Lethbridge-West MLA Shannon Phillips was under surveillance by Sgt. Jason Carrier and Const. Keon Woronuk. This is BIG news! UCP Justice Minister Doug Schweitzer says it was an “unauthorized surveillance” and he’s outraged about it. On Twitter he says, “The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) has been ordered to conduct a comprehensive review of the professional standards investigation to determine if there are grounds for a criminal investigation. “
We are all shocked by this type of behaviour from the two officers. It’s hard to believe they would engage in this type of activity, even if they had a lame excuse for it. Another name for this type of surveillance is profiling. The definition on hand suggests it means:
Profiling:
1. recording a person’s behaviour and analyzing psychological characteristics in order to predict or assess their ability in a certain sphere or to identify a particular group of people
Dr. Lynn Jones, from Halifax, Nova Scotia, is a life-long civil and human rights activist, educator, community and labour activist and speaker. She is also listed as one of the top one-hundred accomplished black women in Canada. She was racially profiled on September 2019, approached and questioned by police while watching the deer on the side of the road near her home.
She later wrote a letter about the incident to Bill Mills, Mayor of the Town of Truro. You can read the letter here. In it she says, “Please add me to the list of African Nova Scotians who are constantly being racially profiled in this province for no valid reason and while you’re at it, give your constituents in Truro and your Town police a lesson in white privilege, anti Black racism and the history of the founding people of our province and Truro. “
The police promised they would do better, but the officer wasn’t demoted. After all she was black and not a white former MLA.
It seems there are numerous examples we could list that show black and indigenous people having their privacy violated by “unauthorized surveillance” by police forces, with members who see themselves more as vigilante militants. Alberta has its fair share of them as well, and not just two Keystone cops from Lethbridge.
One of the items in the recently released “Blue Panel Report” created for the UCP government, is to create a police force to replace the RCMP. One can’t help but wonder if they’ll be any better trained, and if their duties to the government could be extended to incorporate mandates specific to Alberta.
