Under the radar, the UCP government is converting up to 600 provincial sheriffs–with plans to swallow a total workforce of 1,200 and a $156-million budget into an expended Alberta Sheriffs Police Service (ASPS).
This isn’t about community safety. Municipal leaders have been clear that they don’t need it and they don’t want it. This is about the provincial government setting up a system that can more easily evade the separation of powers and police independence that protect our rights and keep politicians in check. [1,2]
This is a government-mandated, province-run police force designed to bypass local civilian oversight and deliver on an ideological mission. [3]
It is a parallel police system that essentially answers to the Premier, not your community.
This is the same Danielle Smith who was found guilty by the Ethics Commissioner of interfering in the justice system to help the Coutts border blockaders–a convoy movement that included extremists stockpiling weapons to attack the RCMP. [4,5,6,7,8]
This is the same Premier who recently deployed these exact same Sheriffs as a political "border force," granting them terrifying, authoritarian powers to arrest people within 2 miles of the border without a warrant. [9,10,11,12]
Now, she wants to expand that force into every corner of the province. [1,13,3]
In the U.S., ICE operates as a largely unaccountable agency that is currently being openly deployed into Democratic Party run cities, not to fight crime, but to intimidate voters and punish political opponents under the mask of enforcing immigration. Premier Smith appears to be aiming for a politically-motivated police force in Alberta and is prepared to use the Notwithstanding Clause to quash Charter rights, having already used it an unprecedented four times in two years and this could happen again!
| U.S. ICE | Smith's "Alberta ICE" (ASPS) | |
|---|---|---|
|
The Mandate
|
Ideological, top-down enforcement that bypasses local police. | Ideological, top-down enforcement designed to bypass the RCMP and local mayors. |
|
Extreme Powers
|
Warrantless raids, massive surveillance, and detention. | Warrantless arrests (2-mile border zones) and tip-based surveillance of private properties. |
|
Accountability
|
Weak oversight; a history of civil liberties abuses. | Zero independence; the province runs the police force and the commission that investigates it. |
|
Political Deployment
|
Deployed into Democratic Party-run cities for political intimidation. | Being built to be dropped into municipalities without local consent or control. |
A Premier who uses the justice system to protect armed blockaders should not be handed a 1,200-officer police force that can arrest citizens without warrants. We need a massive public outcry before Bill 15 becomes law.
Sources