Rural landowners ‘afraid in their homes’ as crime spikes
Back on Nov. 27, more than 100 central Albertans drove on snowy roads hundreds of kilometres to converge upon the legislature in Edmonton to seek an emergency government debate into rural property crime.
Jason Nixon, deputy leader of the United Conservative Party and the MLA for the geographically enormous riding of RimbeyRocky Mountain House- Sundre, had his request for the debate shot down by the Speaker, who ruled the issue didn’t constitute an emergency. Needless to say, many rural folks disagree.
Since then, the issue of rural crime has exploded into the consciousness of all Canadians, ever since the Feb. 9 acquittal of Saskatchewan farmer Gerald Stanley in the shooting death of Colten Boushie, a 22-year-old Cree man from the Red Pheasant First Nation. It’s a tragic case to be sure.
Death should never be the sentence for alleged property crimes.
Closer to Calgary, Okotoks homeowner Edouard Maurice was taken into custody by the RCMP on the weekend after two men intruded on his property. Maurice faces serious charges including aggravated assault, pointing a firearm and careless use of a firearm after shots were fired, one of which struck alleged thief Ryan Watson in the arm.
Watson has since been charged with trespassing by night, mischief to property, theft under $5,000 from a motor vehicle, possession of methamphetamine and failure to comply with probation. In other words, he faces a slap on the wrist while Maurice faces possible jail time.
What makes these incidents so upsetting to so many is myriad.
The rural homeowner in all of these cases isn’t looking for trouble.
Often, they are awakened from sleep in their beds, or they’re doing chores or watching television. Trouble comes to them and they know the nearest police officer is at least 20 minutes away — sometimes more than an hour away, depending on the road conditions.
What to do? Just let a group of thieves drive away with your farm equipment, boat, truck and tools? Or confront them?
“Crime in rural Alberta is at epidemic proportions,” Nixon said.
According to statistics compiled by the UCP, in Red Deer County’s Sylvan Lake detachment, property crime offences are up 425 per cent from 2012 to 2015. Criminal Code offences are up 259 per cent in the same detachment.
In Lacombe County, total Criminal Code offences are up 141 per cent and property crimes spiked 192 per cent between 2012 and 2015.
“Rural constituents are really afraid and they’re afraid in their homes,” said Nixon, who has held almost a dozen community hall meetings in rural areas with federal Conservative MPs and RCMP officers to address residents’ concerns and provide them with strategies to make them less vulnerable to crime.
Nixon says that at a recent town hall in Bluffton, a hamlet about 100 kilometres northwest of Red Deer, a woman in her 90s who lives on a dairy farm says she bought a gun to defend herself and wants to know how close to her bed a would-be robber has to be before she can shoot him without getting into trouble.
“She is so scared. Everybody is scared. People feel like they are hung out to dry and my understanding is it’s not just Alberta, but rural crime is an issue clear across the country,” Nixon said.
Dawson Northcott, a ranch hand in Springbank, just west of Calgary, says the danger of these situations was made clear to him when he was shot at by thieves at about 7 a.m. on July 27.
Security cameras on the property send video to his smartphone when there is activity, and he saw young men loading expensive tools into the back of a Ford truck and driving off with his ATV.
The 35-year-old, whose pregnant wife and two-year-old son live on the cattle ranch with him, took chase after the thieves in an attempt to get the licence plate number of the truck, which turned out to be stolen.
The truck pulled down a noexit road and Northcott thought he had them blocked off when a red SUV pulled up beside him on his passenger side and discharged a shotgun across his truck.
“They were trying to scare me off and they succeeded,” said Northcott. Even though there is excellent surveillance video, which can be viewed on calgaryherald.com, no arrests have been made.
So it’s ironic that now Okotoks resident Maurice has been charged. He was just minding his business at home and now he’s facing potentially life-changing charges and a criminal record for defending his property and his family. Obviously, homeowners shouldn’t shoot to kill thieves, but should they face serious charges when they try to discourage them by discharging a firearm?
That’s the question that lies at the heart of Alberta’s rural crime epidemic.
“I sympathize with it greatly,” Nixon said of the fear gripping rural Alberta communities.
“I get into my car on Sunday nights and I drive to Edmonton and spend most of the week there, leaving my wife and three kids who are 30 to 40 minutes away from the nearest town, so I really sympathize. We’re hearing about too many people being hurt and robbed in our communities. It’s not acceptable.”
Rob Fehr, mayor of Alix, a village of 800 people east of Red Deer, says in about a one-month span in October to November last year, the local hotel was robbed twice, there was a violent home invasion, the gas station was rammed — injuring an employee — and the RCMP fatally shot someone in a stolen car.
“There’s a lot of frustration out there,” said Fehr, who says more than 200 people showed up for a town-hall meeting with their local MP, MLA and RCMP members in January.
“People are getting to the point where they feel that their hands are tied and they’re willing to take matters into their own hands, so the RCMP are obviously trying to discourage that,” added Fehr, a safety adviser.
“As citizens, we have to employ methods that discourage criminal activity. Having good lighting, making sure you lock up your belongings, watching out for your neighbours,” Fehr said.
The underlying issue, added Fehr, “is drug activity is monumental — we’re facing a drug crisis right now and they’ll steal anything that isn’t nailed down. I think our province and the feds, they need to step up and give law enforcement and the courts the tools to deal with these crooks.
“Thieves know there’s a backlog in the courts and that the justice system is short on resources, so it’s a numbers game for them and they’re playing it and they’re winning it,” Fehr added.
The Alberta government says it’s aware of the problem and is taking steps to alleviate it.
“Every Albertan deserves to feel safe in their home, on their streets and in their community,” said Kathleen Ganley, minister of justice and solicitor general.
“That’s why we invest half a billion dollars annually into police services across the province,” added Ganley in a written statement. “Our government increased funding for ALERT, which works with local RCMP to tackle serious crime, and we also support the Alberta Provincial Rural Crime Watch Association. We’ve been working with our RCMP partners on additional strategies to combat rural crime and we will be sharing more details in the coming weeks.”
As for Northcott, after his frightening ordeal in Springbank, he considered moving back to his hometown of Caroline, southwest of Red Deer.
“The only problem is the crime issue is worse out there,” he said. “Every time I call my family, it’s all they talk about — who got robbed and what’s going on. Something has to be done or innocent people’s lives are going to be ruined for just trying to protect themselves and their families.”