Calgary’s police chief said the group of protesters who have been flooding various streets in downtown Calgary every weekend since the start of the pandemic are now “pushing the limits of section two of the charter.”
“That’s how we ended up seeing things like, you know, freedom convoy, freedom rodeo, freedom breakfast, this type of thing, (but) this is much different,” Chief Mark Neufeld said in a one-on-one with Global News morning show.
“This is a different type of protest that we’ve seen in the past. We thought they would stop and they won’t. And now they’re articulating that basically, ‘we want to do whatever we want to do.'”
Neufeld now calls this set of protesters the “anti-democracy group.” He thinks they’re “sort of hard to understand and incoherent.”
The Weekly protests were initially against the public health measures, then the COVID-19 vaccine, and then the government as a whole.
More than 63,000 people follow the Facebook group that promotes the weekly marches. Now the group is hoping the marches will put “an end to completely unnecessary, ineffective and harmful medical mandates in Canada.”
Residents in the Beltline have grown increasingly frustrated with the weekly protests and have recently held counter-protests. Both protests have clashed the past two weekends, and resulted in police using force to separate the groups.
“We want (police) to do their jobs, and we want them to stop allowing this charade to keep happening,” Community Solidarity YYC spokesperson Hunter Yaworski said. “Hopefully everything remains peaceful and the police don’t instigate any more aggression.”
“We are asking anyone who intends to protest in the Beltline and 17 Avenue area to instead stay away,” CPS said in a statement on Wednesday.
“We all want our downtown to be a safe and welcoming place and we need your help to make that happen.”
The chief said since it is only Wednesday, more talks will be taking place through the week about how to address what’s to come on Saturday.
Late Wednesday, the Calgary Police Commission announced it has called a special meeting on Friday to discuss the police response to the protests.
The commission, the independent oversight body of the police service, said the meeting is “aimed at sharing as much information as possible with residents and the community.”
“This is an unprecedented situation that is extremely complicated legally and from a policing perspective, but we need to find a way stop the disruptions that are undermining many residents’ ability to enjoy their homes, businesses and community,” commission chair Shawn Cornett said in statement.
“Communication around this situation has been a challenge and we will work at better ways to connect more effectively.”
Historically CPS has seen “high degrees of co-operation” from protest groups, Neufeld explained. He added many thought after the premier lifted close to all mandates a the beginning of March, there would be a drawback to the amount of protests.
“And so we’re looking at different options as to how we can manage this differently than other protests because I think, again, most of the groups that we deal with are quite cooperative with the police. They’re respectful of the community and they actually want to be able to exercise their Section two charter rights,” he said.
“But they also want to do it in a way that doesn’t negatively impact the community, and this group certainly doesn’t seem to be in that camp anymore.”
In a statement to Global News, a spokesperson for the weekend protests called Neufeld’s comments a “complete mischaracterization of what we represent.”
“Protests like these always have unpredictable elements to them, but we expect and are prepared for the possibility of increased enforcement,” protest spokesperson Jake Eskesen said in a statement. “We will continue to do what we can to mitigate public risk with dialogue with the Calgary police, however, police do not have final say on how we lawfully exercise our charter rights.”
On Tuesday, Calgary city council agreed to send a letter to the police commission outlining the frustrations of Beltline residents.
The letter also attempted to clarify roles and responsibilities and requested regular updates from the commission to city council.
Mayor Jyoti Gondek told reporters following Tuesday’s special meeting of council that bylaw officers have the ability to enforce the need for permits and other bylaws. However, she said to do so effectively, they need the support of police.
The commission confirmed it has received the letter and said it is in contact with city administration about the use of bylaw officers.
However, in a news release, the commission outlined concerns with bylaw officers using ticketing as enforcement.
“Ticketing organizers and attendees has proven ineffective during earlier versions of the health measure protests,” the news release said. “Many tickets issued during the pandemic have also not been prosecuted due to a lack of capacity in the court system, further reducing the deterrent tickets pose.”
The commission said it hopes other enforcement options can be used that will “have an immediate impact without inciting the crowd.”
Gondek did not answer questions on whether she has confidence in Neufeld on Tuesday, and instead said she has confidence the police commission will “keep the police chief accountable.”
“I definitely have an expectation that something different has to happen than what happened last weekend,” Gondek said. “What happened last weekend was not great, and it’s untenable moving into next weekend.”
Neufeld vowed that Calgarians “will see a different approach” by police in response to Saturday’s protest, and added that it is a difficult situation that police will work on over the coming weekends.
Throughout 2021, various protests in the city cost roughly $1.9 million in police resources which doesn’t take into account the amount of time lost on other police projects according to Neufeld. The chief was not able to give a number where the cost sits so far this year.
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