While the Edmonton Police Service has received some criticism for how it’s handled truck convoy protests in the downtown core for the last three Saturdays — as well as a counter-protest — Chief Dale McFee defended the EPS response.
The police chief said Wednesday that EPS’ top priority is ensuring everyone’s safety – that includes Edmonton residents, visitors, protesters, counter-protesters and EPS members.
“We are committed to keeping people safe and maintaining peace,” McFee said.
He explained EPS’ focus is on limiting disruption, preventing entrenchment like other cities have seen, and limiting tension between protesters and residents, as well as between protesters and counter-protesters.
“A divided community can be a dangerous community,” McFee said.
“I’m asking and imploring political leaders, community members, everyone across the political spectrum… to help us put this fire out.
“We need to turn down the temperature,” the police chief said.
“This moment does not require more polarization; it requires less.
“The more rhetoric, the more anger, the more protesting and counter-protesting, the greater risk of someone getting hurt.”
McFee stressed the need for calm.
“We need leadership to all buy in here and say: ‘This is about the safety of all of us;’ this isn’t about how you create more conflict on social media and try to — as I used the analogy — (throw gas on the fire).
“I think that’s what we have to be cautious of because that’s what people are looking for, on both extreme sides of this, they’re looking for conflict and confrontation. Success is when you avoid that. Success isn’t how you manage it when it happens.
“Success is when you manage to avoid that and that’s what our folks are doing.”
McFee said he believes the city’s attempt to reduce the noise downtown by getting an injunction was “well intended” and “sincere.” However, it did not provide the outcome many people were hoping for, he said. McFee said the injunction doesn’t grant police any more power than they already have.
“For the residents and businesses in our downtown, who have endured the noise and disruption each weekend, we know this has been a stressful and concerning time for you.”
As a result of the convoy protest on Saturday, Feb. 12, Edmonton police said 10 tickets were issued by the traffic section and 60 additional tickets will be mailed out. Nine of those tickets, EPS said, were related to noise.
The police chief said members are prioritizing their response and have to act fluidly.
Supt. Dean Hilton, head of the EPS operational support division, said the police response is planned, measured and goes beyond what people see on the ground.
It includes a liaison team that communicates with all involved parties including the protest organizers, a command team, disruption and public safety unit in charge of crowd management and education, traffic enforcement section and flight operation to provide real-time intelligence and help identify incidents that require further response or investigation.
The police response also includes investigative teams and enforcement, Hilton said. However, he said that in order to prioritize de-escalation, there’s a strong emphasis on education for compliance.
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Tickets and arrests are done when necessary and safe, Hilton said.
“Proper exercise of police discretion should not be construed as a failure to enforce the law,” he added.
In regards to the counter-protest, Hilton said pedestrians blocking a major road is a safety concern. He also said police had intelligence that indicated another group may have been coming to confront these counter-protesters.
“Any time we get protests and counter-protests together, we never know what’s going to transpire. Our goal is to try to keep those parties apart,” Hilton said.
“We don’t want to scare people but we just want them to get out of the way,” McFee added. “There’s danger to those people as well.”
Usually, Edmonton would see about 100 protests or demonstrations a year, but in 2021, there were 460, the police chief said.
The fact that police and other agencies have managed to deal with such large, fluid situations without injury, major damage or entrenchment is a compliment to EPS officers’ work, McFee said.
“We feel right now that we’re doing a manageable job… Our people are getting tired.”
He added that the weapons seizure and charges laid in connection with people at the Coutts border blockade was a stark reminder of how dangerous things can get.
McFee said these kinds of events attract other protesters who don’t come for the same reasons as local protesters.
“That’s why when we step in… we try to avoid those confrontations at all costs,” he said. “When you see weapons (being seized at Coutts)… that’s always front of our mind.
“Ticketing is great and we realize people have to be held accountable for the noise, but that’s not our number one priority.”
McFee said he had a very good meeting with Mayor Amarjeet Sohi and the Edmonton Police Commission chair on Monday evening.
“There’s things that I can’t share publicly. With Mayor Sohi, we had an in-depth conversation to ensure that he knows that actually, we know what we’re doing, that we’re actually pretty good at this, but the challenges that are being created by some of the social media and other things are continuing to potentially increase the risk of safety to our citizens.
“We all want the same thing. We want to get back to our normal city that we like.”
“That, right now, isn’t quite here. And it’s a combination of COVID and it’s a combination of tensions in this country that are being fueled by many, on both sides of this equation.
“That’s why I’m asking for some calm from all leadership, all forms of politics, all forms of community leaders,” McFee said.
“We don’t want people getting hurt.”
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