Juno News - Smith puts the CBC on notice

00:00:00.000 Hey everyone, welcome back to the Alberta Roundup. I'm your host Rachel Emanuel.

00:00:14.280 I hope that you guys are enjoying your Easter weekend so far. Thanks for taking a pause from

00:00:18.540 your celebrations to join me today on the Alberta Roundup. Here's what we're going to be looking at

00:00:23.420 on today's show. Alberta Premier Daniel Smith has sent a legal notice to CBC News. We're also going

00:00:29.360 to be taking a look at the rising criminal activity in both Edmonton and Calgary. And Calgary Mayor Jodi

00:00:35.500 Gondek had an uncomfortable moment this week when she walked away from the podium simply because she

00:00:40.660 was asked a difficult question. Finally, I have a follow-up for you guys from last week's story on

00:00:45.660 election tabulators. All that and more happening now on the Alberta Roundup. Okay guys, our first

00:00:51.480 story here. Alberta Premier Daniel Smith's legal team is telling CBC News to retract and apologize

00:00:57.200 for a recent story under threat of a defamation suit. We covered this story extensively last week.

00:01:03.160 Of course, the story in question refers to contact Alberta Premier Daniel Smith's office has had with

00:01:08.760 justice officials regarding charges stemming from the Coutts border blockade. The letter dated Sunday

00:01:13.380 gives notice of the Premier's intention to quote, bring an action against the CBC. Last week, we talked

00:01:19.280 about a newly released call between Premier Smith and controversial Street Pasker and the former

00:01:24.320 leader of the Independence Party, Arthur Pawlowski. On the call, Smith tells Pawlowski she's been in

00:01:29.020 weekly contact with justice officials over Pawlowski's charges. CBC's report argues that the call reveals

00:01:35.940 that Smith's conversations, quote, with top Alberta justice officials about pandemic-related prosecutions

00:01:42.160 were more frequent and specific than she has admitted publicly. The Premier has, of course,

00:01:46.900 already responded to the report. She said she's been honest with the public that she's been in contact

00:01:51.400 with her justice officials and the justice minister about charges stemming from the Coutts border

00:01:56.080 blockade and the COVID-19 pandemic. She's been asking if these charges are still in the public

00:02:01.000 interest and if there's a likelihood of conviction. CBC has, of course, released a series of reports

00:02:06.580 about these conversations the Premier has had with justice officials. And Smith's lawyer is arguing that

00:02:11.740 this latest report from CBC is seeking to, quote, revive a manufactured controversy.

00:02:16.880 The letter to CBC says, quote, the CBC now again blatantly ignores the Premier's prior statements

00:02:22.780 and recasts the harmful and defamatory narrative of unlawful interference and deceit by the Premier

00:02:28.580 and her office. CBC was given until April 28th to comply with the request of the letter which

00:02:34.060 demands a retraction of the latest story and an apology under threat of further action under the

00:02:39.060 Defamation Act. CBC head of public affairs Chuck Thompson said the CBC stands by its reporting on this

00:02:45.500 story. And if necessary, we'll defend it in court. Moving into our next story here, Premier Smith has

00:02:50.360 directed officials in Edmonton and Calgary to hire 100 more police officers to be on the streets amid

00:02:55.780 rising crime in both Edmonton and Calgary. Between July 2022 and January 2023, Edmonton's LRT and transit

00:03:04.280 centers have experienced a 75% increase in criminal activity. The situation is similar in Calgary, where

00:03:11.020 criminal activity at LRT stations increased by 46% between 2021 and 2022. Premier Smith said the

00:03:18.180 province is working on addressing addictions and homelessness, the root causes of this criminal

00:03:23.040 activity, but it won't compromise on the safety of Calgarians and Edmontonians. Meanwhile, at a press

00:03:28.880 conference earlier this week, she said, quote, safety on public streets is never negotiable. Edmonton chief

00:03:34.200 of police Dale McPhee also had plenty to say about why more street officers are needed. Take a listen to

00:03:39.820 his comments. Many ask, why do we need more frontline officers? Well, let me share yesterday's

00:03:46.100 highlights in the city of Edmonton to give you a bit of a perspective. We arrested a person in transit

00:03:52.660 carrying a replica handgun and a crossbow. Two members went to a convenience store and were attacked

00:03:58.980 by a man with an axe where nonlethal force was used to subdue him and arrest him. Police attended a call

00:04:06.940 shortly after with a male. They arrived. One of the officers was punched in the face. And then we

00:04:13.440 responded to a female that was in trouble being beat up. And again, the person wanted to fight. 0.63

00:04:21.040 And moving into the controversy of the week at the same press conference, Calgary Mayor Jodi Gondek was

00:04:25.560 asked a tough question about her record on the police. While she was still a councillor in Calgary,

00:04:31.240 Gondek voted to reduce the police budget. The editor-in-chief of the counter-signal,

00:04:35.480 Kian Bextie, asked Mayor Gondek to defend her record at that press conference earlier this week.

00:04:40.580 A question for Mayor Gondek, Kian with the counter-signal. Just a few months ago, a handful

00:04:46.580 of months ago, you were fighting tooth and nail against increasing the police budget. And you were

00:04:53.240 actively supporting defund the police rhetoric. I'm just wondering when you realized that police

00:04:58.680 forces were not optional. Did it take, you know, the random stabbings, wives getting stabbed,

00:05:05.000 police officers getting killed to realize that it was important to fund police departments? And how

00:05:09.520 can Calgarians trust you when you flip-flop on basic issues like public safety?

00:05:20.520 So there you can see an absolutely shameful response from the mayor. She's unwilling to even

00:05:24.840 answer the question. Meanwhile, women are being stabbed at LRT stations and simply walks away from

00:05:30.240 the podium. Let's take a look at these numbers here. The average crime severity index in downtown

00:05:34.880 Edmonton has increased 29% to 116 in December 22. That's up from 90 in July of the same year.

00:05:43.640 This is primarily caused by an increase in serial criminal offenses, including second-degree murder,

00:05:48.840 assault causing bodily harm with a weapon, robbery, and aggravated assault. In Calgary,

00:05:54.820 property crime occurrences nearly doubled, increasing 95% to 463 in 2022. That's up from

00:06:02.060 238 in 2021. Meanwhile, public-generated calls for service to LRT stations increased to 5,012

00:06:09.280 last year. That's up 20% from the year before. Moving into our next story here, Alberta Premier

00:06:15.040 Daniel Smith said she has confidence in Elections Alberta's plan to run the upcoming provincial

00:06:19.840 election because a recount will be possible if necessary. That's because Elections Alberta will

00:06:24.820 be keeping all paper ballots for three months after the date of the election or after the date of a

00:06:30.580 recount should one be requested. Those comments come after I reported about a group of motivated Alberta

00:06:35.840 voters who are concerned about tabulators being used in the upcoming provincial vote. As I told you

00:06:40.940 guys, last week, Elections Alberta did confirm that they will be using electronic tabulators

00:06:45.220 for the advanced voting, but they also told me that they plan to retain those ballots for three

00:06:50.040 months after the election should a recount be necessary. I asked Premier Smith about this at a

00:06:54.460 press conference on Monday. Here's what that exchange sounded like. Premier, I wanted to get your

00:06:58.640 thoughts on election tabulators being used in the upcoming provincial vote. Elections Alberta has

00:07:02.860 confirmed to me that they will be using tabulators in the advanced voting. I'm wondering if this is

00:07:08.260 something 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?

00:07:12.860 I 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

00:07:38.260 go 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.

00:07:58.380 Okay 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,

00:08:12.020 Nope, Smith didn't direct the prosecution. Last time I checked, asking questions wasn't illegal. Whiskey Tango said,

00:08:19.400 If 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,

00:08:29.380 user Tammy Tatlock said,

00:08:31.000 Turfed. Very interesting choice of words. Unsuscribing now. Well, considering that Tammy wants to cancel me from my choice of words,

00:08:38.500 I'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.

00:08:44.580 I 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

00:08:50.440 donate.tnc.news. Have a great weekend and God bless.

Juno News - April 08, 2023

Smith puts the CBC on notice

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