YOUTH CURFEW BYLAWS IN ALBERTA

Red Deer’s curfew runs from midnight to 6 a.m. and applies to children under the age of 16. It was passed in 1998 and a year later the RCMP credited it with a 21-per-cent drop in offences by youths.

Taber grabbed headlines last year when the southern Albertan town of 8,104 passed a bylaw that kept children under 16 off the streets between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. The bylaw also established a $75 fine for spitting in a public place and a $150 fine for “yelling, screaming or swearing.”

In 1979, Edmonton city councillors discussed a proposed youth curfew, which would have been in effect from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. None other than TSN broadcaster Gord Miller, then 14 years old, was in attendance to protest the proposal. The bylaw didn’t pass first reading.

Slave Lake’s youth curfew gives kids a break on the weekend. The bylaw ensures children under 16 will be indoors by 11 p.m. from Sunday to Thursday and by midnight on Friday and Saturday nights.

In 2006, Strathcona County passed a bylaw that kept youths off the streets between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m., with a $100 fine for offenders. Then mayor Cathy Olesen said it was a “sad and dark day” when the bylaw passed and the Journal editorial board wrote that councillors’ argument in favour of the bylaw were “paternalistic.”