The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - December 17, 2022


Alberta opposes Ottawa’s firearm protocol


Episode Stats

Length

13 minutes

Words per Minute

181.9836

Word Count

2,367

Sentence Count

132

Misogynist Sentences

1


Summary


Transcript

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00:00:26.640 Good afternoon everyone and welcome back to the Alberta Roundup.
00:00:29.520 I'm your host Rachel Emanuel.
00:00:31.280 We have so much news to cover today so let's take a look at what we're going to be talking
00:00:34.640 about on today's episode.
00:00:36.000 Alberta says the Crown shouldn't prosecute firearms owners who purchased their guns
00:00:40.160 legally.
00:00:40.880 We're going to dive into the details on that one.
00:00:43.360 The province launched a public task force to respond to addiction, homelessness,
00:00:47.440 and public safety in Edmonton.
00:00:49.440 Canadian hunters are safe for at least six more weeks.
00:00:52.720 And finally, the United Conservative Party say a vote for NDP leader Rachel Notley
00:00:57.280 is a vote for Justin Trudeau.
00:00:58.720 All that and more happening now on the Alberta Roundup.
00:01:01.680 This first story is arguably the biggest in Alberta politics this week.
00:01:05.440 The Alberta government is recommending that Crown Prosecutor don't press charges
00:01:09.680 against firearms owners who purchased their guns legally before
00:01:13.040 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's order in council in May 2020.
00:01:16.720 A news release from the province on Thursday said Alberta is taking back constitutional jurisdiction
00:01:21.760 for handling charges under the Firearms Act.
00:01:24.480 And Alberta's Crown Prosecutors will now determine whether or not to pursue charges.
00:01:29.040 The release reads, quote, while respecting operational independence on individual cases,
00:01:34.320 the new protocol issued by the Attorney General provides prosecutors with guidance
00:01:38.960 on how to evaluate the public interest when determining whether or not to pursue charges.
00:01:44.000 The province's new protocol says it's not in the public interest to proceed with prosecuting a
00:01:48.160 charge of possession of a banned firearm when the accused lawfully obtained the firearm or prohibited
00:01:53.840 device prior to May 1, 2020.
00:01:56.720 Two, the firearm or prohibited device was reclassified as prohibited on May 1, 2020.
00:02:02.800 And three, when the accused has not been charged with any other offense
00:02:06.800 related to the possession or use of that firearm.
00:02:10.080 You guys are likely familiar with some of these details by now.
00:02:12.800 In May, Trudeau announced that he was banning more than 1500 models of firearms,
00:02:17.440 including guns explicitly used by sport shooters, hunters and farmers.
00:02:21.280 The government put an amnesty in place until October 2023.
00:02:24.720 But when that amnesty expires, Albertans who still possess their legally acquired property
00:02:28.880 could face jail time under the criminal code.
00:02:31.040 Alberta Justice Minister and Attorney General Tyler Shandro says Albertans should not
00:02:35.120 automatically be considered criminals because of a weapon they purchased legally.
00:02:39.760 Quote, this new protocol for prosecutors will help prevent the
00:02:42.800 otherwise law-abiding individuals from facing criminal charges and potential time in jail.
00:02:47.920 At the same time, law enforcement and prosecution resources
00:02:51.440 can be prioritized for actual violent and repeat offenders,
00:02:55.280 while not further clogging our already busy courts.
00:02:58.240 Moving into our next story here, the United Conservative Party say
00:03:00.960 NDP leader Rachel Notley's comments calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
00:03:05.200 to quell the Alberta Sovereignty Act were no slip of the tongue.
00:03:08.400 Earlier this month, the UCP demanded an apology from Notley
00:03:11.920 after she said Trudeau should squash the Sovereignty Act legislation.
00:03:15.600 Notley said, quote,
00:03:16.880 I think if they revoke the act, that would be the right thing to do.
00:03:20.000 She said in response to a question about whether Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
00:03:23.360 should revoke the bill.
00:03:24.480 NDP spokesperson Benjamin Aldrich immediately walked back those comments.
00:03:28.720 He said Notley was referring to the provincial government.
00:03:31.120 Aldrich told the CBC, quote,
00:03:32.720 To be clear, the Alberta NDP is calling for the provincial government to revoke Bill 1,
00:03:37.040 but we are not calling for the federal government to disallow it.
00:03:40.480 But Alberta's chief government whip Brad Rutherford said Notley's comments were no slip of the tongue.
00:03:45.200 Quote, Rachel Notley clearly called on Justin Trudeau to revoke an Alberta law and override the will of
00:03:50.240 Alberta's democratically elected legislature.
00:03:52.640 Ms. Notley didn't even bother proposing any amendments to the bill she wants Justin Trudeau to revoke.
00:03:57.920 Albertans deserve better than this from the opposition NDP,
00:04:01.120 who have a duty to contribute to the legislative process.
00:04:04.480 Ultimately, all MLAs in the Alberta legislature are there to serve Albertans,
00:04:08.880 not Justin Trudeau.
00:04:10.480 The NDP might want to remind themselves of that.
00:04:13.280 Moving into our next story here, you guys probably remember some of these details from a couple of weeks ago.
00:04:18.240 The city of Edmonton won't say by which form racist comments were made against Edmonton Mayor
00:04:23.280 Amarit Sohi.
00:04:24.320 Sohi said he received racist attacks in response to the city's joint decision with
00:04:28.240 the Edmonton Downtown Business Association not to install a Christmas tree this year
00:04:32.480 at the association's annual holiday light up event.
00:04:35.200 In response to a query from True North, a city spokesperson said, quote,
00:04:38.720 I'm unable to confirm whether the mayor received messages by phone, email, mail, or social media.
00:04:43.360 Now, the Edmonton Downtown Business Association also said it was the subject of racist remarks.
00:04:48.640 The association's executive director, Panina McBrien, told me that she received a combination of racist,
00:04:54.480 xenophobic, and some just outright nasty foul and aggressive language.
00:04:59.600 She said such comments were left on the organization's social media accounts,
00:05:03.520 voicemails, email, and comments under media articles explaining the decision not to have a Christmas tree
00:05:09.040 this year.
00:05:09.760 She also pointed to one letter to the editor published in the Edmonton Sun, which appears to have been deleted.
00:05:14.160 The letter says the Edmonton Downtown Business Association should have adopted Canada, quote,
00:05:18.320 as is.
00:05:19.360 Not with the dream of making it what you chose to leave, or perhaps you shouldn't have left your home country.
00:05:23.920 Another letter published in the Edmonton Sun, shame the mayor for cancelling the tree.
00:05:28.400 Quote,
00:05:29.120 As I've previously told you guys, the Edmonton Downtown Business Association decided not to have a Christmas
00:05:41.840 tree at its annual holiday event this year for the first time since 1999.
00:05:46.560 And the city of Edmonton said it wouldn't step in to provide a tree,
00:05:49.680 setting the environmental impact of cutting down and transporting a mature natural tree.
00:05:54.640 Moving into our next story here, I have a feeling some of you are going to be a little bit excited about this.
00:05:59.280 Canadian hunters are safe for at least six more weeks.
00:06:01.840 At least, that's what one Conservative MP told me when the House of Commons rose for Christmas
00:06:05.600 break this week, pausing the Public Safety Committee study on Bill C-21.
00:06:10.880 Now, we have talked about this a couple of times.
00:06:12.560 I'm sure you guys are somewhat familiar with the details by now.
00:06:15.200 During clause by clause consideration of Bill C-21, a couple of weeks ago,
00:06:19.120 the Liberals introduced an amendment to ban hundreds more models of semi-automatic
00:06:23.040 shotguns and rifles, including those primarily used by hunters, farmers and sport shooters.
00:06:28.000 Considering the outcry over the legislation, a Bloc Quebecois MP on the committee put forward a motion
00:06:32.880 on Tuesday, suggesting that the committee hear from more witnesses about the specific amendment.
00:06:37.920 The Bloc Quebecois MP, Christina Michaud, suggested two more meetings to hear from witnesses.
00:06:42.560 But it's safe to say that Conservative public safety critic,
00:06:45.120 Raquel Dancho, was less than impressed by this suggestion. Take a listen to her remarks now.
00:06:49.920 What's really frustrating for us as Conservatives is this work should have been done by the Liberal
00:06:53.840 government and their vast resources. But now the committee, as you know, Mr. Chair,
00:06:57.840 this is now our fourth week talking about this. We're going to have to go back, sort of flip-flop
00:07:02.640 through this backwards in this committee process, because they didn't do their homework. And now
00:07:06.960 they're sort of turning it around and saying, well, okay, we'll do it in two meetings. So we have
00:07:11.760 two meetings. We barely scratched the surface of the people that are impacted by this ban. Again,
00:07:15.680 the largest hunting rifle ban in Canadian history here. We barely scratched the surface. For people
00:07:20.800 who don't know, two meetings, as you know, Mr. Chair, about 12 witnesses. 12 witnesses. 12 witnesses.
00:07:27.520 I don't think that that's nearly enough. So we just feel that any suggestion that two meetings is
00:07:33.760 adequate is, I'm going to say it, I do feel that it's offensive to the people that are going to be
00:07:39.200 impacted by this. It does not give them the dignity of having a seat at the table. Because the House is now
00:07:43.840 risen for Christmas break, the committee won't get back to this amendment for another six weeks.
00:07:48.000 So you guys are safe with your guns for a little while longer, at least. Okay, guys, moving into
00:07:52.720 the controversy of the week. Common Sense Calgary is calling a City of Calgary proposal
00:07:57.840 to limit election signs ridiculous and self-serving. Ahead of a provincial general election this spring,
00:08:04.320 Calgary City Council wants to limit election signs. According to a motion before the city's
00:08:09.520 executive committee, signs are placed temporarily for the purpose of elections and sign proliferation
00:08:15.280 creates visual clutter and unsafe distractions along highways. The motion says the majority of
00:08:21.680 temporary election signs are made from single use corrugated plastic. Quote, corrugated plastic signs are
00:08:27.680 not accepted for recycling through City of Calgary facilities, thereby generating high volume landfill waste.
00:08:33.600 Council has declared a climate emergency and has adopted a single use item reduction strategy.
00:08:40.400 But Christy Kohler, executive director of the citizens advocacy group Common Sense Calgary,
00:08:45.280 says candidates in municipal elections rely on name recognition in the absence of political parties.
00:08:50.080 Quote,
00:08:51.280 Incumbents as sitting councillors have huge amounts of taxpayers funding to help elevate their profile
00:08:55.680 and name recognition. For many challengers, their privately funded signage is their only chance to compete.
00:09:01.920 This is an entirely self-serving proposition that will favour incumbent councillors during the next
00:09:06.400 election and should be dropped. Okay guys, what we're watching in the weeks to come.
00:09:10.720 The Alberta government has launched a public task force to respond to issues of public safety,
00:09:14.960 homelessness and addiction in the city of Edmonton. The government says the Edmonton Public Safety
00:09:20.320 and Community Response Task Force will be funded by an $187 million commitment as a response to a
00:09:27.040 city that's been hit especially hard. Here's Mental Health and Addictions Minister Nicholas Millican
00:09:31.600 explaining what the task force will do. Today we are establishing the Edmonton Public Safety and
00:09:36.960 Community Response Task Force to improve public safety and tackle social issues. Meanwhile,
00:09:43.360 Edmonton's police chief Dale McPhee has been very supportive of the government's move. Take listen to his
00:09:48.480 remarks. I think this task force certainly as somebody that's been on the Mental Health and Addictions
00:09:53.440 Task Force, the Human Trafficking Task Force and the Minimum of Standards and Homeless. This needs
00:09:58.000 leadership and leadership needs political will. The fact that we have open-air drug use everywhere
00:10:04.720 in front of the mall, that's not acceptable. But what's also not acceptable is somebody with an
00:10:10.320 addiction isn't going to go straight to the justice system because that's not the answer for some of
00:10:13.840 these folks. But there's also a disproportionate number of the criminal element that are influencing and
00:10:18.960 preying on these people. So what you see here now is leadership, real leadership to say this is enough.
00:10:24.960 To me that's encouraging because not only does it take the enforcement arm in relation to it but it
00:10:29.840 also needs the resources of where to take people and you need to give people options and you need to
00:10:34.160 have some accountability to those options and that accountability doesn't have to be the justice system.
00:10:38.640 So that's what we're hoping will happen quickly and I think at the end of the day we also have to
00:10:44.080 work towards zero tolerance for open-air drug use but not by using the justice system as the hammer but
00:10:49.840 using as a multi-discipline approach. I've been around a long time. This is the first time that
00:10:54.800 I've seen the right ministers take the right approach in my opinion to actually drive change and we need
00:11:00.320 that public will to say you know we got to try something different because every time I turn around
00:11:05.520 there's another approach that's not an evidence-based approach and unfortunately there's a lot of good
00:11:09.840 people working in this space. What I see here is bringing coordination to something new that we
00:11:14.800 don't have and using all those resources as you see many of them here right now to say we're going
00:11:20.160 to tackle this differently. And finally ending our show on a lighter note as always. The United
00:11:25.120 Conservative Party say a vote for NDP leader Rachel Notley is a vote for Trudeau. UCP MLA Rebecca
00:11:30.400 Schultz has the breakdown. A vote for Rachel Notley is a vote for Justin Trudeau and let me explain
00:11:36.560 why. Federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh is Rachel Notley's boss. Now the NDP is a unique political
00:11:44.320 party for conservatives and liberals provincial and federal parties are separate. That is not the
00:11:49.840 case for the NDP. In the NDP it's all one big happy family so if you're a member of the federal NDP
00:11:56.640 you become a member of the provincial NDP and vice versa. So if the NDP was a company Jagmeet Singh would be
00:12:04.800 the president and CEO which makes Rachel Notley kind of like a regional manager. I'm pretty good
00:12:10.160 on politics. Schultz goes on to remind voters that federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh opposes oil and gas
00:12:15.680 mining and modern agriculture while Trudeau wants to phase out the oil sands. Now I'd love to tell you
00:12:22.080 what the Alberta NDP think about this video but unfortunately they don't respond to media requests
00:12:26.240 from True North. Okay guys that's all I have for you today thank you so much for tuning in. If you
00:12:30.800 support independent media you can visit us over at donate.tnc.news. I'd also like to let you guys
00:12:35.920 know that there won't be an episode next week Saturday as it is December 24th Christmas Eve.
00:12:40.560 So I hope you guys all have a very merry Christmas and I will see you in two weeks time. Thanks so much,
00:12:44.640 have a great week and God bless.