Players, coaches and families in Edmonton for the Football Canada Cup will no longer be taking public transit after a security scare at an LRT station Saturday.
Now, the hundreds of people involved in the tournament are using school buses to get around the city for events and games.
A memo from Football Alberta explained there was an incident at the South Campus LRT platform involving a woman allegedly with a knife. No one was hurt and police were contacted but it prompted the decision to move all event transportation from Edmonton Transit to private buses.
“We talked to our partners at Football Canada and made the decision … We just can’t afford to risk the safety of our individuals – of anybody at this event – so we’ve moved to bus transport,” said Tim Enger, executive director of Football Alberta.
“It’s disappointing,” he added.
“I love my hometown and have been very proud of the fact that we were able to offer — not only to this event but events in the future – we’re going to run what we call a greener game where we can use public transportation to move people about.
“All our major sites – Foote Field, Commonwealth, Clarke Stadium – they’re all on the LRT line, so the convenience, as well as the environmental stewardship that comes with that, is amazing. So not being able to do that is quite distressing.”
Enger said the buses use more gas than public transit would have but the teams and their families seem grateful for the quick action.
“We have 400 guests here and they were appreciative of the fact that we’ve taken their safety and security first and foremost.”
He said the city and Explore Edmonton were responsive and tried to come up with solutions.
“They were working on, not only mitigating the financial hit it’s going to take us this year with the busing, but also moving forward what plans we can take.
“We would really like to deliver on environmentally conscious games where we’re using public transportation. It’s a great system. It’s very convenient, but right now it’s just not safe,” Enger said.
Rhonda Hov, a parent of one of the football players from B.C., had nothing but praise for the event’s quick pivot.
“As soon as the incident happened, we received an email from our team manager letting us know that the incident had happened and what had been put into place,” she said.
“I think that Football Canada worked quickly to put a good plan into place.”
Her son was not directly involved in the LRT station scare but says hearing about it hasn’t turned her off Edmonton.
“I think stuff like that can happen anywhere.
“We’re not super reactive to that type of thing,” Hov added. “It doesn’t necessarily mean we’re not going to come back to Edmonton. Edmonton has been great so far.”
The incident comes as Edmonton police are raising the alarm on the amount of violent crime in recent days in the city.
Police said that between Saturday and Monday, officers were called to weapons complaints, aggravated assaults, a carjacking, shootings, a homicide and a suspicious death.
“The advice I give is the same I give to my boys … Don’t become involved in any interaction with anyone that gives you any sense of uncertainty because you can literally end up with a knife in your chest,” EPS homicide Det. Jared Buhler said during a news conference Wednesday.
“That is the simple truth. You have to be extremely cautious (around) our transit system and downtown right now.”
Edmonton’s mayor understands Football Canada’s decision.
“I hear them and I know their concerns, why they’re making this decision,” Amarjeet Sohi said. “Violence on the LRT, violence in the downtown and the disorder that we face on the LRT and downtown is not new.”
He said the violent crime is a symptom of other multi-faceted issues — mental health, addictions, houselessness, gang activity — that are too big for the city to tackle without support from all levels of government.
“We don’t have the resources, we don’t have the capacity, we don’t have the legislative authorities to tackle these societal issues.”
Sohi said people not using amenities that taxpayers are paying for is a problem.
“I am really concerned about the violent crime taking place in our city, in our downtown and LRT stations. We are increasing police resources. We gave them another $7 million for this year and we have also increased the number of transit security officers.”
He said the city also has teams connecting vulnerable people to social services.
“But I also want to stress that every week, 1.5 million trips are taken on the LRT and the vast majority of the trips are safe.”
Daniel Jones, a criminologist and 25-year Edmonton Police Service veteran, says there’s no easy fix to violent crime.
“You have to play the long game on a solution,” said Jones, who’s now NorQuest College’s associate chair of justice.
“They have to start to look at things like safe supply. If they think the drug supply is that damaging, then we might want to reduce the risk and mitigate the risk to some degree by looking at different harm-reduction possibilities. Again, that’s not going to fix it overnight.
“We have to really look at violence reduction strategies.”
Jones said cities can lean on their community resources, funding existing social programs better — in Edmonton, things like the Bent Arrow Traditional Healing Society and YOUCAN Youth Services — before societal issues escalate.
“We really need to look at how we are incarcerating people and what are we doing with people while they’re in there. What programs, what things are we doing to ensure that people don’t reoffend? What are we doing to address the trauma that they’ve experienced?
“We can’t arrest our way out of this problem. I know that the chief and the deputies have said that and they know that, but they still have to do their jobs and right now, that’s really all they’re able to do,” Jones added.
“We need to start addressing these wicked social problems in a way that’s sustainable.
He said crime prevention and community safety falls to everybody, not just police officers.
Be alert, don’t walk around with your eyes on your phone and earbuds in your ears, Jones says.
“Reducing apathy as well,” he said, adding people need to call police if they see violence happening.
“We need to come together as a community and understand that we’re all responsible for safety of the public.”
“1,900 people can’t keep 1.4 million people safe every day, all the time. We have to watch out for each other and take care of each other and if we see something happening, we need to say something about it.”
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