Alberta’s premier says she asked about COVID-19 charges ‘almost weekly’ | 24CA News
The Alberta Opposition is as soon as once more calling for an unbiased investigation into allegations of interference within the justice system by the premier.
At problem is whether or not Alberta Premier Danielle Smith was in touch with the Alberta Crown Prosecutor Service in relation to court docket instances of people that broke public well being measures early within the COVID-19 pandemic and protests in opposition to the measures.
On Wednesday morning, Irfan Sabir, MLA for Calgary-Bhullar-McCall and Alberta NDP justice critic, performed a video recording that just lately got here to his consideration.
“Once the process is underway, I can ask our prosecutors, ‘Is there a reasonable likelihood of conviction and is it in the public interest?’” Smith informed Artur Pawlowski on the video.
“And I assure you, I have asked them that almost weekly ever since I got started here.”
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The video, additionally posted on Pawlowski’s YouTube web page titled “January 26, 2023,” paperwork the roughly 11-minute dialog between the 2 about the potential of Smith staying the costs in opposition to him in reference to a speech he gave on the Coutts border blockade.
Pawlowski would go to trial in a Lethbridge court docket to reply these prices on Feb. 2.
On Wednesday afternoon, that previously-unlinked video was made personal.
On the telephone name, Smith famous “a number of cases” involving breaking public well being orders that had been dropped on account of an identical evaluation.
Smith stated she was “very hopeful” extra instances could be dropped, admitting there wasn’t a mechanism for her to “order them (prosecutors) to drop cases.”
“I’m watching to see evidence that they’re going to come to the judgment that many of these cases are unwinnable and not in the public interest,” Smith stated. “And I’m beginning to see some signs that’s the case — I haven’t seen anything in your case yet — but if I can just maybe make that inquiry one more time, but I’ll need until next week to do that.”
Smith admitted she was unaware of the bounds to her powers previous to successful the UCP management vote in October 2022 and taking up as premier.
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“I thought we probably had the same power of clemency that we did in the U.S. I didn’t understand we have a lot more limitations.”
A call on Pawlowski’s Coutts trial is anticipated on May 2.
Smith did opine that the general public well being measures put in place early within the pandemic — measures that Pawlowski had been convicted in court docket for breaking — “were a political decision.”
“But it can’t be a political decision to end it. And that’s what I’m finding very frustrating about the whole thing,” she stated.
Alberta’s COVID-related public well being measures had been signed off by the chief medical officer of well being.
Pawlowski’s prices from the January 2022 Coutts blockade embody mischief for inciting folks to dam public property on the border crossing. He was additionally charged underneath the Alberta Critical Infrastructure Defence Act with wilfully damaging or destroying important infrastructure.
Speaking with Smith, Pawlowski complained a couple of Crown prosecutor submitting “over a thousand-page document and hundreds of hours of testimonies to frustrate our defence (lawyer).”
“Obviously, the Minister of Justice, Tyler Shandro, is playing a game here, trying to cause us more harm and more grief,” Pawlowski stated.
Smith stated she doubted the Crown prosecutor was being directed by Shandro to do the doc dump.
“I doubt very much that this is being driven by the minister,” she stated.
“But I have also raised it with the deputy minister and let him know my dissatisfaction with the tactics. So can you just leave this with me and I will make that request one more time.”
Smith stands agency: no contact with Crown
The premier issued an announcement issued Wednesday morning lower than an hour earlier than the CBC printed a narrative concerning the video and the decision — a narrative the premier described as a part of the CBC’s “campaign of defamatory attacks.”
In it, Smith reiterated she has by no means spoken with a member of ACPS and referenced feedback she made at a Feb. 9 press convention the place she confirmed she had spoken with Pawlowski.
“I have always said – I campaigned on it for seven months – that I would look into what the options were for amnesty,” Smith stated on Feb. 9. “My justice minister came back and said amnesty was not possible for a premier. The only role for amnesty is the governor general in our country, the way our system works.”
Two weeks earlier than her dialog with Pawlowski, Smith stated she had conversations with the lawyer basic and deputy lawyer basic to “look into” choices accessible for “outstanding COVID-related cases.”
“While my language may have been imprecise in these instances, I was referring to the process and discussions above and the advice I received from the attorney general and the deputy attorney general,” Smith stated in a Jan. 13 assertion.
Since the story of Smith’s inquiries with the Justice ministry broke, she has by no means wavered publicly from her stance that she has by no means contacted Crown prosecutors about COVID-related instances, solely searching for recommendation from the lawyer basic and his deputy.
‘Prima facie interference in justice’
Sabir stated the video exhibits the premier’s feedback that she has had weekly conversations about ongoing prosecutions “constitutes prima facie interference in the justice system.”
“That is offside with the Premier. That is inappropriate. That’s why we had been asking that there would be an independent investigation, which Minister Shandro has not responded to yet,” Sabir stated.
“The fact that someone accused of encouraging violence against police can get the premier on the phone call at all is extraordinary. It is deeply inappropriate for the premier to be having this conversation with someone facing criminal charges,” he stated.
“That she greets him with such admiration says a lot about who Daniel Smith is.”
Sabir additionally claimed Shandro “failed his duty to uphold the justice system” as minister of justice and lawyer basic.
“I agree that 100 per cent, Albertans deserve to know what happened,” he stated. “Albertans deserve to be reassured that the justice system is independent of political interference. And conversations like this do put a big question mark on that independence.”
Lorian Hardcastle, affiliate professor on the University of Calgary’s school of legislation and Cumming School of Medicine, stated it was “highly problematic” in a contemporary liberal democracy that an elected chief could be “intruding on prosecutions that are already underway, as she herself notes in the call.”
“Of course, politicians pass laws, but once those laws are being enforced and those prosecutions are underway, then typically we would expect politicians to have a hands-off approach to those and to let the rule of law and let the courts sort those cases out,” Hardcastle informed Global News.
Sabir stated the premier ought to have let the Crown prosecutors do their job.
“It’s not for the premier to call them and remind them of their job. She is not a lawyer. Those sitting in the Crown (prosecutor) office, they have the training. They are doing their job. They know what they are doing,” Sabir stated.
Duane Bratt, a political scientist at Mount Royal University Party, questioned why Smith was even talking with Pawlowski weeks earlier than he was going to trial for “inciting violence” at Coutts.
“A premier’s time is incredibly valuable and yet she found time in her schedule to talk with Art Pawlowski in a very sympathetic way,” Bratt stated.
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He additionally urged Smith was “pressuring the justice minister and his deputy” to drop the costs.
“She’s says she’s only asking, ‘Is it in the public interest? And is there a likelihood of conviction?’ But if you’re asking that same question over and over and over again, is that pressuring?”
Hardcastle stated it’s unlikely Smith will face any direct authorized repercussions from her dialog with Pawlowski or anybody within the justice ministry.
“I think that what people would tend to call for in this kind of situation is for a resignation. And I think we’re already seeing those calls,” Hardcastle stated.
“That said, I think it’s unlikely that she’s going to resign or even be apologetic about this.”
Entering election season
Hardcastle urged Smith’s shut affiliation with Pawlowski doesn’t play nicely with most Albertans.
“I think that associating herself with such a problematic figure that worked so hard to undermine public health efforts, including at the height of the pandemic, is just really bad from an image and an optics perspective,” the U of C affiliate professor stated.
Jared Wesley, a political science professor on the University of Alberta, stated public opinion analysis he’s accomplished agrees.
“It reinforces the narrative that her opponents have put forward, which is quite simply that the premier’s priorities are not where Albertans are on this and that her natural impulse is to find a way around the legal system in order to ensure that folks that are friendly to her party are better off,” Wesley informed Global News.
“There’s a purpose why we’ve got a court docket system, an unbiased judiciary, unbiased prosecution branches to forestall premiers from meddling in points like this.
“This is part of a pattern — I would say a worrying pattern — of a premier intent on breaking down institutions that are made to ensure that politics don’t enter into issues of human rights or public health.”
The admission that Smith was unaware of her lack of ability to grant amnesty as premier was additionally a crimson flag for the U of A political scientist.
“I think the fact that the premier discloses her ignorance about how the Constitution works suggests that she wasn’t really well-prepared to run for premier when she did.”
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In the telephone dialog with Pawlowski, Smith admitted that she couldn’t put undue stress on the justice ministry and Crown prosecutors for concern of repeating the identical mistake Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made with Jody Wilson-Raybould.
Bratt stated Smith is “doing the same thing, if not worse.
“Imagine if we had a tape of Trudeau talking to the CEO of SNC Lavelin saying, ‘Look,I’ve tried talking to the minister, but she won’t do it. And I don’t have the ability of doing it myself.’ How would that look?” Bratt stated.
Wesley stated with a provincial election on the horizon, Smith unlikely needs to speak about this problem and can wish to “change the channel as best she can.”
“If this is still something that they’re talking about three, four weeks from now, it’s not good news for the premier, for the UCP.”
–with information from Phil Heidenreich, Global News, and The Canadian Press
