Justice minister makes pitch for pepper spray, accepts LPS action plan
By Herald on July 21, 2021.
Alberta Justice Minister Kaycee Madu speaks to reporters Wednesday at the courthouse in Lethbridge. Herald photo by Ian MartensAl Beeber – Lethbridge Herald
Alberta’s justice minister wants the federal government to let citizens carry pepper spray to protect themselves from crime.
Kaycee Madu told media assembled on the steps of the Lethbridge Courthouse Wednesday he has sent a letter to the federal government asking Ottawa to allow people to carry capsaicin spray.
He also said he had accepted the Lethbridge City Police revised plan of action submitted by LPS chief Shahin Mehdizadeh to address Madu’s concerns over various issues with the local force.
“They have submitted a revised action plan. I have reviewed that action plan. It is acceptable to me, I have approved it and now it’s time for them to get back to work. Given the seriousness of the issues I’ve been raising, they have done everything they can to resolve the problems down here.
“So far I am convinced that they have taken the right steps,” Madu said.
In his letter to Ottawa about pepper spray, Madu wrote “it is sadly ironic that a vulnerable person carrying pepper spray for self-defence could quite possibly receive a longer sentence than her attacker.”
He said Wednesday “I think it’s important to emphasize at the end of the day, let’s not forget this is about ordinary Albertans, the victims of crime. And empowering them to better protect themselves is the right thing to do.
“I’m calling on Justin Trudeau and my federal counterparts to do everything they can to pass this essential amendment I’ve asked for. It’s good to prevent crimes in our communities, it’s good for the victim and it empowers victims and sends a powerful message to those who will seek to perpetrate crimes there will be consequences,” he added.
He said the plan will work as intended.
“There is never anything wrong with empowering your citizens to protect themselves from those who seek to harm them. Pepper sprays are only to be used against those bad actors who seek to harm our citizens.”
He said the Alberta government wants to protect Albertans from crime.
“If they (the federal government) are serious about protecting ordinary Albertans in Alberta’s communities, rural and urban, they’ve got a responsibility and I would dare to add a legal and moral responsibility to pass this legislation, he said.
When asked if criminals who carry bear spray could somehow claim they used it in self defence, Madu said “when the bad actor, the criminal, was out there and used the pepper spray against a victim, that should heighten the sentence. That should heighten their punishment. It’s not something they should get away with.
“And I am confident that the justice system, the prosecutors, that all of that will come together to determine the appropriate level of sentences and punishment for these offenders. In a nutshell, I’m not really worried about it.”
The minister is also conducting town hall meetings in various locations to address rural crime. He was in Claresholm Wednesday night and is speaking today in Cardston at 9 a.m. in the Tanner Centennial Seniors Centre.
“I had one last night and it reinforces for me the seriousness of rural crime. It was something everyone talked about and the reason why it is important that Justin Trudeau and the federal Liberals work with us to address the consistent perennial problem of rural crime. What I’m hoping to achieve is to confirm that this continues to be a major problem for our rural citizens and work with them to find lasting solutions. I want to solve and end this plague of rural crime.
He said he hears and agrees with crime victims and “they should know that I am committed to do everything I can to solve this problem.”
Follow @albeebHerald on Twitter
20-19
Fires, floods, drought, glaciers melting too fast, heatwaves….but yup, we’ve got to yammer away about pepper spray. It beggars belief.
So because of climate change, we ignore everything else? WTH?
Furthermore, what does the JUSTICE MINISTER have to do with climate change?
Agreed with SA. Now class, who can define and provide an example of a diversionary tactic employed by politicians? Now, write a short essay in which you comment critically on the idea that the Justice Minister’s new-found focus on rural crime is unrelated to recently announced bed closures in rural hospitals and staff shortages. Recommended thesis statement: It is pure coincidence that …
How typical of our police services. The justice minister makes a recommendation to help citizens protect themselves from those that seek to harm them and the police respond by saying they are worried more about their own membership instead of public safety. The police are more like an exclusive club more then a tax paid service. Where are the reforms?
Maybe police know that this is a weapon, one that they themselves have to be sprayed with in trainging, so they have the right to carry it! Maybe they know that when you introduce weapons, criminals always get their own!
Have you paid attention to any of the busts made in this city where police have recovered, bear spray, guns, knifes and machetes. Do you really want to ‘up the game’ where criminals start carrying bigger weapons to produce if someone brings out pepper spray?
This will just make the black market weapons suppliers, like Hell’s Angels and Indigenous gangs richer!
But more importantly, there are many people, average people who should not carry weapons. They has to be common sense where to use pepper spray and when to use it!
We pay police to protect us and they have to depend on the judicial and penal systems to support their enforcement of laws, something that is completely missing today! It doesn’t help when a City Council removes over $1 million from the police budget at a time when our streets and parks are being over-run.
They arrest criminals and within hours the Crown kicks them back out onto the streets. They used to get many of the addicts that were high and creating problems, and ship them out to the Lethbridge Correctional Center drunk tank. That helped as a deterrent, but the Alberta government decided that would not have the facility used for that purpose and closed the are used for a drunk tank!
Do you want police constantly writing up paperwork instead of being out on patrols? Paperwork that ends up being useless, because the Crown Prosecutors end up dropping the case!
We need to have our police supported by the provincial and federal governments better, a new relationship to give them the tools they need. Instead, all the political parties are too busy buying votes and apologizing for anything and everything, while legislation that is badly needed never gets passed or enacted.
Have you ever walked downtown with you eyes open to see what is really going on? Many walk by and look but don’t know what it looks like when people are prepping their drugs for use or why they are doing that funny dance or is that bulge in their leg a machete tucked down their pants!
There isn’t even money to pay me to be in law enforcement in this city! They have a tough job and have to triage to the most important issues to protect property and the public! They need our support! Arming the average citizen will only magnify the problem.
The police need the tools to do their job effectively! Instead we have Mr. Dressup/Mr. Apology/Mr. Buy Votes with taxpayer dollars running around the country prepping for an election, and a Premier burning down the healthcare and EMS system to billionaires can swoop in for the save, instead of focusing on legislation that works in this country.
Have you really studied Bill C-10 with the last minute amendments the feds tried to ‘slight of hand’ into the bill? We could possibly not be able to comment on this media if they decided it was ‘not Canadian’! Luckily the Senate kicked it out and refuse to passed!
How did the arms race begin? It started with who had the biggest club! You have to understand the psychy in the matter! 70% of the handguns in Toronto area come up from Michigan. Why do they want guns or the ability to lease a gun? Because others have guns and police have guns!
Law enforcement and security personnel have to be trained and sprayed to have the right to carry pepper spray! If they use it improperly, they can lose their licenses, their badge even!
Allow them to carry pepper spray? Seriously? Why don’t we just arm every citizen with P-90’s or Uzi’s? Maybe deal with the crime, maybe stared putting criminals in jail to pay for their crimes and make them work in jail for their keep! The police arrest criminals and 30 minutes later they are on the streets because the crown has been told to do that. Build more jails, where they have to work to pay for their keep and stop the flow of drugs going into the jails so people don’t come out as addicts! Deal with the problem!!!
Can’t believe this! Are you aware that it would mean that the addicts and criminals would then get access to them and use them on the average Johnny Q Public to commit crimes? It would be so easy for them to gain access, while stealing handbags, breaking into vehicles and homes and on the black market! Police would then be targets, because addicts do not care who they injure during arrests or when avoiding police and others. Do you know what it is like using pepper spray in a large room such as libraries, restaraunts, even malls? They would have to be evacuated and many would have to be treated for pepper spray in their eyes!
This was not thought out! The criminals would be the ones armed with pepper spray while the average, law abiding citizen would not bother spending all the money for themselves.
AND, never threaten with a weapon if you are not prepared to use it, because these criminals can easily take you down if you won’t use it, take the pepper spray and you will be the one sprayed! Have you ever dealt with comeone high on Meth or better PCP! They often display super strength, where it can take 5 fully trained law enforcement members several minutes to restrain, so what is an average person going to do. You are encouraging a form of vigilantism.
That has got to be the stupidist thing I have heard in some time, the last being the opening of the SCS site in Lethbridge!
Deal with the problem itself! That is like putting a bandaid on a remaining stump from a blown off leg! Police need the Crown to back them up and the Crown needs to start putting these people away. Right now there are no deterents! Most of these people get treated better in jail than on the streets and become ‘institutionalized because we pamper them! Too many bleeding hearts and society is paying the price!
No pepper spray!
1) pepper spray could protect some from the cops.
2) along with some salt, always prepared for a an enhanced take out meal, or a pop up bbq.
3) a well timed spray could help shut up the lying, corrupt likes of trudeau, kenney, and the thieves they serve.