, but it won't compromise on the safety of Calgarians and Edmontonians. Meanwhile, at a press
00:03:28.880conference earlier this week, she said, quote, safety on public streets is never negotiable. Edmonton chief
00:03:34.200of police Dale McPhee also had plenty to say about why more street officers are needed. Take a listen to
00:03:39.820his comments. Many ask, why do we need more frontline officers? Well, let me share yesterday's
00:03:46.100highlights in the city of Edmonton to give you a bit of a perspective. We arrested a person in transit
00:03:52.660carrying a replica handgun and a crossbow. Two members went to a convenience store and were attacked
00:03:58.980by a man with an axe where nonlethal force was used to subdue him and arrest him. Police attended a call
00:04:06.940shortly after with a male. They arrived. One of the officers was punched in the face. And then we
00:04:13.440responded to a female that was in trouble being beat up. And again, the person wanted to fight.
00:04:21.040And moving into the controversy of the week at the same press conference, Calgary Mayor Jodi Gondek was
00:04:25.560asked a tough question about her record on the police. While she was still a councillor in Calgary,
00:04:31.240Gondek voted to reduce the police budget. The editor-in-chief of the counter-signal,
00:04:35.480Kian Bextie, asked Mayor Gondek to defend her record at that press conference earlier this week.
00:04:40.580A question for Mayor Gondek, Kian with the counter-signal. Just a few months ago, a handful
00:04:46.580of months ago, you were fighting tooth and nail against increasing the police budget. And you were
00:04:53.240actively supporting defund the police rhetoric. I'm just wondering when you realized that police
00:04:58.680forces were not optional. Did it take, you know, the random stabbings, wives getting stabbed,
00:05:05.000police officers getting killed to realize that it was important to fund police departments? And how
00:05:09.520can Calgarians trust you when you flip-flop on basic issues like public safety?
00:05:20.520So there you can see an absolutely shameful response from the mayor. She's unwilling to even
00:05:24.840answer the question. Meanwhile, women are being stabbed at LRT stations and simply walks away from
00:05:30.240the podium. Let's take a look at these numbers here. The average crime severity index in downtown
00:05:34.880Edmonton has increased 29% to 116 in December 22. That's up from 90 in July of the same year.
00:05:43.640This is primarily caused by an increase in serial criminal offenses, including second-degree murder,
00:05:48.840assault causing bodily harm with a weapon, robbery, and aggravated assault. In Calgary,
00:05:54.820property crime occurrences nearly doubled, increasing 95% to 463 in 2022. That's up from
00:06:02.060238 in 2021. Meanwhile, public-generated calls for service to LRT stations increased to 5,012
00:06:09.280last year. That's up 20% from the year before. Moving into our next story here, Alberta Premier
00:06:15.040Daniel Smith said she has confidence in Elections Alberta's plan to run the upcoming provincial
00:06:19.840election because a recount will be possible if necessary. That's because Elections Alberta will
00:06:24.820be keeping all paper ballots for three months after the date of the election or after the date of a
00:06:30.580recount should one be requested. Those comments come after I reported about a group of motivated Alberta
00:06:35.840voters who are concerned about tabulators being used in the upcoming provincial vote. As I told you
00:06:40.940guys, last week, Elections Alberta did confirm that they will be using electronic tabulators
00:06:45.220for the advanced voting, but they also told me that they plan to retain those ballots for three
00:06:50.040months after the election should a recount be necessary. I asked Premier Smith about this at a
00:06:54.460press conference on Monday. Here's what that exchange sounded like. Premier, I wanted to get your
00:06:58.640thoughts on election tabulators being used in the upcoming provincial vote. Elections Alberta has
00:07:02.860confirmed to me that they will be using tabulators in the advanced voting. I'm wondering if this is
00:07:08.260something that you're concerned about? If you're hearing from Albertans who are concerned about it and how you plan to deal with this matter?
00:07:12.860I have heard some concern about it, but I have confirmed through department officials that all of the votes on election day will be hand counted. My understanding of how these voting machines work is that it is a paper ballot and even though the tabulation takes place electronically, we retain a paper ballot so that if there is any issue of needing to do a recount, we'll be able to go
00:07:38.260go back to the paper ballots to do that. So I've asked my department officials to look into it again just to make sure that there aren't any concerns and they've come back to me and told me that the hand count will take place the day of and that we will retain paper copies in the event that there is any issue that needs to require a recount.
00:07:58.380Okay guys, and now let's move into our daily comment roundup. Last week, we spoke at length about the CBC story. At that time, the premier had merely hinted that a defamation suit was possible, but we didn't have an answer on that until early Monday morning. User Mardon said,
00:08:12.020Nope, Smith didn't direct the prosecution. Last time I checked, asking questions wasn't illegal. Whiskey Tango said,
00:08:19.400If anything, the story around Smith only redoubles my support for her. And in response to my story about the independence party of Alberta turfing its former leader, Archer Pulaski,
00:08:31.000Turfed. Very interesting choice of words. Unsuscribing now. Well, considering that Tammy wants to cancel me from my choice of words,
00:08:38.500I'm guessing I just lost my only liberal subscriber. Okay guys, that's all I have for you today. Thank you so much for tuning in.
00:08:44.580I hope you enjoy the rest of your Easter weekend. As always, if you're able, please consider supporting independent media. You can do that over at
00:08:50.440donate.tnc.news. Have a great weekend and God bless.